Ann Cary Randolph Morris

Ann Cary Randolph Morris (1774–1837), whose nickname was Nancy, was the daughter of Thomas Mann Randolph Sr. and the wife of Gouverneur Morris. Two books have been written about her and the scandal she was embroiled in—Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman - and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth-Century America and Scandal at Bizarre: Rumor and Reputation in Jefferson's America—with Richard Randolph, her brother-in-law and distant cousin.

Morrisania mansion of Ann and Gouverneur Morris and their son. St. Ann's Episcopal Church was built on the grounds of the former mansion.

After a difficult young adulthood, she had a life of some stability and social prominence after she married Gouverneur Morris, who died in 1816. She was devoted to her son, Gouverneur Morris Jr. (1813–1888), who she called her "richest treasure". They lived at Morrisania (in what is now the Bronx). He had the St. Ann's Episcopal Church in Bronx built in her memory.

Early life[]

Tuckahoe Plantation, the birthplace and childhood home of Ann Cary Randolph Morris.

Ann Cary Randolph was born near Richmond, Virginia on the Tuckahoe Plantation. Her parents were Thomas Mann Randolph Sr. and Ann Cary Randolph^[1] and she had 12 siblings.^[2] They were among the aristocratic, plantation-owning Randolph family of Virginia, descendants of William Randolph of Turkey Island, Virginia.^[3]

[Tuckahoe plantation was] the scene of boisterous barbecues, fish fries, and fancy dress balls. The clapboard mansion was known throughout the colonies for its fine walnut paneling and fragrant boxwood gardens. Done up in velvet and gold, the colonel’s bedroom was the stuff of legend; the stables housed some of the fastest horses in the South.

— Alan Pell Crawford^[4]

During her childhood, she and her cousin Martha Jefferson Randolph were close friends. Her mother died in March 1789. The following year, in September 1790, her father married^[1] a woman about Ann's age named Gabriela.^[3] By the age of 16, Ann had a number of suitors.^[3] She was described as "by every indication a fetching girl with a 'little upturned nose,' a gift for self-dramatization, remarkably little in the way of discretion, and oodles of sex appeal."^[2] Ann and her stepmother fought and Ann was asked to leave the house.^[2]

Bizarre plantation scandal[]

At about 19 years of age,^[1] Ann went to live with her sister Judith and her husband Richard Randolph near Farmville, Virginia at the Bizarre plantation,^[1][a] an Antebellum tobacco plantation.^[1] The couple, distant cousins, were married in 1789. Richard, also a descendant of William Randolph, was 19 and Judith was 17.^[3] Richard studied at Princeton, but did not have a solid direction or plan for his life and it was at this time that the tobacco economy was collapsing.^[2]

Ann and Richard were said to be too fond of one another, and in the summer of 1792, she began gaining weight.^[2] Judith, Richard, and Ann traveled to the Glentivar^[2] or Glenlyvar estate 30 miles northeast of Farmville to visit Randolph Harrison, a cousin, and his wife Mary on October 1, 1792. The following night there was evidence that a baby had been killed. Ann had screamed, which awakened the Harrisons. A servant told Mary Harrison that Ann was sick and needed laudanum.^[3][2] Richard Randolph was in Ann's dark room and would not allow a candle to be brought into the room, but Mary Harrison was able to sit with Ann for a few minutes. Judith was sitting up in the bed in the room she was staying in. The next day, there was blood on Ann's pillowcases and on the stairs, her bedding had been removed from her bed, and Ann remained in her room.^[3] The Randolphs left the Harrison's estate at the end of the week.^[3] The Harrisons were then told that the corpse of a baby was found in a pile of old shingles by the plantation's enslaved people.^[2]

Martha Jefferson Randolph was Ann Cary Randolph's cousin, friend, and sister-in-law. She testified at the trial of Richard Randolph.

Richard was accused of murdering the baby born to Ann in April 1793. He was defended by the famous lawyers John Marshall and Patrick Henry.^[1][3] During the trial, Martha Jefferson Randolph stated that she had obtained gum guaicum, which she believed could be used to abort a baby, and provided it to Ann two weeks before the trip to Glentivar.^[2][5] There were other people who had testified during the trial that Ann had been pregnant.^[2] Enslaved people were precluded from testifying by Virginia law, so the evidence about the baby being found within a stack of shingles was not heard. Judith Randolph did not testify^[2] or she testified that Richard did not leave their room that night.^[6] Richard Randolph was acquitted.^[1][3] Alan Pell Crawford, author of Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman - and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth-Century America stated, "before the year was out, the girl had become the Jezebel of the Old Dominion and the young man who was the alleged father had become its laughing stock. Idlers in taverns made ribald jokes at his expense."^[4]

Thomas Jefferson, upon hearing of the scandal, wrote a letter to his daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph. In the letter he considered Ann "the pitiable victim" and encouraged his daughter to be a kind influence in her life. He stated that he only found one person guilty, alluding to Richard Randolph.^[7] Martha responded that the "vile seducer" [Richard] had both destroyed her reputation and corrupted her mind, and she was concerned that some people make be swayed from what a "person of sense" would deduce about the scandal.^[8]

For her [Ann] it is the moment of trying the affection of her friends, when their commiseration and comfort become balm to her wounds. I hope you will deal them out to her in full measure, regardless of what the trifling or malignant may think or say. Never throw off the best affections of nature in the moment when they become most precious to their object; nor fear to extend your hand to save another, lest you should sink yourself. You are on firm ground: your kindnesses will help her and count in your own favor also.

— Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Martha Jefferson Randolph, dated April 28, 1793.^[7]

Richard died mysteriously in 1796 and Ann continued to live at the Bizarre plantation until 1805.^[1][2][b] John Randolph of Roanoke, Richard's brother, thought that Ann had poisoned Richard, and Judith was angry about the scandal and loss of her husband. John asked Ann to leave the plantation.^[2] She spent a couple of nights in the abandoned Tuckahoe mansion. She then lived at a number of places: with friends; at Monticello with her cousin and now sister-in-law, Martha Jefferson Randolph, and her brother Thomas Mann Randolph Jr.; in Richmond; Rhode Island; and Connecticut.^[1] She had very limited means, at times receiving small sums of monies from her brothers, and she may have taught school in Rhode Island.^[4]

Marriage[]

Pierre Henri, Gouverneur Morris, 1798, watercolor on ivory, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Ann lived at a boarding house in New York in October 1808 when she received a visit from Gouverneur Morris, who she met when he visited Tuckahoe Plantation about 1788. After corresponding for awhile, she accepted a position as his housekeeper.^[1][9] Morris was a senator for New York, a delegate to both the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, and an ambassador to France under President Washington.^[4] In April 1809, she came to work and live in New York at his residence, Morrisania.^[1] A surprise to Morrisania guests, they were married on Christmas Day, 1809, with Ann dressed in the worn dress she wore as housekeeper as her wedding dress.^[1][10] Kirschke states, "Her wedding dress was a statement that they both very much enjoyed, Nancy [Ann] because it showed her gratitude for his past kindness and Morris likely because of the element of surprise for the guests."^[10] After a number of dismal years, Ann became socially prominent again due to her husband's social prestige.^[4] From June 1810 to September, the Morris's traveled to inspect the land for the Erie Canal.^[9] The couple went to the White House in December 1811, where they met with President James Madison and Dolley Madison and they were engaged in activities with political and diplomatic figures.^[4] In 1815, she recommended Samuel Larned as consul at Gibraltar in a letter to President Madison.^[11] Larned went on to have a 23 year career in diplomatic service.^[12]

Thomas Seir Cummings, Gouverneur Morris Jr. (1813-1888), 1840, Walters Art Museum.

They had one child, Gouverneur Morris Jr., in 1813.^[1] In October 1813, Gouverneur was away from his wife and baby and wrote a poem for her. Ann had it published posthumously in the alumni magazine The Columbian. After he wrote the poem in a letter, the couple did not spend a night apart, except for one night.^[13][c]

She maintained relationships with family members and friends in Virginia,^[14][d] which included her sister Judith and her sons. Tudor Randolph, Judith's younger son attended Harvard University in 1814 and became seriously ill with tuberculosis. Ann took him in at the Morrisania mansion and cared for him for three months. Judith and her brother-in-law John Randolph of Roanoke visited Morrisania during Tudor's convalescence.^[9] In the hope that a change in climate would help him improve his health, Tudor traveled to England, but died there in August 1815. Judith died in 1816. Previously, on his way home to Virginia from his visit to Morrisania, John wrote a "vitriolic" letter to Ann, who wrote a long response to twenty of John's political opponents.^[9] Throughout the years, John Randolph kept the Bizarre scandal alive and Ann heard unflattering rumors about her throughout New York.^[2] The animus towards her extended to Morris relatives who were no longer heirs to her husband's estate after their marriage and the birth of their son.^[4]

Gouverneur Morris died in November 6, 1816 at Morrisania.^[9] Ann and her son lived at Morrisania until her death in 1837.^[1] Ann considered her son her "richest treasure" and focused much of her attention on ensuring he received a good education.^[14] He became one of the founders of the Republican Party and a railroad executive. He married her niece, Martha "Patsey" Jefferson Cary, the daughter of Ann's younger sister Virginia Randolph Cary.^[9]

St. Ann's Episcopal Church, 1934. It was made a New York City landmark in 1967

She fought rumors of her in-laws that her son was not a son of Gouverneur Morris.^[14] She used the press, friend's advice, and attorneys to address claims against her and her husband's character.^[14] Her efforts, and those of her husband's before he died, did much to restore her reputation.^[9] She also managed her husband's estate, which was diminished due to mismanagement by one of his nephew's, so that her son would inherit an "unencumbered estate".

Ann died in 1837.^[9] In her memory, her son built the St. Ann's Episcopal Church along the Harlem River on the grounds of Morrisania.^[2]

Gouverneur Morris born Feb. 9, 1813; died Aug. 20, 1888. Founder of this Parish, to which he gave church and lands for the glory of God and in memory of his mother.

— Inscription on a plaque to the right of the chancel at St Ann's Episcopal Church.^[16]

Ann and Gouverneur Morris are buried in a family crypt at St. Ann's.^[16]

Notes[]

References[]

Further reading[]

• Anderson, Jefferson Randolph. (1937). "Tuckahoe and the Tuckahoe Randolphs." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 45(1), 55-86. Retrieved January 14, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/4244772
• Crawford, Alan Pell. Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman - and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth-Century America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
• Doyle, Christopher L. "The Randolph Scandal in Early National Virginia, 1792-1815: New Voices in the 'Court of Honour'." Journal of Southern History 69, no. 2 (2003): 283-318.
• Kierner, Cynthia A. Scandal at Bizarre: Rumor and Reputation in Jefferson's America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
• Morris, Ann Cary Randolph; Randolph, John (1837). "Correspondence between John Randolph and Ann C. Morris (Nancy Randolph), 1814-1815 [Typescript Copy]".
• Nancy Randolph Papers, 1805-1962, Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary.