Colonial Williamsburg Digital Library

TAZEWELL HALL
Block 4 #1

The chain of title of this treat of land, as found in the Southall Papers at the College of William and Mary and now on file in the Research Department, is as complete as possible, and will not be repeated here. This abstract of title begins with the ownership of Peyton Randolph.

It it evident that Peyton Randolph inherited it from his father, Sir John Randolph, who bequeathed nearly all his property to his wife during her lifetime and then to his son Peyton. Land in James City County on the Chickahominy river was given to his son John.

Randolph, Sir John - Will
December 23, 1735
Proved, April 28, 1737

"... For the maintenance and support of my dear and most beloved wife ... I give and devise to her during her life all my houses and lots in the city of Williamsburgh and the plantation and lands adjoining to the town which I Purchased of Mr. Thomas Corbin and Mr. Thomas Bray with the appurtenances ... After her death I give all my said houses and lots in Williamsburg and at the college landing and the said plantation and lands lying near or adjoining to the town upon Archers hope creek which I purchased of the said Thomas Corbin and Thomas Bray and my household servants and slaves and slaves belonging to the said plantation and other the promises before given to my wife during her life to my son Peyton Randolph and to his heirs and assigns forever..." [Virginia magazine vol. 36, p.376-381]

According to the chain of title as traced in 1848 and recorded in the Southall Papers, Peyton Randolph deeded this tract of land is July, 1758, to his brother John Randolph, father of Edmund Randolph.

Southall Papers This tract of Land, on which are situated the buildings, was originally the property of Peyton Randolph, and was then estimated to contain ninety acres. By his deed dated the 8th of July 1758, and recorded in James City County on the 10th July 1758, he conveyed it to his brother John Randolph, by the following description, viz: "All that tract of land lying in James City County, containing, by estimation, 90 acres, more or less, bounded as follows" on the North by a street called in the City of Williamsburg, East by the line of Philip Johnson, Esq. West by the bottom running from Mrs Powers' spring, including the whole bottom, and on the South by Mrs. Custis's Mill Pond.

The statement in Williamsburg in Virginia that this house "was the birthplace of his [John Randolph] son, Edmund Randolph" seems open to question. The statement may be found in several secondary sources, but absolute proof seems lacking.

Tyler, L.G.
Williamsburg, 1907
p. 253 TAZEWELL HALL. - This building stood at the south end of England street, and was the birthplace of Edmund Randolph, attorney-general and secretary of state of the United States.

Dictionary of American Biography
XV, p. 353. RANDOLPH, Edmund ... He was born at"Tazewell Hall" near Williamsburg, Va.

Conway, Moncure D.
Omitted chapters of history...Edmund Randolph. 1888.
p 11 John, seven years younger than his brother Peyton, became head of the Williamsburg bar … The family mansion Tazewell Hall with its library -second to none in the colony - came to this youngest son, John, and was the center of Williamsburg fashion as well as culture.

The obituary of Edmund Randolph in the Richmond Enquirer September 17, 1813, makes no statement concerning his birthplace.

As Edmund Randolph was born in 1753 and his father, John Randolph, did not obtain this property until 1758, Edmund, if he were born in Tazewell Hall, must have been born in the home of his uncle. This is entirely possible as Peyton Randolph had inherited other properties exact might then have been living on Nicholson street, as he was later.

It is difficult to tell which individual of the Randolph family lived in Tazewell Hall at certain dates. Sir John Randolph owned property on the corner of Nicholson and England streets [Randolph-Peachy house] which he bequeathed to his son Peyton, and both Sir John and Peyton Randolph lived there.

On July 20, 1724, when Holloway deeded to John Randolph a lot in the square bounded by Nicholson, England, Scotland and Queen Streets, it was described thus:

" … all that messuage, lot or half acre of land lying and being in the City of Williamsburg adjoining to the lot whereon the said John Randolph now lives which the said John Holloway purchased of Wm. Robertson..."

Sir John Randolph died in 1737. Peyton Randolph was Speakor of the House of Burgesses from 1766 to 1775 and often was referred to as "Mr. Speaker." References to the lots of Lee and Paradise on this street [lots #233 and 234] speak of them as being near "Mr. Speaker's". In 1770 Mrs. Paradise was given the "tenement adjoining the Speaker's". In the Virginia Gazette of Purdie and Dixon, September 23, 1773, William Lee advertised for sale the lots inherited from the Ludwe11 estate through his wife, including "the large wooden House, on the Back Street, next door but one to Mr. Speaker's …"

The explanation for the birth of Edmund Randolph in 1753 in Tazewell Hall is that, although his uncle, Peyton Randolph, owned the house until 1758, Peyton lived on Nicholson street in other property also inherited from his father, Sir John Randolph who also had lived there; and that Edmund's father John Randolph, lived at Tazewell Hall even before it was deeded to him by his brother Peyton, who had inherited it.

In November, 1762, ten acres of this property was made into lots and added to the city of Williamsburg.

