Randolph Family Cemetery Presque Isle, Henrico County, Virginia

The Get-go person ever buried on the grounds which would become Arlington National Cemetery. She was a cousin of Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis, wife of George Washington Parke Custis, the builder of Arlington. She died in 1828 and buried on the estate in what would become Department 45.

Grave stone inscription:

"In the memory of Mrs. Mary Randolph,
Her intrinsic worth needs no eulogium.
The deceased was born
The 9th of August, 1762
at Amphill about Richmond, Virginia
And died the 23rd of January 1828
In Washington Urban center a victim to maternal love and duty."

There is an unusual story about Mrs. Randolph, and so I volition begin her story with her gravesite at Arlington House, formerly known as the Custis Mansion and currently the site of Arlington National Cemetery.

By 1929 her name was forgotten as noted past Washington journalist, Margaret Husted, in the Washington Star. The commodity stated that workers for the War Department, which administered Arlington National Cemetery and Arlington House, became curious near the grave of "Mrs. Mary Randolph". The grave, which is located one hundred feet north of the Custis mansion, was noticed as renovation to the house began. No 1 working on the project knew who she was or why she had been buried at that place. Her gravestone stated that she was built-in on August nine, 1762, at Ampthill (near Richmond, Virginia) and she died on January 23, 1828 in Washington City.

After the story was published, Mrs. Randolph's descendants identified the mysterious lady. She was the cousin of George Washington Parke Custis and the godmother of his daughter, Mary Randolph Custis, who married Robert E. Lee. Mary Randolph was the first person ever buried on the grounds of what would go Arlington National Cemetery. Her tombstone inscription reads: "Her intrinsic worth needs no eulogium. The deceased was a victim to maternal love and duty. As a tribute of filial gratitude this monument is dedicated to her exhaulted virtue by her youngest son". Her youngest son, Burwell Randolph, had suffered a crippling fall while in the Navy. He alleged that she had sacrificed her life in the intendance of his.

Mary was built-in at Ampthill, the plantation of her maternal grandparents in Chesterfield County, and now the site of the Dupont Company. (The firm was dismantled and moved to Richmond in 1929.) Mary Randolph was a member of the Virginia elite, with roots extending back to the colony�s formative years. As the eldest of 13 children of Thomas Mann and Ann Cary Randolph of Tuckahoe in Goochland County, she grew up surrounded with all the wealth and comforts enjoyed by families in the plantation homes. A tutor provided formal pedagogy for Mary and her siblings.

Along with her formal education, Mary Randolph was trained in proper household direction practices, a quality expected of upper-class women of the fourth dimension. Women were expected to supervise large estate houses with supporting buildings and numerous servants. "Mary Randolph: A Chesterfield County role model for women of the 19th century", states that women were relegated to secondary positions within the family unit hierarchy, simply in truth they were the mainspring that kept the household running. Women of this menstruum had numerous responsibilities for the household supported by a formable noesis of nutrient preservation and preparation and elegant entertaining. This cognition was of import throughout Mary Randolph'southward adult life.

Mary wed David Meade Randolph of Presque Isle, Chesterfield County (a first cousin once removed) in December 1780. He was known as an outstanding farmer and noted inventor. He served equally a helm in the Revolutionary War and was later appointed as a United States Marshal (a federal court official) for Virginia by President Washington. It is believed that Mr. Randolph's cousin, Thomas Jefferson, endorsed the appointment. The couple produced eight children and 4 survived to adulthood: Richard, William Beverly, David Meade and Burwell Starke.

Much of the land that made up the 750 acre plantation was swampy and therefore a wellness hazard. The family left the Presque Isle plantation to live in Richmond. They built a brick home at Fifth and Master Streets in Richmond. The habitation, named "Moldavia", became the heart of Federalist guild. Along with the Marshalls, the Wickhams, the Chevallies and other prominent Richmond families, the Randolphs established a model for fashionable social life. With Mary's noesis of food and entertaining, invitations to dine in the Randolph abode were coveted. Mary'southward skills as a hostess and cook were well known in the Richmond area. In fact, her reputation was so widespread that during the slave coup near Richmond in 1800, the leader "General" Gabriel announced that he would spare her life then that she could become his cook.

In 1802, President Thomas Jefferson removed David Randolph, an outspoken Federalist, from office as a United States Marshall. Although the two men were cousins, they were on contrary sides politically and kinship proved less of import than political party ties. Losing the court position in combination with other business organization reversals, contributed to the reject of Randolph's fortune. His removal from role coincided with a ruinous autumn in tobacco prices and a resulting recession in 1800-1802. David and Mary institute that they had to make severe cutbacks in their household, which had non been an economical one. The Randolphs offered sundry lots and tenements in Richmond for sale. They listed Moldavia for sale between 1802 and 1805 and moved into a rented house. At that place are ii conflicting stories on who purchased the house. Co-ordinate to Margaret Husted, John Allan, foster father of Edgar Allan Poe purchased Moldavia, withal Sterling Anderson reported that Joseph Gallego, the owner of Gallego Flour Mills, purchased the home.

