Mattoax Plantation

About a month or so ago I enjoyed reading David Johnson's John Randolph of Roanoke, an informative biography on the acerbic Virginia statesman. In the book the author mentioned Randolph's early formative years being spent at his father's Mattoax plantation in south Chesterfield County. I had driven by the above highway historical marker on River Road between the towns of Matoca and Ettrick many times on "backway" trips to Colonial Heights, but never took the time to stop and read the sign until today while out running some errands.

In 1769, John Randolph, Sr. married Frances Bland, joining two prominent colonial Virginia families. Their marriage produced four children: Richard, Theodorick, John Jr., and Jane, who died as an infant. John Jr., was born at Cawsons in 1773, his mother's family plantation in Prince George County on the Appomattox River. 

The Randolphs had acquired lands through John Sr.'s father, Richard Randolph. Vast plantations (about 40,000 acres total) such as Mattoax in Chesterfield County, Bizarre in Prince Edward County, and Roanoke in Charlotte County, helped maintain the family wealth and provide opportunities for education and influence among Richard Randolph's male grandchildren.

John Sr. died in 1775 at a young thirty-three years of age. Frances, ten years younger, and now a widow of means, was left twenty-four slaves and the Mattoax lands in John Sr.'s will. However, Frances married St. George Tucker three years after John's death. That union produced six children, the last of who, Henrietta Eliza, was born in 1787. Frances's rapid rate of births with her last six children must have been difficult on her physically, as she passed away less than a month after Henrietta Eliza was born.

At Mattoax John Jr. grew up as many boys of privilege did during that time. He hunted, fished, ran through the fields and forests, mastered horsemanship, and prompted by his mother, developed a love of reading and learning. In 1781, when a British threat came to Chesterfield County, Frances and the children fled west to Bizarre, before returning to Mattoax where she died and was buried beside John Sr.. John Jr. made it home from his studies at Princeton to be by his mother's side before she passed. She had earlier told John Jr. to always value and keep his lands.

John Jr. was elected to the U.S. Congress from his district in 1799, and served a number of terms until his death in 1833. Described as an eccentric and often the center of argument and combativeness on Capitol Hill, Randolph fought a duel with Henry Clay in 1826. Both John, and his brother, Richard, made provisions in the wills to free their hundreds of slaves on their Roanoke and Bizarre plantations, and provided funds and or lands for them to settle on after their emancipation. 

Today some of the former Mattoax plantation lands are part of the Randolph Farm, an agricultural research and experimentation farm that is part of Virginia State University, a historically black institution of higher learning. One wonders if John Randolph of Roanoke would be surprised at what became of his boyhood home lands, or if he would be pleased with its development into a place of learning for thousands of African American students over the years. 

Image of John Randolph of Roanoke courtesy of the Library of Congress