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Birth:          20 Feb 1754 Perth Amboy, NJ
Death:          12 Mar 1837 Philadelphia, PA
Burial:         Friends Western Ground, Philadelphia, PA

Notes
changed name in 1779
apprenticed as printer with Parker, friend of Benj Franklin
appt officer by Committee of Safety, commissioned 3 Jan 1777. Served under Gen 
Anthony Wayne, at battles of Princeton and Trenton, Brandywine, and Monmouth.
Wounded at Paoli 20 Sept 1777, escaped by feigning death. Resigned 10 May 1779 
with rank of Captain

moved from Plainfield NJ to Phila 17 Sept 1789

shipping merchant, partner with Josiah Langdale Coates. Were close friends as were 
long lines of their descendants. Incorporator of Phila Natl Bank, member of City 
Council.

From Annual Proceedings of the Penna. Socy of the Sons of the Revolution 1906-
1907 page 99

EDWARD F. RANDOLPH

Note.—The Captain Randolph mentioned earlier in this paper as owner of an ancient 
stone house on " The Old York Road," marking a historic spot in this borough, was a 
brave and gallant officer in the Revolutionary War, about whom much might be 
written. As previously noted, as First Lieutenant in Colonel William Butler's Fourth 
Pennsylvania Regiment, Continental Army, he commanded the outlying guard at " The 
Massacre of Paoli," where he was desperately wounded and left upon the field for 
dead. Doctor Stille's " Major-General Wayne and the Pennsylvania Line " mentions 
that Colonel William Butler's Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment received the attack of the 
enemy at Paoli, but, in speaking of the officer in command of the picket guard, omits 
to mention his name, although he places Lieutenant Randolph correctly in Colonel 
William Butler's Regiment. This omission I am glad to be able to supply now and to 
state that the officer was First Lieutenant Edward F. Randolph, who, later in life, 
dropped the use of the " F " in his name. These facts were well known to almost all 
old Philadelphians (including the late John Jordan, Jr., Esq., President of the 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania), and are also recited in the " Lives of Eminent 
Philadelphians, Deceased," published nearly fifty year ago (1859). Actuated only by 
patriotic motives, Captain Randolph gave his services to his country without pay; and 
when Governor Corwin, of Ohio (whose wife was Sarah Randolph Ross), became 
connected with the Randolph family, and during his term of office as Secretary of the 
United States Treasury under President Filmore, he, on divers occasions, informed 
Captain Randolph's children that they could readily obtain his back pay if they wished; 
but they, of course, never would accept what their father, from high, patriotic motives, 
had declined to receive. Two of Captain Randolph's grandsons (General Wallace F. 
Randolph and Major Edward Randolph Parry) both officers of the regular army, served 
through the whole of the late Civil War, and both were brevetted for gallantry.

One of Captain Randolph's swords is still in existence and among the treasured 
possessions of his great-grandson, Evan Randolph, of Philadelphia, and an old silver 
spoon used by him in camp and marked with his initial and crest, has come handed 
down to the writer. In his full regimentals as a Continental officer he was married 
March 16th, 1779, to Anna Julianna Steele, and the silk wedding gown she then wore 
has descended to me, and is still preserved. It was worn by a great-granddaughter at 
a " Kirmess " at the Philadelphia Academy of Music December 16th, 1884, and 
attracted much attention, and was afterwards described in the newspapers.

Like Colonel Owen Biddle, another Revolutionary patriot, Captain Randolph later 
adopted the teachings and methods of the Friends (Quakers), and did not care to refer 
to his military life in his younger days. Though sitting at the head of tb^ Friends' 
Meeting as he did, it was always said he could never in walking up the aisle entirely 
divest himself of the stride and tread of the soldier. Joseph Kite, a Quaker poet, and 
author of the 41 Arm Chair," wrote verses upon the death of Edward Randolph, the 
first verse thus referring to his terrible wounds at Paoli:—

EDWARD RANDOLPH.

" Strong in thy will and purpose—earlier life, 
Saw thee a combatant in martial strife— 
Where drums and trumpets fired the angry mood, 
With honors rife, and garments rolled in blood." 

In former times all the voting in Philadelphia was done at the State House, Sixth and 
Chestnut Streets, making a large crowd (and often disorderly), with a long wait for 
one's turn in the voting line. As Mr. Randolph was very tenacious of his voting 
privilege, he made it a point to always cast his vote, and was therefore well known at 
the polls; and when he became an old gentleman it was customary to pass him ahead 
through the line to the voting window as a matter of courtesy and out of respect for 
his age and military history, with which many persons were familiar. On one occasion, 
however, on stepping out of his carriage at the polling place, when it was proposed 
passing him ahead as usual, a raw Irishman, not long in the country, objected, saying: 
" Where was the likes of you, anyhow, old Quaker, when fighting was done, and this 
nation was made, that we should stand back for you ?" to which Mr. Randolph, 
turning his one eye upon the man, quietly replied: " Well, friend, I was where thee 
would not have dared to have shown thy naked nose." This was too much for the 
Irishman, who, amid the jeers and laughter of the crowd, made a hasty retreat, and Mr. 
Randolph was passed on and cast his vote.

Strange as it may seem to the younger generation of Philadelphia, in these days of a 
great overgrown city, his town house was on Second Street, near Arch, and his 
country seat at what is now Eleventh and Master Streets; and the writer, when a 
young lad, made many a short cut to it (over the open fields) from Ninth and Green 
Streets. For some years the old mansion stood high up in the air, near the corner of 
Eleventh and Master, when streets were opened and cut through the estate.

After the war, as a member of the firm of Coates & Randolph, he became largely 
engaged in the East India shipping trade, and, as was then the custom, the church 
bells of the city were rung when an East India vessel arrived safely in port, a voyage 
then, in the days of sailing vessels, often taking months to accomplish it.

A portrait in oil of Captain Randolph, painted by Robert Street, hangs on the walls of 
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. Judge Mitchell, of the 
Pennsylvania Supreme Court, some years ago had an engraving made from this 
portrait, and one hundred impressions taken from it for private distribution only, and 
the plate was then destroyed. One of these the writer has in his library here. From 
Captain Randolph have descended many of the most prominent citizens of 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, of to-day.

[appears to be taken from Richard Randolph Parry's "Coryell's Ferry in the Revolution" 
an adress given in 1907.] See www.newspiritof76.com/original/CoryellsFerryBook-
lr.pdf





Parents
FITZ RANDOLPH Richard (16 Jun 1705 - 20 Nov 1754)
CORLIES Elizabeth (20 Aug 1716 - )

Siblings
RANDOLPH [CHG FROM FITZ RANDOLPH] Edward (20 Feb 1754 - 12 Mar 1837)

Marriage To STEELE Anna Julianna (14 May 1761 - 11 Feb 1810)
    m. 16 Mar 1779 First Reformed Church of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA

Notes

Parents
STEELE (CH FROM STELTZ) Johann Heinrich (1730 - )
EPPRECHT (EBRIGHT) Anna Margaretha (22 Feb 1731 - 19 Aug 1823)

Children by STEELE Anna Julianna 14 May 1761 - 11 Feb 1810
RANDOLPH Mary (20 Nov 1800 - 27 Oct 1884)

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