(1753-1813)
Edmund Randolph was born in 1753 in Williamsburg, Virginia.
His father, John Randolph, was a Loyalist who fled to England in 1775.
Edmund Randolph remained, serving as an aide to General Washington.
At 23, he was the youngest delegate to the convention that adopted Virginia's first state constitution in 1776.
He rose fast in colonial politics, becoming the mayor of Williamsburg and Virginia's attorney-general.
He was elected to the Continental Congress in 1779 and in 1786 became governor of Virginia.
Randolph officially headed the Virginia delegation to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, where introduced the Virginia Plan.
Randolph refused to sign the final document because he said it departed too much from the “Republican propositions” of the Virginia Plan; however, he ultimately supported
ratification.
Randolph served as Attorney General under George Washington and assumed the post of secretary of state from 1794 to 95.
