William Randolph Hearst
Hearst in 1906.
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 11th district
In office March 4, 1903 – March 3, 1907
Preceded by	William Sulzer
Succeeded by	Charles V. Fornes
Personal details
Born	(1863-04-29)April 29, 1863 San Francisco, California, United States
Died	August 14, 1951(1951-08-14) (aged 88) Beverly Hills, California, US
Political party	Democratic Party (1896–1935) Independence Party (1905–1910) Municipal Ownership League (1904–05)
Spouse(s)	Millicent Veronica Willson (1882–1974)
Relations	Phoebe Apperson, mother George Hearst, father Patty Hearst, granddaughter Anne Hearst, granddaughter Lydia Hearst-Shaw, great-granddaughter Amanda Hearst, great-granddaughter Marion Davies, mistress
Children	George Randolph Hearst (1904–1972) William Randolph Hearst, Jr. (1908–1993) John Randolph Hearst (1910–1958) Randolph Apperson Hearst (1915–2000) David Whitmire Hearst (1915–1986)
Alma mater	Harvard University
Occupation	Businessman & publisher
Signature

William Randolph Hearst ( /ˈhərst/; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher who built up the nation’s largest newspaper chain and whose methods profoundly influenced American journalism.^[1] Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father. Moving to New York City, he acquired The New York Journal and engaged in a bitter circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer's New York World which led to the creation of yellow journalism—sensationalized stories of dubious veracity. Acquiring more newspapers, Hearst created a chain that numbered nearly 30 papers in major American cities at its peak. He later expanded to magazines, creating the largest newspaper and magazine business in the world.

He was twice elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives, and ran unsuccessfully for Mayor of New York City in 1905 and 1909, for Governor of New York in 1906, and for Lieutenant Governor of New York in 1910. Nonetheless, through his newspapers and magazines, he exercised enormous political influence, and is sometimes credited with pushing public opinion in the United States into a war with Spain in 1898.

His life story was a source of inspiration for the development of the lead character in Orson Welles' film Citizen Kane.^[2] His mansion, Hearst Castle, near San Simeon, California, on a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, was donated by the Hearst Corporation to the state of California in 1957, and is now a State Historical Monument and a National Historic Landmark, open for public tours. Hearst formally named the estate La Cuesta Encantada ("The Enchanted Slope"), but he usually just called it "the ranch".

Early life[link]

Hearst was born in San Francisco to millionaire mining engineer George Hearst and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. George Hearst's paternal grandfather, John Hearst, who was of Scottish origin, emigrated to America with his wife and six children in 1766 and settled in South Carolina. Their immigration to America was spurred in part by the state government's policy that encouraged the immigration of Protestants. The names "John Hearse" and "John Hearse Jr." appear on the council records on the October 26, 1766, being credited with meriting 400 acres (1.6 km²) and 100 acres (0.40 km²) of land on the Long Canes (in what became Abbeville District), based upon 100 acres (0.40 km²) to heads of household and 50 acres (200,000 m²) for each dependent of a Protestant immigrant. The "Hearse" spelling of the family name never was used afterward by the family members themselves, or any family of any size. A separate theory purports that one branch of a "Hurst" family of Virginia (originally from Plymouth Colony) moved to South Carolina at about the same time and changed the spelling of its surname of over a century to that of the emigrant Hearsts.^[3] Hearst's mother was of Irish ancestry; her family came from Galway.^[4]

Following preparation at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, Hearst enrolled in the Harvard College class of 1885, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Alpha chapter), the A.D. Club (a prestigious Harvard Final club), and of the Harvard Lampoon before being expelled for antics ranging from sponsoring massive beer parties in Harvard Square to sending chamber pots to his professors (their images were depicted within the bowls).^[5]

Publishing business[link]

An ad asking automakers to place ads in Hearst chain, noting their circulation.

Searching for an occupation, in 1887 he took over management of a newspaper which his father had purchased in 1880, the San Francisco Examiner. Giving his paper a grand motto, "Monarch of the Dailies", he acquired the best equipment and the most talented writers of the time, including Ambrose Bierce, Mark Twain and Jack London. A self-proclaimed populist, Hearst went on to publish stories of municipal and financial corruption, often attacking companies in which his own family held an interest. Within a few years, his paper dominated the San Francisco market.

[edit] New York Morning Journal

In 1895, with the financial support of his mother, he bought the failing New York Morning Journal, hiring writers like Stephen Crane and Julian Hawthorne and entering into a head-to-head circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer, owner and publisher of the New York World, from whom he "stole" Richard F. Outcault, the inventor of color comics, and all of Pulitzer's Sunday staff as well.^[6] Another prominent hire was James J. Montague, who came from the Portland Oregonian and started his well-known "More Truth Than Poetry" column at the Hearst-owned New York Evening Journal.^[7]

Hearst's newspaper was the only major publication in the East to support William Jennings Bryan and Bimetallism in 1896. Subsequently, the price of the Journal (later New York Journal-American) was reduced to one cent; this, coupled with the newspaper's eye-catching headlines and sensational stories on subjects like crime and pseudoscience (a style pejoratively referred to as yellow journalism—see below) allowed the newspaper to attain unprecedented levels of circulation.

Expansion[link]

In part to aid in his political ambitions, Hearst opened newspapers in some other cities, among them Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston. The creation of his Chicago paper was requested by the Democratic National Committee and Hearst used this as an excuse for Phoebe Hearst to transfer him the necessary start-up funds. By the mid-1920s he had a nation-wide string of 28 newspapers, among them the Los Angeles Examiner, the Boston American, the Atlanta Georgian, the Chicago Examiner, the Detroit Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Washington Times, the Washington Herald, and his flagship the San Francisco Examiner.

Hearst also diversified his publishing interests into book publishing and magazines; several of the latter still appear, including such periodicals as Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Town and Country and Harper's Bazaar.

Cartoonist Rogers in 1906 sees the political uses of Oz: he depicts William Randolph Hearst as the Scarecrow stuck in his own Ooze in Harper's Weekly.

In 1924 he opened the New York Daily Mirror, a racy tabloid frankly imitating the New York Daily News. Among his other holdings were two news services, Universal News and International News Service (INS) (which he founded in 1909).^[8] He also owned INS companion radio station WINS in New York); King Features Syndicate; a film company, Cosmopolitan Productions; extensive New York City real estate; and thousands of acres of land in California and Mexico, along with timber and mining interests.

Hearst's father, US Senator George Hearst, had acquired land in the Mexican state of Chihuahua after receiving advance notice that Geronimo – who had terrorized settlers in the region – had surrendered. George Hearst was able to buy 670,000 acres (270,000 ha),^[9] the Babicora Ranch, at 20–40 cents each because only he knew that they had become much more secure.^[10] George Hearst was on friendly terms with Porfirio Díaz, the Mexican dictator, who helped him settle boundary disputes profitably. The ranch was expanded to nearly 1,000,000 acres (400,000 ha) by George Hearst, then by Phoebe Hearst after his death.^[10][11] The younger Hearst was at Babicora as early as 1886, when he wrote to his mother that "I really don't see what is to prevent us from owning all Mexico and running it to suit ourselves."^[9][12] During the Mexican Revolution, his mother's ranch was looted by irregulars under Pancho Villa. Babicora was then occupied by Carranza's forces. Phoebe Hearst willed the ranch to her son in 1919.^[13] Babicora was sold to the Mexican government for $2.5 million in 1953, just two years after Hearst's death.^[14]

Hearst promoted writers and cartoonists despite the lack of any apparent demand for them by his readers. The press critic A. J. Liebling reminds us how many Hearst stars would not be deemed employable elsewhere. One Hearst favorite, George Herriman, was the inventor of the dizzy comic strip Krazy Kat; not especially popular with either readers or editors, it is now considered by many to be a classic, a belief once held only by Hearst himself.

Two months before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, he became one of the sponsors of the first round-the-world voyage in an airship, the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin. His sponsorship was conditional on the trip starting at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, NJ, so the ship's captain, Dr. Hugo Eckener, first flew the Graf across the Atlantic from Germany to pick up Hearst's photographer and at least three Hearst correspondents. One of them, Grace Marguerite Hay Drummond-Hay, by that flight became the first woman to travel around the world by air.^[15]

The Hearst news empire reached a circulation and revenue peak about 1928, but the economic collapse of the Great Depression and the vast over-extension of his empire cost him control of his holdings. It is unlikely that the newspapers ever paid their own way; mining, ranching and forestry provided whatever dividends the Hearst Corporation paid out. When the collapse came, all Hearst properties were hit hard, but none more so than the papers; adding to the burden were the Chief's now-conservative politics, increasingly at odds with those of his readers. Having been refused the right to sell another round of bonds to unsuspecting investors, the shaky empire tottered. Unable to service its existing debts, Hearst Corporation faced a court-mandated reorganization in 1937. From this point, Hearst was just another employee, subject to the directives of an outside manager.^[16] Newspapers and other properties were liquidated, the film company shut down; there was even a well-publicized sale of art and antiquities. While World War II restored circulation and advertising revenues, his great days were over. Hearst died of a heart attack in 1951, aged eighty-eight, in Beverly Hills, California, and is buried at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.

The Hearst Corporation continues to this day as a large, privately held media conglomerate based in New York City.

Involvement in politics[link]

A Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives (1903–1907), he narrowly failed in attempts to become mayor of New York City (1905 and 1909) and governor of New York (1906), nominally remaining a Democrat while also creating the Independence Party. He was defeated for the governorship by Charles Evans Hughes.

His defeat in the New York City mayoral election, in which he ran under a short-lived third party of his own creation (the Municipal Ownership League) is widely attributed to Tammany Hall. Tammany, the dominant Democratic organization in New York City at the time (and a widely corrupt one), was said to have used every dirty trick in the book to derail Hearst's campaign. He also sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1904, but found that his support for William Jennings Bryan in previous years was not reciprocated. The conservative wing of the party was ascendant and nominated Judge Alton B. Parker instead. An opponent of the British Empire, Hearst opposed American involvement in the First World War and attacked the formation of the League of Nations. Hearst's last bid for office came in 1922 when he was backed by Tammany Hall leaders for the U.S. Senate nomination in New York. Al Smith vetoed this, earning the lasting enmity of Hearst. Although Hearst shared Smith's opposition to Prohibition he swung his papers behind Herbert Hoover in the 1928 presidential election. Hearst's support for Franklin D. Roosevelt at the 1932 Democratic National Convention, via his allies William Gibbs McAdoo and John Nance Garner, can also be seen as part of his vendetta against Smith, who was an opponent of Roosevelt's at that convention.

Hearst's reputation triumphed in the 1930s as his political views changed. In 1932, he was a major supporter of Roosevelt. His newspapers energetically supported the New Deal throughout 1933 and 1934. Hearst broke with FDR in spring 1935 when the President vetoed the Patman Bonus Bill. Hearst papers carried the old publisher's rambling, vitriolic, all-capital-letters editorials, but he no longer employed the energetic reporters, editorialists and columnists who might have made a serious attack. His newspaper audience was the same working class that Roosevelt swept by three-to-one margins in the 1936 election. In 1934 after checking with Jewish leaders to make sure the visit would prove of benefit to Jews, Hearst visited Berlin to interview Adolf Hitler. Hitler asked why he was so misunderstood by the American press. "Because Americans believe in democracy," Hearst answered bluntly, "and are averse to dictatorship."^[17]

Personal life[link]

Millicent Hearst

In 1903, Hearst married Millicent Veronica Willson (1882–1974), a 21-year-old chorus girl, in New York City. Evidence in Louis Pizzitola's book Hearst Over Hollywood indicates that Millicent's mother Hannah Willson ran a Tammany-connected and -protected brothel quite near the headquarters of political power in New York City at the turn of the 20th century. Millicent bore him five sons: George Randolph Hearst, born on April 23, 1904; William Randolph Hearst, Jr., born on January 27, 1908; John Randolph Hearst, born in 1910; and twins Randolph Apperson Hearst and David Whitmire (née Elbert Willson) Hearst, born on December 2, 1915.

Marion Davies[link]

Marion Davies

Painting of a landscape with a Huntsmen and Dead Game (Allegory of the Sense of Smell) by Jan Weenix, 1697

Conceding an end to his political hopes, Hearst became involved in an affair with popular film actress and comedienne Marion Davies (1897–1961), and from about 1919, he lived openly with her in California. The affair dominated Davies' life. Millicent separated from her husband in the mid-1920s after tiring of his longtime affair with Davies, but the couple remained legally married until Hearst's death. Millicent built an independent life for herself in New York City as a leading philanthropist, was active in society, and created the Free Milk Fund for the poor in 1921. After the death of Patricia Lake, Davies' supposed niece, it was speculated that Lake was in fact Hearst's daughter by Davies.

California property[link]

Beginning in 1919, Hearst began to build the never-completed Hearst Castle, on a 240,000 acre (97,000 ha) ranch at San Simeon, California, which he furnished with art, antiques and entire rooms brought from the great houses of Europe.

Hearst later paid $120,000 for an H-shaped Beverly Hills mansion in 1947. This home is now perhaps the "most expensive" private home in the U.S., valued at $165 million (£81.4 million). It has 29 bedrooms, three swimming pools, tennis courts, its own cinema and a nightclub. Lawyer and investor Leonard Ross has owned it since 1976. The estate was on sale for $95 million as of the end of 2010.^[18]

The Beverly House, as it has come to be known, has some cinematic connections. It was the setting for the gruesome scene in the film The Godfather depicting a horse's severed head in the bed of film-producer, Jack Woltz. The character was head of a film company called International, the name of Hearst's early film company.^[19] San Simeon was also used in the 1960 film Spartacus as the estate of Marcus Licinius Crassus (played by Laurence Olivier). According to Hearst Over Hollywood, Jack and Jacqueline Kennedy stayed at the house for part of their honeymoon. They watched their first film together as a married couple in the mansion's cinema. It was Hearst-produced film from the 1920s.

Hearst's mother also owned the Hacienda del Pozo de Verona at Pleasanton, California, now demolished. He also had a property on the McCloud River in Siskiyou County, in far northern California, called Wyntoon.^[20] Wyntoon was designed by famed architect Julia Morgan, who also designed Hearst Castle.

Art collection[link]

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St. Donat's Castle[link]

After seeing photographs of St. Donat's Castle in Country Life magazine, the Welsh Vale of Glamorgan property was bought and revitalized by Hearst in 1925 as a love gift to Davies.^[21] The Castle was restored by Hearst who spent a fortune buying entire rooms from castles and palaces in Europe. The Great Hall was bought from the Bradenstoke Priory in Wiltshire and reconstructed brick by brick in its current site at St. Donat's Castle. The road haulage work was carried out by freight brokers Holme & Simpson, later North British Transport Ltd. From the Bradenstoke Priory he also bought and removed the guest house, Prior's lodging, and great tithe barn; of these, some of the materials became the St. Donat's banqueting hall, complete with a sixteenth century French chimney-piece and windows; also used were a fireplace dated to c. 1514 and a fourteenth century roof, which became part of the Bradenstoke Hall, despite this use being questioned in Parliament. Hearst built 34 green and white marble bathrooms for the many guest suites in the castle, and completed a series of terraced gardens which survive intact today. Hearst and Davies spent much of their time entertaining, holding lavish parties, the guests at which included Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Winston Churchill and a young John F. Kennedy. Upon visiting St. Donat's, George Bernard Shaw was quoted as saying: "This is what God would have built if he had had the money." When Hearst died, the castle was bought and is still owned and used by Atlantic College, an international boarding school.

The Family Club[link]

Through the rise of Hearst's yellow journalism, he was blamed by many for the Spanish-American War.^{[citation needed]} His dubious stories were what many believed to be the spark of the fighting. Once a decorated member of the Bohemian Club, Hearst branched off to form his own private club, The Family. The Family keeps a clubhouse in San Francisco and a rural retreat in Woodside, California.

