William Randolph

In 1675, he married Mary Isham, whose father Henry Isham was from an affluent family in Northamptonshire and married a wealthy widow in Virginia. Mary’s brother died three years later and made her the heiress to her father’s large estate.

William Randolph was born on November 7, 1650 in Warwickshire, England, to Richard Randolph and Elizabeth Ryland. His father was from a small village east of Northampton and worked as a servant to Edward la Zouche and George Goring.

Apart from the fact that he was the second out of the seven Randolph children, not much is known about Randolph’s childhood. In the late 1650s, his family moved to Dublin, which means that he spent his formative years in Ireland.

Randolph’s uncle, Henry Randolph immigrated to Virginia and on one of his travels back to Britain in 1669, it is supposed that he convinced Randolph to move with him to Chesapeake, Virginia.

He arrived in Virginia in 1672 and started his career in the colony as an ‘undertaker’ building houses, but there is not any solid evidences for it, it is all based on set of historical observations.

He was the clerk of Henrico County Court in 1673 and remained at the position for almost 10 years. He served at a position of Justice of the peace, along with that he also served as sheriff and coroner.

By 1674, Randolph had accumulated enough money for the trade in of 12 people into Virginia, which is how he earned his first land patent. He is known to have imported 72 servants and 69 slaves within next two decades.

In 1676, Nathaniel Bacon—a Virginia colonist, revolted against the government and as a result his land was confiscated. This area was Curles, near Turkey Island. Governor Berkeley allowed Randolph to make an assessment of the property and buy it.

Randolph owned a number of slaves and had an estimated land patents worth 20,000 acres, on which he paid property taxes on 1,655 acres in Surry County and 19,465 acres in Henrico County.