Hening - Statutes
Vol. VII, p. 598-599 II. And whereas John Randolph, Esquire, hath laid off ten acres of his land, adjoining the southern boundaries of the City of Williamsburg, fronting England Street, and bounded on the east and west sides by a water-course, and to the south by a direct lie to be run from the water-course on the east to the water-course on the west side: so as to include the said ten acres into lots, and hath lately built and made considerable improvements thereon: Be it therefore enacted by the authority foresaid, that the said ten acres of land be, and the same are hereby added to, and made part of, the said city; and that the said John Randolph, and all and every other person or persons whatsoever, to whom he may at any time hereafter sell or dispose of any of the said lots, as soon as they shall build on and save the same, according to the conditions of their deeds of conveyance, shall then be entitled to, and have and enjoy, all the rights, privileges and immunities, granted to and enjoyed by the freeholders and inhabitants of the said city, and shall be subject to the same jurisdiction, rules and government."

The chain of title in the Southall Papers is briefly thus:

July 8, 1758.	Recorded July 10, 1758. Peyton Randolph to John Randolph.
May 9, 1771.	Recorded November 11, 1771. John Randolph conveyed the said tract of land in trust, to John Syme, Bernard Moore, Burwell Bassett and William Fitzhugh, Trustees. This was done in order to secure a legacy of £1700 stg. given by the will of Edmond Jennings Esq. of Maryland to Edmond Randolph, son of John and Ariana Randolph, and to indemnify the Exor. of said Jennings for paying over the said legacy to the said John Randolph.
August 25, 1775.	Recorded August 11, 1777. John Randolph conveyed the said land to John Blair, Peyton Randolph and James Cocke, Trustees, in order to secure payment of his debts. In this deed it was described thus:
	"The house wherein the said John Randolph now dwelleth, in the City of Williamsburg, together with one tract of land adjoining the said House, part of it lying in the City of Williamsburg, and the remaining part in the County of James City, containing, by estimation, 100 acres, more or less, which land was granted to the said John Randolph by the said Peyton Randolph &c.
October 15, 1778.	Recorded November 9, 1778. The surviving trustees in the two trust deeds above mentioned, viz. John Blair and James Cocke, in the latter, and John Syme, Burwell Bassett and William Fitzhugh in the former deed, united in conveying the said land &c to John Tazewell, of Williamsburg.

John Tazewell, by his will dated the 27th December, 1780, and proved and recorded in James City County Court on the 9th April 1781, devised to his wife, during her natural life, the use of the said land &c. describing it by these words, viz. "my houses and land in and adjoining the City of Williamsburg", and at her death devised the same to his son James Tazewell.

Mr. Southall, in 1848, summarizes:

"The title of the said land devised to James Tazewell by the will of his father, passed by descent to the two surviving brothers Littleton and William. The deed from the said William Tazewell in his own right and as surviving Exor of Littleton Tazewell to Dickie Galt, hereinafter mentioned, fortifies the presumption that the whole title to the said land was in the said Littleton and William. The former Little Tazewell [sic] for many years and at the time of his death held and occupied this land and building.

The result is that I think Mr. Galt's title sufficient as follows, to wit.

1. To Tazewell Hall Tract, including the seven acres conveyed by Sam Beall, supposed to contain 97 acres …"

Recent accounts of the house are found in the following recollections: Charles -
Recollections. p. 57 At the southern line of the"Neale"house property (now owned by Judge Smith of Yorktown) was then the southern terminus of England Street. Back in an extensive yard and facing squarely across England Street stood the imposing "Tazewell Hall." This old house was some years ago sold and removed to its present site, and is now owned by Mrs. Nelson. "Tazewell Hall" was a splendid old home and was owned when the War began, and for several years thereafter, by Col. John D. Munford one of the most courtly old gentlemen that ever graced, with his presence, the streets of old Williamsburg, of which he was once the honored Mayor.

Lee, Mrs. Victoria
Recollections, p. 6, [68] Tazewell Hall stood in the center of the road, facing north, not far from its present site. It looks today exactly as it did then, excepting the change of location. This house was then owned and occupied by Colonel Munford.

Vandergrift, Mrs. Martha
Recollections. p. 90 Miss Dickie Galt lived at Tazewell Hall. Her cousin, the beautifull Miss Eliza Harwood, married Mr. Tristram Skinner of North Carolina.

Shurtleff, Harold R.
Letter to A.A. Shurcliff
Feb. 29, 1932

I have just been having a conversation with Mr. Robert Bright of Philadelphia, who was born in Tazewell Hall when it was on the axis of England Street, and was owned and occupied by his grandfather, Mr. William Mumford [Munford]. I believe Mr. Mumford [Munford] later sold Tazewell Hall for $7,500 to Mr. Hamlin of Ohio. Mr. Bright says that he can remember there being wings on either side of the house, and what is of more interest to you, that it had a circle of flowers in front of it with a border of shells, and in the back a garden with box in it.