Mary Randolph took an unorthodox step for an upper-course woman so that her family could continue to enjoy their accustomed standard of living. In March 1808, she advertised in the Richmond Virginia Gazette that she was opening a boarding firm for ladies and gentlemen. Martha Jefferson Randolph, Mary's sis-in-law, was non optimistic about the outcome of this new venture. Martha wrote her begetter "'Sister Randolph'--whose firm servants had been saved, at least temporarily, through a prior mortgage--had "opened a boarding house in Richmond, merely... has non a single boarder yet.'". Martha believed 'the ruin of the family unit is nevertheless extending itself daily.'" Despite these doubts, Mary achieved success in her enterprise. Dubbed "the Queen", she attracted, " equally many subjects as her domain could accommodate. There were few more festive boards... wit, humor and good fellowship prevailed, but excess rarely".

It is interesting to annotation that all the cookery at that time was done in kitchens that had changed piffling over the centuries. In Virginia, the kitchen was typically a separate building for reasons of safety, summer heat and the smells from the kitchen. The center of the kitchen was a large fireplace where meat was roasted and cauldrons of water and broth simmered most of the 24-hour interval. Swinging cranes and various devices made to control temperature and the cooking processes were used. The Dutch oven and the chafing dish were found in most kitchens. The brick oven used for blistering was located next to the fireplace. A salamander was used to motion baked products around in the oven and it could also be heated and held over food for browning. Karen Hess stated that Mrs. Randolph was a fine practitioner who knew her fashion nearly the kitchen but the actual cooking and toil barbarous to the servants.

In the same twelvemonth that Mary opened her boarding business firm, David became an agent for Henry Heth in the performance of the Black Heth Coal Mines near Midlothian. David traveled to England and Wales to study their mining operations and to improve those in the Blackness Heth Mines. Always interested in turning a profit, David received patents in 1815 for his improvements in shipbuilding and candle making and in 1821 for improvements in drawing liquor. For his relative, George Washington Parke Curtis, he invented a special compound to waterproof Arlington, the Custis mansion. Mrs. Randolph is said to have invented an icebox, nonetheless someone else saw it and patented it in his own name.

By 1819, the couple, in advancing years, gave upwards their business enterprises and moved to Washington, D. C. to live with their son, William Beverley Randolph. At this residence, Mary decided to compile her culinary noesis and her cookbook was published in 1824. In her preface to The Virginia Housewife, Mrs. Randolph points out the lack of clear-cut instructions in the cookbooks of that time. "The difficulties I encountered when I kickoff entered on the duties of a business firm-keeping life, from the want of books sufficiently clear and concise to impart cognition to a Tyro, compelled me to study the field of study, and by bodily experiment to reduce everything in the culinary line, to proper weights and measures." She too offered three rules for running a household: "Let everything be washed at the proper time, keep everything in its proper place, and put everything to its proper utilize." At the beginning of his article, "'Queen Molly' and the Virginia Housewife" Sterling Anderson quoted Mrs. Randolph with this argument: "The authorities of a family bears a Piffling resemblance to the government of a nation. The contents of the Treasury must be know, and great intendance taken to proceed the expenditures from being equal to the receipts." Mrs. Randolph'south philosophy is illustrated in boosted quotes from Anderson's article: "The prosperity and happiness of a family depend profoundly on the order and the regularity established in it. Direction is an art that may be acquired by every adult female of good sense and tolerable memory."

Mrs. Randolph'southward cookbook was written specially for Virginia cooks. Mrs. Husted reported that during the colonial flow wealthy families imported cookbooks from England, but these books ignored the special requirements of the New World. Mrs. Randolph's book proves that regional food preferences were well established past the first quarter of the 19th century. She included recipes for dishes that accept remained southern favorites, such as "toasting ham"; baking, roasting or broiling of shad, boiling turnip tops "with bacon in the Virginia style"; sweet murphy pudding; cornmeal bread; batter cakes; and concoction breadstuff. Thomas Jefferson'due south granddaughter, Virginia Randolph Trist, had a copy of the manuscript collection of recipes of Martha Jefferson Randolph and the collection contained over l recipes from Mary Randolph's cookbook. Husted also stated The Virginia Housewife was surprisingly modern. Absent-minded were the elaborate dishes of the 18th century cookbooks and the overwhelming array of foods featured on English bills of fare. Mrs. Randolph believed that the quality of prepared food, non its neat variety, was of import. She wrote that: "Profusion is not elegance". Recipes for breads and hot cakes occupy a large section of Mary Randolph's volume. She provides recipes for battercakes containing small hominy, cornmeal, butter, eggs and milk, which were baked on a griddle or in "woffle irons". A popular recipe was the one for Apoquiniminc Cakes or beaten biscuits.

