Peyton Randolph
(1779-1828)
BIRTH
1779
PLACE
Williamsburg, Virginia
DEATH
December 26, 1828
PLACE
Richmond, Virginia
FAMILY
MOTHER
Elizabeth Nicholas Randolph
(1753-1810)
SISTER
Susan Beverley Randolph Taylor
(1781-1846)
SISTER
Edmonia Madison Randolph Preston
(1787-1847)
WIFE
Maria Ward Randolph
(1784-1826)
CHILDREN
Edmund Randolph
(1753-1813)
CHILDREN
Charlotte Foushee Randolph
(1822–1843)
HOMES
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
RELIGION NOT DOCUMENTED
DENOMINATION NOT DOCUMENTED
MEMBERSHIPS
AWARDS
Peyton Randolph (c.1779–1828), son of Edmund Randolph, was a Virginia lawyer and law reporter. Educated at William & Mary, he served on the Council of State and briefly acted as governor after George William Smith died in the Richmond theater fire in 1811. He married Maria Ward and had ten children. His reports of Virginia Court of Appeals decisions filled six volumes. Birth and term dates vary in sources; his brief administration spanned 1811–1812.
EARLY LIFE
The exact date and place of Peyton Edmund Randolph’s birth have not been established in the source used for this entry. The surviving biographical summary provides only limited evidence about childhood, schooling, and the daily circumstances of the household, so those details are not reconstructed here without documentation. What can be stated securely is that this person belonged to the interconnected family world from which HistoryGPS traces participants, relatives, and later descendants of the Revolutionary generation.
Peyton Randolph practised law in Richmond and served briefly as Virginia's acting governor before becoming an official reporter of its highest court. He was the son of Edmund Randolph, the first United States attorney general, and the grandnephew of the earlier Peyton Randolph who presided over the Continental Congress. His own career belonged to the early nineteenth century rather than the Revolutionary leadership of his namesake.
Randolph attended the College of William and Mary in 1798 and established himself in Richmond. He sat on Virginia's Council of State from 1809 to 1812. When Governor George William Smith died in the Richmond theatre fire on December 26, 1811, Randolph assumed executive duties as the council's senior member. His temporary administration lasted only into the opening days of January 1812, ending when James Barbour succeeded him.
His more sustained contribution was legal reporting. From 1821 until his death in 1828, he served as official reporter of the Virginia Court of Appeals. His six-volume collection preserved cases argued and decided by that court and became part of the series known as Virginia Reports. Publication began in 1823 and continued after his death. He also assisted a biographical project concerning his great-uncle: in 1816 he asked Thomas Jefferson for recollections and documents that could supplement the family anecdotes he was able to provide.
CAREER
DEATH
Peyton Randolph (c.1779–1828), son of Edmund Randolph, was a Virginia lawyer and law reporter. He married Maria Ward and had ten children. His reports of Virginia Court of Appeals decisions filled six volumes. Birth and term dates vary in sources; his brief administration spanned 1811–1812. Still working on his court reports, Peyton Randolph died of pulmonary disease in Richmond on December 26, 1828. The surviving summary is clearer about the date and setting than about the day-by-day medical course. A specific treatment history, exact final symptoms or unrecorded bedside conversations cannot be reconstructed confidently from it. The events of the earlier public career provide context for the final period but should not be mistaken for evidence of the immediate physical cause. Illnesses, injuries and deaths involving relatives or contemporaries are separate events. No further cause is inferred from age, occupation or the place of death. Where the account does not identify an illness or injury explicitly, the medical circumstances remain uncertain rather than a basis for a more elaborate final-days scene.
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
This entry concerns the Virginia law reporter and brief acting governor (1779–1828), son of Edmund Randolph, not the president of the Continental Congress. Five dedicated biographies were not identified; related family history, legal writings and historical references are labelled.
1. Virginia Law Books: Essays and Bibliographies — W. Hamilton Bryson. [Biographical and bibliographical reference; the law reporter and acting governor, not the Continental Congress president] Find on Amazon
2. Virginia Reports: Cases Decided in the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia — Peyton Randolph. [Primary law reports by Peyton Edmund Randolph] Find on Amazon
3. Edmund Randolph: A Biography — John J. Reardon. [Biography of his father and family context] Find on Amazon
4. The Randolphs of Virginia: A Compilation of the Descendants of William Randolph of Turkey Island and His Wife Mary Isham — Robert Isham Randolph. [Family history and biographical reference] Find on Amazon
5. The Richmond Theater Fire: Early America's First Great Disaster — Meredith Henne Baker. [History of the disaster preceding his acting governorship] Find on Amazon
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