Isham Randolph (February 24, 1687 – November 2, 1742) was an American planter, shipmaster, merchant, military officer and politician who served a partial term in the House of Burgesses representing Goochland County. He may today be best known as the maternal grandfather of United States President Thomas Jefferson.
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Early life
Isham Randolph was born on the Turkey Island plantation in Henrico County, Virginia on February 24, 1687. He was the third son of William Randolph (1650–1711) and wife Mary Isham (c. 1659–1735). His father was a colonist, landowner, planter, and merchant who served as the 26th Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
Randolph graduated from the College of William & Mary.
Career
Like his father, Isham Randolph farmed tobacco and other crops using enslaved labor. In 1730, Randolph built "Dungeness," an English manor styled house on what became a large tobacco plantations, near Goochland, Virginia just west of Fine Creek (near the Fine Creek Mills Historic District). That land had seemed near the frontier when it was acquired, 40 miles from Richmond, Virginia. but Dungeness became a house of "refinement and elegant hospitality" with a hundred or more servants.