Death and legacy[link]

In 1947, Hearst left his San Simeon estate to seek medical care, which was unavailable in the remote location. He died in Beverly Hills on August 14, 1951, at the age of 88. He was interred in the Hearst family mausoleum at the Cypress Lawn Cemetery in Colma, California. All of his sons followed their father into the media business and his namesake, William Randolph, Jr., became a Pulitzer Prize-winning Hearst newspaper reporter.

Criticism[link]

Yellow journalism[link]

As Martin Lee and Norman Solomon noted in their 1990 book Unreliable Sources, Hearst "routinely invented sensational stories, faked interviews, ran phony pictures and distorted real events." This approach came to be known as yellow journalism, named after the The Yellow Kid, a character in the New York World's color comic strip Hogan's Alley.

Hearst's use of yellow journalism techniques in his New York Journal to whip up popular support for U.S. military adventurism in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines in 1898 was also criticized in Upton Sinclair's 1919 book, The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism. According to Sinclair, Hearst's newspaper employees were "willing by deliberate and shameful lies, made out of whole cloth, to stir nations to enmity and drive them to murderous war." Sinclair also asserted that in the early 20th century Hearst's newspapers lied "remorselessly about radicals," excluded "the word Socialist from their columns" and obeyed "a standing order in all Hearst offices that American Socialism shall never be mentioned favorably." In addition, Sinclair charged that Hearst's "Universal News Bureau" re-wrote the news of the London morning papers in the Hearst office in New York and then fraudulently sent it out to American afternoon newspapers under the by-lines of imaginary names of non-existent "Hearst correspondents" in London, Paris, Venice, Rome, Berlin, etc. Another critic, Ferdinand Lundberg, extended the criticism in Imperial Hearst (1936), charging that Hearst papers accepted payments from abroad to slant the news. After the war, a further critic, George Seldes, repeated the charges in Facts and Fascism (1947).

In fiction[link]

[edit] Citizen Kane

One of the most influential films of all time was Orson Welles' 1941 film Citizen Kane, which was loosely based on parts of Hearst's life (Welles and co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz added bits and pieces from the lives of other rich men of the time, among them Harold McCormick, Samuel Insull and Howard Hughes, into Kane). Hearst used all his resources and influence in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the film's release. Welles and the studio, RKO, resisted the pressure, but Hearst and his Hollywood friends succeeded in getting theater chains to limit bookings of Kane^[22], resulting in mediocre box-office numbers and harming Welles' career.

Nearly sixty years later, HBO offered a fictionalized version of Hearst's efforts in its picture RKO 281. Hearst is portrayed in the film by James Cromwell.

Citizen Kane was twice ranked No.1 on the list of the American Film Institute's 100 greatest films of all time (1998 & 2007). Hearst's own image has largely been shaped by the film; the film paints a dark portrait of Hearst.

Other works[link]

• Hearst is a major character in Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire historic novel series.
• The Cat's Meow is a 2001 drama film inspired by the mysterious death of film mogul Thomas H. Ince. The film takes place aboard publisher William Randolph Hearst's yacht on a weekend cruise celebrating Ince's 42nd birthday in November 1924.
• The character of Gail Wynand in Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead is based on Hearst.
• The novel Goliath by Scott Westerfeld depicts Hearst in the World War I era of an alternate universe.
• In professional wrestling, Triple H was originally packaged as the WWF heel Hunter Hearst Helmsley, a spoiled rich kid from Greenwich, Connecticut whose name invoked the family of publisher William Randolph Hearst and also of Leona Helmsley.
• In the Family Guy episode, "Episode 420", Brian Griffin mentions Hearst, stating that Hearst ran a smear campaign in the 1930s against marijuana because Hearst believed hemp would replace wood as an inexpensive raw material as the manufacture for paper.

