Love and Revolution

Lloyd Dobyns: Hi, welcome to Colonial Williamsburg: Past & Present on history.org. This is "Behind the Scenes" where you meet the people who work here. That's my job. I'm Lloyd Dobyns, and mostly I ask questions.

Even as the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet was performed on stages across England, a tale of star-crossed lovers was playing out in Williamsburg, Virginia.  A new scene in Revolutionary City – Colonial Williamsburg's outdoor drama – is devoted to their love story.

Museum educator Anne Willis is here with the story of the feuding houses of Randolph and Nicholas – a feud that could have prevented their children, Edmund Randolph and Elizabeth Nicholas, from getting married.

I don't think "Edmund and Elizabeth" has the charm of "Romeo and Juliet."

Anne Willis: Not quite, or the tragedy, in a sense.

Lloyd: Actually, for them, for Edmund and Elizabeth, it worked out pretty well.

Anne: They had 31 years of marriage together. From the letter he wrote after her death, it seemed that it was a very happy marriage. They had at least six children together. He went on to be a most important member of the new government – both in Virginia and in the federal government – while she supported him through those years as a public servant.

Lloyd: I like the fact that they were born less than 24 hours apart.

Anne: Exactly, exactly. Betty Randolph – Peyton Randolph's wife – saw both of the children just after they were born, and thought that they should be united in marriage.

Lloyd: The Randolphs and the Nicholases – that's just not exactly the same as Montagues and Capulets. What got them into their disagreement?

Anne: Well, I think there were really two reasons. The Randolph family was known for their liberal thinking, especially in terms of religion, and government, too. Robert Carter Nicholas was a devoted public servant, took his positions quite seriously. He was more of a conservative, definitely in terms of religion, and in terms of politics. So, the two families – especially Peyton Randolph and Robert Carter Nicholas – were often in disagreement before the Revolution.

Lloyd: But Edmund was John Randolph's son, wasn't he?

Anne: That's right. He is a very interesting person to look at. As a young man, he became very liberal in his thoughts, more like his uncle, Peyton Randolph, and unlike his father, who was very conservative.

Lloyd: His father went back to England, did he not? And took his wife and daughters, but left his son.

Anne: Left his son behind, apparently from the records, you can infer that the son wanted to be left behind. He was very much in support of the revolutionary fervor that was developing in Virginia and throughout the colonies.

When his family left for England, he was in Philadelphia trying to make his way into George Washington's presence, and actually got appointments from Washington to be his aide de camp and also the master musterer of the regiment. He was making his political choice to support the Revolution while his father, mother and sisters were crossing the Atlantic to go, in quotes, back home. 
 
It's clear from Peyton Randolph's will that he was very much in support of his nephew. Because Edmund inherited a large part of Peyton Randolph's personal property through his will. So I think that you can see Peyton Randolph probably being very influential in the formative years of Edmund – when he was at the College of William and Mary, for instance.

The other interesting connection is with his cousin Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson gave over his law practice when he was only 21 years of age. So you see a real connection with the liberal thinkers: both Peyton Randolph and the far more liberal thinker, Thomas Jefferson, perhaps having a powerful influence on Edmund Randolph.

Lloyd: George Washington was not exactly a conservative figure in those days.

Anne: That's true, although he was not the philosopher that Thomas Jefferson was. He was more of a man of action, I would say.

Lloyd: Do we know what Elizabeth Nicholas thought of Edmund's political leanings?

Anne: That is very interesting to think about. I think maybe it's clearer in this letter that Edmund writes 31 years after their marriage in 1776. We have a clear indication of what her religious leanings were. In the description of her religious practices and beliefs, Edmund makes it clear that she was very much like her father in that she was very conservative in her religious beliefs, and would have been far more traditional than Edmund was.

Apparently, religion was an issue that may have been important in their marriage. In this letter that he writes after her death, he lets it be known that he was influenced by deists, and especially by Jefferson and George Wythe. She made clear to him that this was not comfortable for her.

There's a marvelous quote in the letter where he describes that Wythe and Jefferson came to play chess with him on a Sunday evening, and she did not come into the room to welcome them. She just quietly retired. He then credited her with a very reserved attitude towards their playing chess on a Sunday evening, also because they both were deist leaning, was not comfortable with that.

He regrets that as he grows older, and wishes that they had had formal prayers with their children. He says that at her last illness, they prayed often together. But it didn't seem to permeate the earlier years of their marriage.

Lloyd: You wonder then, she obviously was more attuned to her father in matters of religion. You wonder if she remained attuned to her father in matters of politics.

Anne: Exactly. That's hard to see. But I think there's also something else interesting going on. Edmund Randolph, I think, personified Peyton Randolph as a public servant, and was very supportive of the Revolutionary cause and very dedicated to serving both Virginia and the new nation, really throughout the rest of his life. But Robert Carter Nicholas also was the model of the public servant, however, in a more conservative way.

Lloyd: You wonder how much of his father-in-law's ideas, even though they were dissimilar, would influence him in some of those offices. He couldn't have ignored it.

Anne: You're exactly right, because the most interesting break, politically, between the Randolphs – or I should say, Peyton Randolph and Robert Carter Nicholas – was over the Robinson affair.

When Robinson was found at his death to have been giving out colony currency to bail out the gentry in Virginia because, of course, all the British merchants and bankers were calling in their debts. He was supposed to surrender the paper money as the treasurer. What he was doing, he was passing it out under the table to the Virginia gentry. At his death, this all came about.

Lloyd: It's wonderful to know that corruption isn't new.

Anne: Oh you're right, you're right. So what happens is that really, the acting governor at that time, Governor Fauquier, had been ordered by the king to dissolve the position of speaker of the house and treasurer of the colony. So he had not been able to do that because Robinson was such a popular figure. But at his death, and with this scandal erupting, Fauquier decides that he must divide the office of speaker and treasurer.

Well, Peyton Randolph's father, Sir John Randolph, had held both positions during his tenure. Then Robinson had taken over at his death. The Randolphs assumed that Peyton Randolph would become again, like his father, the speaker and treasurer. Fauquier was successful in dividing the offices.

It's interesting that, at that same time, Robert Carter Nicholas makes himself available to Fauquier to be the treasurer. It's decided that, in a sense, Randolph can only stand for election to be speaker. That was a major issue 10 years before their marriage, this splitting of the office of speaker and treasurer. It held incredible influence and power.

Lloyd: Clearly they had issues with each other that would stand in the way of most normal relationships.

Anne: Especially at that time. I would say the families were not in harmonious agreement about politics or religion at that time.

Lloyd: Yet they did, apparently, agree to the marriage.

Anne: Yes, and I think there are two things that happened. Actually three things. One, the death of Peyton Randolph. Then, the removal of John Randolph from the scene, and his going back to England. Then, of course, the Revolution coming along, which was so traumatic for all the colonists that I think that the removal of the two Randolph brothers and the Revolution may have mediated some of the dissentions that were seen.

One other thing that is also going on at this time is that fathers and family were not directing marriages as powerfully as they were earlier. In the third quarter of the 18th century, you found gentry families giving their children more choice in marriage. Of course, they were both of the high gentry, so you didn't have them marrying outside of their own sphere, if you will. So that many things were supporting the marriage. It was these political and religious differences that may have dissipated a bit by 1776.

Lloyd: Boy, when you need a revolution to get married, you probably are in serious trouble.

Anne: You're right. I think, in a way, that's what happened.

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