 |
Peyton Randolph
b. c. 1721, Williamsburg, Virginia
d. 22 Oct 1775, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Title: |
President of Congress |
| Term: |
5 Sep 1774 - 22 Oct 1774 |
| Chronology: |
5 Sep 1774,
elected to the office of the President of Congress, session of Congress, Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [1] |
|
22 Oct 1774, ceased to exercise the functions of office [2] |
| Term: |
10 May 1775 - 24 May 1775 |
| Chronology: |
10 May 1775,
elected to the office of the President of Congress, session of Congress, State House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [3] |
|
24 May 1775, ceased to exercise the functions of office [4] |
| Biography: |
| Studied law in London; was appointed King's attorney for Virginia (1748); elected a member of the House of Burgesses of the Colony and Dominion of Virginia (1764-1774, 1775) and served as its speaker in 1766-1775; chaired the committee of correspondence (1774); when the House of Burgesses was dissolved (26 May 1774) by the Royal Governor, he joined the other burgesses in organizing a session of the First Virginia Convention; served as president (moderator) of the First (1 Aug 1774 - 6 Aug 1774) and Second Virginia Conventions (20 Mar 1775 - 27 Mar 1775); elected to the First Continental Congress (1774); when the Congress convened on 5 Sep 1774, he was elected its president by unanimous vote; presided over discussion of A Plan of Union of Great Britain and the Colonies and Declaration and Resolves; failed to attend the session "on account of indisposition" and was replaced with Henry Middleton (22 Oct 1774); was re-elected to the Second Continental Congress (1775); elected its president (10 May 1775) by anonymous vote; served for only two weeks and on 24 May 1775 left for his hometown to attend a session of the House of Burgesses which met 1 Jun 1775; elected President of the Third Convention (17 Jul 1775 - 16 Aug 1775); discharged of his functions as President 16 Aug 1775 when it was observed that "he was much indisposed"; died two months later. |
| Biographical sources: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (2005), p. 1783; The Pennsylvania Gazette, No. 2444, October 25, 1775, p. [3] (obituary); The Pennsylvania Evening Post, No. 118, 24 Oct 1775, p. 485 (obituary). Richard Henry Lee to George Washington, 22 Oct 1775, The Letters of Richard Henry Lee, collected and ed. by James Curtis Ballagh. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1911, 1:152-154; Samuel Ward to Henry Ward, 24 Oct 1775, Letters of Members of the Continental Congress / ed. by Edmund C. Burnett. Washington, D.C.: The Carnegie institution of Washington, 1921, 1:240; |
| |
| [1] |
Journals of the Continental Congress, 1:14. |
| [2] |
Journals of the Continental Congress, 1:102. |
| [3] |
Journals of the Continental Congress, 2:12. |
| [4] |
Journals of the Continental Congress, 2:58-59. |
| |
Image: portrait by Charles Willson Peale. |