See also[link]

• Hearst Ranch
• History of American newspapers
• Santa Maria de Ovila
• St. Bernard de Clairvaux Church
• Josephine Terranova
• The Hacienda (Milpitas Ranchhouse)
• Warwick New York Hotel
• Jan Weenix
• Patricia Hearst

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Carlson, Oliver (2007). Hearst – Lord of San Simeon. READ BOOKS. ISBN 1-4067-6684-4. 
• Davies, Marion (1975). The Times We Had: Life with William Randolph Hearst. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. ISBN 0-672-52112-1. 
• Duffus, Robert L. (September 1922). "The Tragedy Of Hearst". The World's Work: A History of Our Time XLIV: 623–631. http://books.google.com/?id=ZW0AAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA2-PA623. Retrieved August 4, 2009. 
• Frazier, Nancy (2001). William Randolph Hearst: Modern Media Tycoon. Woodbridge, CT: Blackbirch Press. ISBN 1-56711-512-8. 
• Hearst, William Randolph, Jr. (1991). The Hearsts: Father and Son. Niwot, CO: Roberts Rinehart. ISBN 1-879373-04-1. 
• Levkoff, Mary L. (2008). Hearst: The Collector. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc.. ISBN 0-8109-7283-2. 
• Liebling, A.J. (1964). The Press. New York: Pantheon. 
• Lundberg, Ferdinand (1936). Imperial Hearst: A Social Biography. New York: Equinox Corporative Press. 
• Nasaw, David (2000). The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-82759-0. 
• Pizzitola, Louis (2002). Hearst Over Hollywood: Power, Passion, and Propaganda in the Movies. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-11646-2. 
• Procter, Ben H. (1998). William Randolph Hearst: The Early Years, 1863–1910. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511277-6. 
• Procter, Ben H. (2007). William Randolph Hearst: The Later Years, 1911–1951. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/0-19-532534-8|0-19-532534-8]]. 
• Reardon, David (2003). "William Hearst". American History: Post-Civil War to the Present. Worldview Software. http://www.worldviewsoftware.com/. Retrieved September 21, 2007. 
• Robinson, Judith (1991). The Hearsts: An American dynasty. University of Delaware Press. ISBN 0-87413-383-1. 
• St. Johns, Adela Rogers (1969). The Honeycomb. Garden City, NY: Doubleday. 
• Seldes, George (1947). Facts and Fascism. New York: In Fact.
• Swanberg, W.A. (1961). Citizen Hearst. New York: Scribner. 
• Whyte, Kenneth (2009). The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst. Berkeley: Counterpoint. 
• Wilkerson, Marcus M. (1932). Public Opinion and the Spanish-American War: A Study in War Propaganda. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. 
• Winkler, John K. (1955). William Randolph Hearst: A New Appraisal. New York: Hastings House. \

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: William Randolph Hearst

Wikisource has the text of the 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica article Hearst, William Randolph.

• Hearst the Collector at LACMA
• William Randolph Hearst at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• William Randolph Hearst biography, via zpub.com
• Guide to the William Randolph Hearst Papers at The Bancroft Library
• San Simeon, the Hearst Castle
• William Randolph Hearst at the Internet Movie Database
• Original Bureau of Investigation Document Online: William Randolph Hearst
• William Randolph Hearst at Find a Grave
• Genealogy of William Randolph Hearst – Genealogy Wiki
• FBI file on William Randolph Hearst, Sr.
• Booknotes interview with Ben Procter on William Randolph Hearst: The Early Years, 1863-1910, July 19, 1998.

William Randolph (bapt. 7 November 1650–11 April 1711) was a colonist and land owner who played an important role in the history and government of the Commonwealth of Virginia. He moved to Virginia sometime between 1669 and 1673, and married Mary Isham (ca. 1659–29 December 1735) a few years later.^[1] His descendants include several prominent individuals, including Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and Robert E. Lee.^[2] Genealogists have taken an interest in him for his progeny's many marital alliances, referring to him and Mary Isham as "the Adam and Eve of Virginia".

