Mary Randolph

Mary Randolph, wife of David Meade Randolph and the first person known to be buried at Arlington, was the eldest child of Thomas Mann Randolph and Ann Cary Randolph of Tuckahoe. Her maternal grandfather was Archibald Cary of Ampthill, and her paternal grandfather was William Randolph of Tuckahoe. She was a direct descendant of Pocahontas; a cousin of Thomas Jefferson, of Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis, wife of George Washington Parke Custis, the builder of Arlington House, and of Robert E. Lee. Her brother Thomas Mann Randolph, Governor of Virginia from 1819 to 1821, married Martha Jefferson, daughter of Thomas Jefferson. Her eldest son was William Beverley Randolph, through whom alone her line was descended. Her youngest son, Burwell Starke Randolph, was crippled after falling from a mast while a midshipman in the U.S. Navy. Her devoted care of that injured son is said to have hastened her death and would seem to explain her epitaph.

Arlington, Virginia · United States