Person:Mary Randolph (29)

Notes

From Genforum Message Board:

In the early 1730s Mary Isham Randolph, the eldest daughter of Thomas and Judith of' Tuckahoe, then a young girl of sixteen or seventeen, fell in love and eloped with a slave overseer from her uncle Isham's Dungeness plantation--an Irishman by the name of Enoch Arden. The two were married secretly and had a child. Eventually they were discovered to be living on remote Elk Island in the James River. According to family chroniclers, the enraged Randolphs descended on the island, killed Arden and the baby, and took Mary back to Tuckahoe. The tragic loss of her husband and child shattered Mary's sanity.

Under careful family supervision, Mary recovered gradually, only to fall in love with yet another man deemed objectionable by the Randolphs. This time the object of Mary's affection was the Reverend James Keith. Keith was the minister of Henrico parish, one of the largest and most important parishes in Virginia. It included not only Tuckahoe and other Randolph plantations on the James but the rapidly growing town of Richmond as well. A refugee from the abortive 1719 Jacobite uprising in Scotland, the Reverend Keith was particularly effective in the pulpit. He was a bachelor, but he was seventeen years older than Mary and, like much of the Anglican clergy in colonial Virginia, enjoyed a reputation for licentiousness. Mary and James had an affair and appear to have been discovered in flagrante delicto. The Randolphs, who held two seats on the vestry of Henrico parish, forced Keith's resignation and did their utmost to prevent the pair from seeing each other. Keith resigned as minister of the parish on October 12, 1733, and departed for Maryland immediately thereafter.

The episode was handled gingerly by church authorities. Commissary James Blair, the Church of England's representative in Virginia, and a former minister of Henrico parish, wrote to the Bishop of London that "Mr. Keith has privately left this parish and Country, being guilty of fornication with a young Gentlewoman, whose friends did so dislike his character that they would not let her marry him." Blair, however, soon had second thoughts about the precipitate action against Keith. On March 24, 1734, he wrote a follow-up letter to the bishop stating that "I gave your Lordship an account of the misfortune which occasioned [Rev. Keith's resignation] tho' I did not then know what I have learned since that from some of the circumstances in his case, our Governor recommended him to the Governor of Maryland." The circumstances are not mentioned by Blair, but presumably pertained to the tact that James Keith and Mary Randolph were deeply in love. The following year Blair rescinded Keith's exile to Maryland and appointed him minister of the frontier parish of Hamilton in what subsequently became Fauquier county.(*) When Mary came of age, she and James Keith were married, and between them they had eight children, including Marshall's mother.

The Keiths flourished in Fauquier county, but Mary's troubles were not over. Years later she received a letter purporting to come from the Irishman Enoch Arden, triggering a final bout of insanity from which she never recovered. Despite the passage of time, Mary cherished the memory of Arden, and the possibility that he might still be alive filled her with despair--a despair compounded by fears that as a consequence her marriage to the Reverend Keith might be invalid. Were that to be the case, their children would be illegitimate. The question was never resolved conclusively, and for whatever reason Chief Justice Marshall rarely mentioned his tie to the Randolphs.

[Source: http://genforum.genealogy.com/isham/messages/1136.html].

19 Mary Isham RANDOLPH, b. in 1718 in Mansfield, Louisa, VA; d. in Dec. 1753 in VA. See Chapter 1 of "John Marshall: Definer of a Nation" for other info on the scandal concerning Mary.

She m. (2) Rev. James (Parson) KEITH on 2 Mar 1732/1733 in Germantown. Rev., son of Alexander KEITH and Elizabeth DOUGLAS, b. in 1696 in Peterhead, Aberdeen, SCT; d. in 1753 in Bristerberg, VA.

Children:

49 M i James KEITH, Jr..

50 M ii John KEITH, b. in 1735; d. in 1809. He m. (1) Mary Elizabeth DONIPHAN.

51 M iii Capt. Thomas Randolph KEITH.

52 F iv Mary Randolph KEITH.

53 F v Judith KEITH, b. in 1737; d. in 1817. She m. (1) James KEY. James, son of Francis S. KEY and Anne Arnold ROSS, b. in 1755.

54 M vi Isham KEITH.

55 F vii Elizabeth KEITH, b. in 1745; d. in 1821. She m. (1) Edward FORD.

56 M viii Alexander KEITH, b. in 1748; d. in 1824. He m. (1) Mary Ann GALLAHUE, and (2) Miss YANCY.

[:http://www2.netdoor.com/~bprest/wrand.htm]