Flora Beverly

Paschal Beverly Randolph was born October 8, 1825 in New York City, New York.[1] He was a illegitimate son of William Beverly Randolph and Flora Myers. His mother was black and his father was white man who abandoned him following his mother’s early death from smallpox in 1932.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/140934558/paschal-beverly-randolph

"Randolph, Paschal Beverly ( 8 Oct. 1825 - 29 July 1875 ), physician, philosopher, and author, was born in New York City , the son of William Beverly Randolph, a plantation owner, and Flora Beverly, a barmaid. At the age of five or seven Randolph lost his mother to smallpox, and with her the only love he had known. Randolph later stated, "I was born in love, of a loving mother, and what she felt, that I lived." His father's devotion is questionable. In 1873 Randolph hinted at his own illegitimacy, stating that his parents "did not stop to pay fees to the justice or to the priest."

Randolph 's mother possessed a strong temperament, unusual physical beauty, and intense passions, characteristics that Randolph inherited. Later many, especially his enemies, perceived Randolph as being of "Negro descent," which he denied. Sent to live with his half-sister, Randolph was ignored, unloved, and abused and eventually turned to begging on the streets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paschal_Beverly_Randolph

Paschal Beverly Randolph (October 8, 1825 – July 29, 1875) was an American medical doctor, occultist, spiritualist, trance medium, and writer. He is notable as perhaps the first person to introduce the principles of erotic alchemy to North America, and, according to A. E. Waite, establishing the earliest known Rosicrucian order in the United States.[1] Born in New York City,[2] Randolph grew up in New York City and was baptized at the Church of the Transfiguration, Episcopal (Manhattan).[3] He was a free black man, a descendant of William Randolph. His father was a nephew of John Randolph of Roanoke and his mother was Flora Beverly, whom he later described as being of mixed English, French, German, Native American and African ancestry.[4] His mother died when he was young, leaving him homeless and penniless; he ran away to sea in order to support himself. From his adolescence through to the age of twenty, he worked as a sailor.[2]

https://www.soul.org/component/content/article/45-histories/320-ran...

His father was William Beverly Randolph, a nephew of John Randolph of Virginia; his mother, Flora Beverly, a native of Vermont, was of mixed East Indian, French, English, German and Madagascan blood.(1)

Randolph’s mother died when he was but five years of age. A half-sister took him into her house, without, however, making a home for him, or in the least endeavoring to educate him, or in any way guiding or instructing him. In order to exist he had to lead the life of a beggar-child, minus schooling or moral-spiritual training, with the sole exception of one winter in a public school.

At the age of fifteen his life at the home became unbearable. He ran away and became a sailor, a life led by him until he was twenty. During this time he visited almost every part of the world and being keen of nature, gathered knowledge and experience, which he put to good use in later life.

Of his birth, Randolph himself wrote—and the analysis is keen and deep—and accounts, at least in greater part, for his extraordinary life:

“I was born in love, of a loving mother, and what she felt, that I lived. I am the exact living counterpart of her feelings, intense passions, volcanic, fiery; her love, like high heaven, deeper than death; her agony, terrible as a thousand racks; her hope and trust fervent, enduring, solid as steel; unbreakable as the lightning, which blazes in the sky.

“Her loneliness, I have been a hermit all my days, even in the midst of men; in a word, I am the exact expression of that woman’s state of body, mind, emotion, Soul, longings, spirit, aspirations, when she took in charge the incarnation of the soul of him who now is penning these lines.”
This view of Paschal Beverly Randolph is a high resolution scan of a rare photograph found in the Fraternitas Rosæ Crucis archives located on the grounds of Beverly Hall in Quakertown, Pennsylvania.

Another writer who was acquainted with the parents of Randolph and had watched Randolph’s later career, said:

“It has long been brought against the Randolph that he is angular and eccentric. When was real true born genius otherwise? Flora, his mother, was a woman of extraordinary mental activity and great physical beauty, nervous, ‘high strung,’ and willful; a native of Vermont, of mingled Indian, French, English, German and [Royal] Madagascan blood. The tawny complexion of both mother and son came from her grandmother, a born Queen of the Island of Madagascar, of whom she was extraordinarily proud. The father of Randolph was William Beverly Randolph, of the proud family of that name of Virginia. His mother died in 1830, leaving her son practically an orphan. The so-called ‘angularity’, and genius of her son, had its origin in the fact that in his veins ran no less than seven distinct varieties, or strains of blood.

“It is unquestionably this mingling of various nationalities in him—and the accumulated Karma, both good and bad of the many lives—that constitute the source of his peculiar mental, psychic (Soul) power and almost marvelous versatility. It also accounts for his singular cerebral conformation.

“Given: a mother, herself a composite of conflicting bloods, very nervous, somewhat superstitious as all Orientals are; deeply poetical, vain as all beauty is; imaginative as are great Souls; aspiring as old Souls who have suffered much; deeply religious inborn as in advanced Souls; confiding and utterly trustful, stormy as are all who love deeply; intuitive and spiritual, due to much Karmic experience; imperative as are all of Royal birth; ambitious, physically and mentally active; quick as the lightning from heaven; exacting to a high degree; gay and gloomy by turns; now hopeful, then despondent; highly sensitive; innately refined due to past births; passionate and passional, tempestuous; now stubborn and headstrong, cold as ice, then Vesuvian, volcanic, loving, yielding, soft, tender, gentle, proud, generous, warm-hearted and voluptuous; and what must be the child of such a mother; but that which he is, a genius! Now in heaven, then in hell! comprehending, because suffering, both.

“Thus the mother—a mother while becoming so, which all too few are—Willed her child to be all she was, all its father was—whom she loved with all her heart—and yet more!—and the father willful, egotistic, boastful, haughty, vain, proud, conceited, sensuous, ambitious, dictatorial, intellectual, prodigal, unstable, variable, imperative; all these as a result of birth in an old and proud family; all these crystallized and condensed, mingled and mixed in their son; it will readily be understood that he came fairly by his angularities, eccentricities, personal appearance, talent, psychic and spiritual powers, his charm and ability to direct and fit into position, among all manner of men, kings as readily as beggars. Add to this the fact that while bearing him, his mother was in deep trouble; had been ill-treated by those she trusted as friends; was thrown back upon herself, forced to eat her own heart, as it were, and as a result, sought sympathy, guidance and peace among those who had attained and gone before, and no knowing ones will wonder that he was, like Saint Germain and Cagliostro, born a seer.”

This same writer who had watched the development of the run-away boy until he had become a worldwide recognized author and a power in the world, taking up the thread beginning with Randolph’s leave by ship from New York, wrote:

“After his mother’s death, he was literally cast adrift on the world; educating himself, never attending school above a year or two at the most. Incessant study, in part due to an inborn loneliness, made him probably one of the best read men in the country. From his twelfth to his twentieth year he was a sailor, and during this time he experienced even more than the usual amount of abuse and savage treatment. (2)

References

• https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Randolph-2730
• https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/sources/9C1B-YL2
• "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1938", database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2CN-VK3Y : 17 August 2022), Flora Myers in entry for Paschal B Randolph and Augusta M A Thomson, 1872.
• Paschal Beverly in the New York, New York, U.S., Almshouse Ledgers, 1758-1952 < AncestrySharing > Name: Paschal Beverly Admission Age: 10 Discharge Age: 10 Record Type: Discharge Birth Date: abt 1826 Birth Place: New York Admission Date: 18 May 1836 Admission Place: New York, New York, USA Discharge Date: 8 Oct 1836