17 Facts About Mary Randolph

Mary Randolph was a Southern American cook and author, known for writing The Virginia House-Wife; Or, Methodical Cook, one of the most influential housekeeping and cook books of the 19th century.

Mary Randolph was the first person known to be buried at what would become known as Arlington National Cemetery.

The extended Randolph family was one of the richest and most political significant families in 18th century Virginia.

Mary Randolph's father was orphaned at a young age and raised by Thomas Jefferson's parents who were distant cousins.

Mary Randolph's father served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, the Revolutionary conventions of 1775 and 1776, and the Virginia state legislature.

Anne Cary Mary Randolph was the daughter of Archibald Cary, an important Virginia planter.

Anne's grandmother, Jane Bolling Mary Randolph completed a cookbook manuscript in 1743 which was handed down to her daughter Jane Mary Randolph Walke.

Mary Randolph was the oldest of Thomas and Anne's 13 children.

One sister, Virginia Mary Randolph Cary, was a noted essayist and another, Harriet, married Richard Shippey Hackley who became US Consul and they lived in Cadiz, Spain.

Mary Randolph was probably the source of the Spanish recipes in Randolph's cookbook.

Mary Randolph grew up at Tuckahoe Plantation in Goochland County, Virginia.

David Mary Randolph was a Federalist and an open critic of his second cousin Thomas Jefferson.

In 1807, Mary Randolph opened a boarding house in Richmond.

Mary Randolph has comfortable chambers, and a stable well supplied for a few Horses.

Years later an author claimed that Mary Randolph invented the refrigerator and that her design was stolen and patented by a Yankee who stayed in her boardinghouse.

Mary Randolph spent the last years of her life caring for her son Burwell Starke Mary Randolph, who had been disabled while serving in the Navy.

In 2009 Mary Randolph was posthumously honored as one of the Library of Virginia's "Virginia Women in History".