Thomas Jefferson Randolph

Thomas Jefferson “Jeff” Randolph (1792–1875) of Albemarle County was a Virginia planter, soldier and politician who served multiple terms in the Virginia House of Delegates, as rector of the University of Virginia, and as a colonel in the Confederate army during the Civil War.

Born at Monticello on September 12, 1792, he was the eldest son of Thomas Mann Randolph and Martha Jefferson Randolph and the eldest grandson of Thomas Jefferson.

In 1829 he published the “Life and Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson,” in four volumes. He served several terms in the House of Delegates. He was a member of the Legislature at the time of the Nat. Turner insurrection, and distinguished himself by a speech favoring abolition of slavery, and was re-elected the next year, although Albemarle was one of the largest slaveholding counties. In 1851-’52 he became a member of the convention which met to revise the constitution of the State, and was once afterwards in the Legislature.

Marriage and family

In 1815 Randolph married Jane Hollins Nicholas (1798–1871), daughter of Wilson Cary Nicholas. Thomas and Jane Randolph had thirteen children:

1. Margaret Smith Randolph (1816–1842)
2. Martha Jefferson ('Patsy') Randolph (1817–1857)
3. Mary Buchanan Randolph (1818–1821)
4. Careyanne Nicholas Randolph (1820–1857)
5. Mary Buchanan Randolph (1821–1884)
6. Ellen Wayles Randolph (1823–1896)
7. Maria Jefferson Carr Randolph (1826–1902)
8. Carolina Ramsey Randolph (1828–1902)
9. Thomas Jefferson Randolph, Jr. (1829–1872)
10. Jane Nicholas Randolph (1831–1868)
11. Wilson Cary Nicholas Randolph (1834–1907)
12. Meriwether Lewis Randolph (1837–1871)
13. Sarah Nicholas Randolph (1839–1892)

Thomas Jefferson Randolph died at Edgehill on October 7, 1875 (aged 83).