Mrs. Randolph also promoted the charm of gathering and preparing garden-fresh vegetables. It was not on her recommendation that a later on generation of southern cooks followed the ruinous practice of cooking vegetable endlessly. She stressed repeatedly that vegetables must be cooked only to the point of beingness tender. Mrs. Randolph advocated the common exercise of using herbs, spices and wines in cooking. Her recipe for apple fritters calls for slices of apple marinated in a combination of brandy, white wine, sugar cinnamon, and lemon rind.

Cookbooks, with few exceptions, are addressed to housewives in comfortable circumstances. The poor, with lean larders, have little use for recipes that assume a plentiful supply of ingredients. The Virginia Housewife was intended for those who enjoyed the compensation of plantation life. Mrs. Randolph did have an eye for economic system, for case, she offered several ways of using bread in simple family desserts such every bit staff of life pudding and staff of life fritters. In her article, Margaret Husted stated that in spite of Mary Randolph'southward hostility to Thomas Jefferson for ousting her husband from role, she was not reluctant to take vanilla beans and macaroni products, which were unknown in Virginia until Jefferson introduced them. Recipes for ice cream were too included in her book. Mrs. Randolph concluded her cookbook with various domestic hints such as how to brand starch, soap, and blacking. She also included directions for cleaning knives, forks and silver utensils. The recipe for an early room deodorizer, vinegar of the four thieves, was also included in the cookbook.

In Virginia, Mary Randolph's cookbook has go synonymous with fine cuisine. Karen Hess, a culinary historian, wrote that the almost influential American cookbook of the 19th century was this book. The Virginia Housewife was not only acclaimed in Virginia, but many of the recipes have been copied in cookbooks published all over the The states. Mrs. Randolph died in 1829 before the full extent of her triumph was apparent. Afterwards her death, her cookbook was published in half-dozen editions over the next three decades. Her son, William Beverly Randolph, copyrighted the cookbook in 1828. Her recipes showed simplicity of concept; they were clearly expressed; and they were full of perceptive observations.

Jan Carlton commented that Mary Randolph combined knowledge of English language cooking with native Indian food influences. She reflected her cognition by combining the use of regional meats and vegetables with overall cooking techniques and social grace. Further, she introduces into her recipes the use of African food ingredients, a cognition gained from servants. When Ms Hess reviewed the Virginia Housewife, she remarked that nothing in the history of early on American cookbooks quite prepares us for the sumptuous cuisine presented. Mrs. Randolph brought her personal flair to everything she did, but her reputation as Virginia'southward best cook and the early on success of her work indicates that her cookery was solidly based in Virginia tradition. Already at that place was a sophisticated cuisine, a harmonious interweaving of several food cultures added to the fine cooking of the 17th and 18th centuries. Now there seemed to be an authentic American cuisine.

Mary Randolph:
A Chesterfield County (Virginia) role model for women of the 19th century

The regime of a family unit bears a Fiddling resemblance to the government of a nation. The contents of the Treasury must be known, and great care taken to go along the expenditures from being equal to the receipts. A regular system must exist introduced into each department, which may be modified until matured, and should then laissez passer into inviolable law. The m arcanum of direction lies in three elementary rules: "Let every matter exist washed at the proper time, go on every thing in its proper place, and put every thing to its proper use."

So began Mary Randolph'southward preface to The Virginia Housewife, a cookbook that became so pop information technology has rarely been out of print since it was outset published in 1824.

Built-in in 1762 at Ampthill, her grandpa'southward Chesterfield County plantation, now the site of the Dupont Company (the house itself was dismantled and moved to Richmond in 1929), Mary Randolph was a member of the Virginia elite, with roots extending back to the colony'due south determinative years. Equally the eldest child of Thomas Mann and Ann Cary Randolph of Tuckahoe in Goochland County, she grew up surrounded with all the wealth and comforts enjoyed by other members of her grade. She and her numerous siblings were tutored by Peter Jefferson, father of the nation's fourth president, to whom she was related past both blood and marriage.

