Ann Cary (Randolph) Morris (1774 - 1837)

Born 16 Sep 1774 in Goochland, Virginia

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 28 May 1837 at age 62 in Bronx, New York, United States

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Biography

Bizarre Scandal

The implosion of the Richard Randolph family of the Bizarre plantation was almost a metaphor for the period.

The facts of the scandal are these. Richard Randolph, a step-son of St. George Tucker (my sister-in-law's 3rd cousin six times removed), married his second cousin once removed, Judith Randolph. Together they lived at Bizarre Plantation in Cumberland County, Virginia, near Farmville. Judith's sister, Ann Cary "Nancy" Randolph lived with them after their mother's death and father's subsequent remarriage. Nancy became pregnant, and one night while visiting friends, delivered either a stillborn or living child. Her brother-in-law, Richard, supposedly took the child outside by the woodpile and killed it or disposed of the body.

As the house slaves began to talk, the rumor spread to other great plantations and within a few months it had become one of the greatest scandals in the Commonwealth's history. In April 1793, Richard Randolph was accused of "feloniously murdering a child said to be born of Nancy Randolph." He was defended by Patrick Henry and John Marshall, and he was acquitted but died three years later.

Nancy Randolph remained at Bizarre with her sister, Judith, but Judith asked her sister to leave in 1805. Nancy was dubbed "the Jezebel of the Old Dominion" and eventually traveled north to improve her circumstances. She agreed to become housekeeper for Gouverneur Morris in April 1809. They married in December of that same year. Gouverneur Morris was more than 20 years her senior; and their son, Gouverneur Morris, Jr., was born in 1813.

Later in life Nancy admitted to becoming pregnant in early 1792. She always insisted she was engaged to Theodorick, Richard Randolph's brother; and it was he who fathered the child, which was born stillborn. Theodorick had long been ill and died of tuberculosis in February of 1792. No public mention had been made of an engagement between Nancy and Theodorick.

Richard Randolph's brother, John Randolph of Roanoke, never forgave Nancy. He wrote to her after she had married about her husband:

"If he be not blind and deaf, he must sooner or later, unmask you, unless he die of the 'cramp in his stomach' you understand me!"

Ann Cary "Nancy" (Randolph) Morris responded:

"I observe, Sir, in the course of your letter, allusions to all Shakespeare's best tragedies. I trust you are, by this time, convinced that you have clumsily performed the part of 'honest Iago.' Happily for my life, and for my husband's peace, you did not find in him a headlong, rash Othello. For a full and proper description of what you have written and spoken on this occasion, I refer you to the same admirable author. He will tell you, 'it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!'"

Quite an effective putdown I'd say. John Randolph had a complex personality; he was described by Wynham Robertson, former governor of Virginia and author of Pocahontas, Alias Matoaka and Her Descendants, thusly, "he dazzled but did not warm, and no fruit ripened in his rays." Posted by Schalene Dagutis at 6:13 AM

Nancy (Randolph) Morris is a descendant of Pocahontas. Here is the trail.

The "Thomas Jefferson's Monticello" website provides a wonderfully brief synopsis of Ann's life: ^[1]

Ann Cary Randolph (1774-1837), born on Tuckahoe Plantation near Richmond, was the eighth child of Anne Cary and Thomas Mann Randolph (Sr.). From childhood Ann was close to her cousin, Martha Jefferson, and the two women corresponded intermittently throughout their lives. Following her mother's death in March 1789 and her father's subsequent remarriage in September 1790, Ann took up residence with her sister Judith and family at Bizarre, near Farmville, Virginia. In April 1793, Judith's husband Richard was accused of "feloniously murdering a child said to be borne of Nancy [Ann] Randolph."^[2] Defended by Patrick Henry and John Marshall, he was acquitted of the crime. Ann remained at Bizarre after her brother-in-law's death in 1796 but was asked to leave in 1805. She returned to Tuckahoe briefly, stayed with friends in the vicinity, visited for extended periods at Monticello, where her brother, Thomas Mann Randolph (Jr.) and her now sister-in-law Martha Jefferson Randolph lived, and then moved on to Richmond. Ann found it difficult to live there on her limited means, however, so she traveled north to Rhode Island and then to Connecticut in hopes of improving her circumstances. Finally, having agreed to work as housekeeper for Gouverneur Morris, whom she had met in 1788, Ann settled at Morrisania in New York in April 1809. In December of that year the two were married and their son Gouverneur Morris Jr. was born in 1813. Ann's husband died in 1816 and she remained at Morrisania, looking after the welfare of their son, until her own death.

Sources

1. ↑ Ann Cary Randolph Morris | Thomas Jefferson's Monticello
2. ↑ She was dubbed the Jezebel of the Old Dominion. When John Randolph of Roanoke wrote to her (through her husband Gouverneur Morris), "If he [her husband] be not both blind and deaf, he must sooner or later, unmask you, unless he too die of the 'cramp in his stomach' you understand me!". She responded, "I observe, Sir, in the course of your letter, allusions to all of Shakespeare's best tragedies. I trust you are, by this time, convinced that you have clumsily performed the part of 'honest Iago'. Happily for my Life, and for my husband's peace, you did not find in him a headlong, rash Othello. For a full and proper description of what you have written and spoken on this occasion, I refer you to the same admirable Author. He will tell you, 'It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing!'" (Full text of correspondence at Virginia Historical Society, MSS2R1554a5)

• Find A Grave: Memorial #10181780
• "Virginia Births and Christenings, 1584-1917", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRRW-RZ1: 28 January 2020), Tho. Randolph in entry for Ann Randolph, 1772.
• "Connecticut Marriages, 1630-1997", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F7G9-NQY : 11 January 2020), Anna C. Randolph in entry for Gouverneur Morris, 1810.
• "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:249P-67G : 10 February 2018), Ann Cary Randolph in entry for Gouvemeur Morris and Anna Morris, 08 Jun 1876; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York City Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,562,176.

See also:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Cary_Randolph_Morris
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/travel/2000/11/26/a-house-called-bizarre/4ea73982-5c3c-4599-9086-ea209464a666/
• https://www.encyclopedia.com/law/law-magazines/nancy-randolph-and-richard-randolph-trial-1793
• https://www.americanheritage.com/scandal-bizarre#1
• http://www.womenhistoryblog.com/2011/04/ann-cary-randolph-morris.html
• http://tangledrootsandtrees.blogspot.com/2014/01/bizarre-scandal.html

• Morenus, David. The Real Pocahontas website, "Pocahontas Descendants" chart, 7bdaf.
• Robertson, Wyndham (1887), Pocahontas and her Descendants, p. 49 (gen 7).
• Stanard, William G. (1899), "The Randolph Family", in William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 8, no. 2 (Oct 1899), p. 120.
• Anderson, J.R. "Tuckahoe and the Tuckahoe Randolphs", in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 45, no. 1 (Jan 1937), p. 72, H.
• Alan Pell Crawford, Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman---and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth-Century America, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, November 15, 2000.