Richard “of Bizarre” Randolph

Children of John (of Mattoax)2 Randolph and Frances Bland were as follows:

i. Richard (of Bizarre)3 Randolph was born on 9 Mar 1770. He married Judith Randolph, daughter of Thomas Mann Randolph Sr. and Anne (Nancy) Cary, on 30 Dec 1789 Tuckahoe, Henrico County, VA, Sec V, Ch 51

He died on 14 Jun 1796 at age 26.

He lived at Bizarre (burned 3/21/1813). He was educated in 1787 at (Princeton) College of New Jersey, 1788 Columbia.

Children of Richard (of Bizarre)3 Randolph and Judith Randolph were as follows:

• 68 i. St. George4 Randolph was born in 1792. He died in 1857. No issue, deaf, dumb & crazy.
• 69 ii. Tudor Randolph was born in 1796. He died on 18 Aug 1815 at Cheltenham, England. No issue.

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From “Old Dominion” NOEMIE EMERY June 18, 2001 at 12:00 AM link The Weekly Standard

... Richard, the eldest, was charming and spoiled enough to be utterly worthless. They caused great concern, both to their father and their stepfather, a hard-working lawyer, who tried to warn them that the money was going, that they would inherit debts only, and that they would have to rely on "their own personal abilities and exertions" to get by. Richard, however, had little inclination to exert himself. His one show of nerve was his insistence on marrying his cousin, Judith Randolph of Tuckahoe, whom he wed in a grand society function on Christmas Day in 1789. Settling first in his birthplace, they moved on to Bizarre, a plantation whose name would prove all too prophetic. Soon, they would be joined there by more family members: his younger brothers, Jack and Theodorick; and her sister, Nancy, who by that time had been forced to leave home. Nancy’s problems had begun when her mother died and her father remarried, to Gabriella Harvey, the wicked stepmother of all children’s terrors, who lost no time in "sowing discord" between her new husband and his children. Relations between Gabriella and Nancy were especially difficult—and so Nancy fled to Bizarre, a curious choice, where her life became still more peculiar. At once, she became the focus of all the men in the family: of the waspish attentions of Jack, the more straightforward attentions of Theodorick (who became her fiancé, as she later attested), and the more complex attentions of Richard, whose marriage to Judith had begun rather badly, and had since then become worse. It was soon noted that Nancy and Richard shared a certain rapport and affinity. It was noted that Judith, then pregnant, was distant and querulous. Late in 1791, Theodorick was ailing, and he died on February 14 the next year. And some months after this sad thing happened, it was noted that Nancy was...fat.
... “The trial of the century—the eighteenth century—of Richard Randolph for the murder of the child born presumably to himself and his sister-in-law began at the courthouse in Cumberland county on April 29, 1793. Present were all the marks of celebrity trials and scandals we have come to expect. There were the rival teams of celebrity lawyers: Edmund Randolph for the prosecution; John Marshall and Patrick Henry for the defense. There were crowds of spectators, eager to see well-connected, rich people in trouble. There were the stories of stonewalling among family members: the Harrisons, who claimed to have heard and seen nothing; Jack, who denied that Nancy was pregnant; Judith, the aggrieved party, who had said nothing at all. The problem was that while a narrative could have certainly been constructed that would add up to murder, there were few facts that seemed watertight. Some people thought Nancy seemed fatter in May, but could not have sworn she had later grown too much larger; while some noticed nothing. Richard had indeed been warm toward Nancy, but in the presence of others, including his wife. Bloodstains at the Harrisons’ on the stairs and the pillowcase could have had many causes. Writes Crawford, "Nancy’s friends, Marshall admitted, ‘cannot but deny that there is some foundation on which suspicion may build,’ but her enemies could not dispute that every circumstance might be accounted for, without imputing guilt." Everything, in short, could be surmised, but nothing quite proven. The charge was dismissed. The Randolphs then went home to Bizarre, condemned to each other. Money and power may seem to have triumphed, but in reality, the Randolphs and the world around them had received a fatal blow. In retrospect, the trial had been a defining moment, at which the inheritors of a great ruling family had begun to surrender their moral authority, and made a descent into figures of ridicule. "Before the year was out," writes Crawford, "the girl had become the Jezebel of the Old Dominion and the young man who was the alleged father had become its laughing stock. Idlers in taverns made ribald jokes at his expense." Back at Bizarre, feelings, always intense, now became poisonous. Judith, who had maintained her faith in her relatives’ innocence, began to have doubts and to turn on her husband and sister. Richard, whose moral fiber was never excessive, was worn down by the trauma, and died of a sudden mysterious illness in June 1796. With his death, Jack began to turn against Nancy, whom he soon claimed had poisoned his brother. ....

References

• William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Papers, 1892 Date:b1892 Publication place: Williamsburg, Virginia, USA MyHeritageImage
• http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~warejamesbakercalder/genealogy/rando...