Forth with her formal education, Mary was trained in the proper household management expected of upperclass women of the fourth dimension, women who were brought up to supervise large manor houses with surrounding support buildings and numerous servants. While women so were relegated to secondary positions inside the family bureaucracy, they were in truth the mainspring that kept the household running. These women had enormous responsibilities every bit well equally formidable cognition, part of which was an awareness of nutrient preparation and elegant entertaining. This knowledge would sustain Mary Randolph throughout her adult life.

In 1780, Mary married a cousin, David Meade Randolph, and they settled in Chesterfield Canton about Bermuda Hundred at Presquile, a 750-acre plantation that was part of the Randolph family unit's extensive property forth the James River. While David Randolph saw to the cultivation of his plantation, gaining a reputation equally "the best farmer in the land," as well as a noted inventor, Mary assumed a conventional role, supervising the household, entertaining their many guests and acquiring a reputation as a lively hostess who prepare an exquisite tabular array. While living at Presquile, Mary bore four sons.

Over fourth dimension, life at Presquile, situated along the swamp lands of the James, proved difficult. According to a contemporary source, the swamps produced baneful fumes that brought on "frequent and unsafe diseases. Mr. Randolph is himself very sickly, and his immature and amiable wife has not enjoyed ane month of practiced health since she commencement came to live on this plantation." By 1798, the family had moved to Richmond, where they built a house, christened "Moldavia" (a combination of their 2 given names) past a friend. Presquile was sold out of the Randolph family three years afterwards.

Richmond welcomed the young couple. Mary, already well known for her accomplishments, "charming manners, and ... masculine mind," quickly established a reputation as one of the city'south leading hostesses. Every bit the United States marshal of Virginia under two administrations (that of George Washington and John Adams), David gained attention as an outspoken Federalist, and Moldavia became a center for Federalist society. The Randolphs entertained lavishly. With Mary's knowledge of fine nutrient and entertaining, invitations to dine at the Randolphs' table were coveted.

Mary's skills as hostess and melt were so well known, in fact, that they were brought to the attention of Gabriel Prosser, a slave who in 1800 attempted an unsuccessful revolt in northern Henrico Canton and Richmond. Supposedly, his plans included wiping out as much of the expanse's white population every bit possible, but according to local legend, Mary Randolph would take been spared to serve as Prosser'southward queen -- and his cook! Perhaps this is when she acquired the nickname, "Queen Molly," by which she was affectionately known to her friends.

Thomas Jefferson's election to the presidency in 1800 marked the terminate of David Meade Randolph'southward career every bit federal marshal. The ii men were on opposite sides of the political fence and Jefferson removed Randolph from part immediately afterward his inauguration. This, along with business organization reversals, caused a rapid decline in the Randolphs' fortunes and by 1802, they had listed Moldavia for auction.

Within a few years, their financial state of affairs had go disquisitional, and Mary stepped in. She was determined to see her family unit taken intendance of, and took what was then a highly unorthodox stride for an upperclass woman. In March, 1808, an advertisement appeared in The Richmond Virginia Gazette: "Mrs. RANDOLPH Has established a Boarding Firm in Cary Street, for the accommodation of Ladies and Gentlemen. She has comfy chambers, and a stable well supplied for a few Horses." Putting her abilities as a hostess together with her knowledge of good food and elegant presentation, Mary achieved instant success. The Randolphs' boarding house was considered a place where "wit, humour, and good-fellowship prevailed, but excess rarely."

By 1819, the Randolphs had given upward their business enterprise and moved to Washington, where they lived with i of their sons. There, Mary Randolph decided to compile her culinary knowledge to paper, and in 1824, her volume, The Virginia Housewife, was published. It won immediate success: a 2d addition followed within a year, and Mary was preparing notwithstanding another when she died in January, 1828.

With Mary'due south avant-garde culinary noesis, her splendid recipes, and detailed advice to housewives, the book remained a standby, going into many editions throughout the 19th century. It continues to announced in facsimile even today.

While The Virginia Housewife is seen past some as a quaint reminder of culinary traditions long gone past, the volume is viewed by today's social historians as an important historical document in which dining habits of the Virginia elite can be examined. Every bit noted culinary historian, Karen Hess, wrote, "The near influential American cookbook of the 19th century was The Virginia Housewife ... There are those who regard it every bit the finest book e'er to have come out of the American kitchen, and a case may be made for considering it to be the primeval full-blown American cookbook. [it] may be said to document the cookery of the early days of our commonwealth."

Chesterfield County tin can take pride in claiming Mary Randolph as a native daughter, an exemplary woman, and role model. Her courage and conclusion, her willingness to step off her pedestal to meet that her family survived, and her power to plunge into the world of business, mark her every bit a pioneer and office model to those who followed.

She wrote "The Virginia Housewife," considered to be the starting time cookbook publoiched in America:

The American Housewife - BOOK COVER