Background[link]

William Randolph was baptized in Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire, England on 7 November 1650, the son of Richard Randolph (21 February 1621–2 May 1678) and Elizabeth Ryland (1625–ca. 1669). Richard Randolph was originally from Houghton Parva, a small village east of Northampton, where his father was a "steward and servant" to Edward la Zouche, 11th Baron Zouche (1556–1625), having previously served in that same capacity to Sir George Goring, a landowner in Sussex.^[3] Elizabeth was the daughter of John Ryland of Warwick. William was the second of seven Randolph children, all born in Moreton Morrell between 1647 and 1657.^[4]

No record has yet surfaced to fix William Randolph's residences after his birth until 1672, when he appeared in Virginia. Although his father's older half-brother, the poet Thomas Randolph, attended Westminster School and Cambridge University, he did so largely on scholarship and there is no record of any other members of William's family having attended either public school or university.^[5] At some point in the late 1650s or 1660s, his parents moved to Dublin, where they both died, his mother around 1669 and his father in 1671, so William may well have spent the bulk of his formative years in Ireland.^[6] It is also known that William's uncle, Henry Randolph (1623-?), in 1669 traveled to Britain from Virginia, to which place he had emigrated around 1642.^[7] Henry probably encouraged his nephew at that time to return with him to the Chesapeake. In any case, William Randolph was in the colony by 12 February 1672 when he appears in the record as witness to a land transaction.^[8]

Early career[link]

The Chesapeake economy was centered around tobacco, grown within the English mercantile system for export to markets in Britain and Europe. Randolph appears to have arrived in the province with little capital and few transatlantic connections. One historian suggests that he started off in the colony as an "undertaker" building houses, but there is no evidence for it.^[9] By 1674 he had acquired enough money to import 12 persons into the colony and thereby earned his first of many land patents (between 1674 and 1697 he imported 72 servants and 69 slaves for which he collected patents for more than 7000 acres). In later years Randolph became a merchant and a planter, and co-owned several ships used to transport tobacco to England and goods back to Virginia. He established several of his sons as merchants and ship captains.

Around 1675 he married Mary Isham (Bermuda Hundred, James River, Henrico County, Virginia, 1660 – Turkey Island, Henrico County, Virginia, 25 December 1735), whose father, Henry Isham (Pytchley, Northamptonshire, c. 1628 – Bermuda Hundred, James River, Henrico County, Virginia, c. 1676), was from a gentry family in Northamptonshire. After arriving in Virginia, Henry had married in 1659 a wealthy widow, Katherina Banks Royall (Canterbury, Kent, c. 1630 – Henrico County, Virginia, aft. 1 December 1686.

Property[link]

Randolph acquired property by purchase, headright, marital interest and land grant. His early acquisitions were in the neighborhood of Turkey Island, located in the James River about 20 miles (32 km) southeast of present-day Richmond.^[10] This land had been settled for decades, and was held by several owners, from whom he purchased. Possibly his first purchase was 591 acres (2.39 km²) of land on Swift Creek, south of the James.^[11]

In 1676 a Virginia colonist, Nathaniel Bacon, rebelled unsuccessfully against the colonial government and his estate was forfeited. This was Curles, located near Turkey Island. Randolph made an assessment of the property for Governor Berkeley and was allowed to buy it for his estimated price, adding 1,230 acres (5.0 km²) to Randolph's previous land holdings.^[12] This conflict of interest was criticized by his neighbors.

In 1678 Mary Isham's brother died, making her the heiress to her father's large estate. William Randolph had married her before her brother's death, because the brother's will refers to her as "Mary Randolph".

Around 1700, when Randolph's political career was at its peak, he received land grants to almost 10,000 acres (40 km²) of newly-opened land near Richmond; a 3,256-acre (13.18 km²) tract at Tuckahoe Creek and a 5,142-acre (20.81 km²) plot at Westham.^[11] This land became the basis of the Tuckahoe and Dungeness Plantations, which were later founded by two of William Randolph's sons.

William Randolph owned a considerable number of slaves. This reflected the rise of slavery during his business career. Around 1675 Governor Berkeley reported the population of the colony as 40,000, with 4,000 indentured servants and 2,000 slaves. But as the supply of indentured servants declined late in the 17th century, the planters turned to slaves for work in the labor-intensive tobacco cultivation.

It is difficult to determine the acreage or number of slaves he owned at his death. His will has been transcribed and a copy appears on the internet, but portions are missing. One estimate is that he had 20,000 acres (81 km²). He paid property taxes on 1,655 acres (6.70 km²) in Surry County and 19,465 acres (78.77 km²) in Henrico County in 1704.

Political and social activities[link]

Randolph held multiple official appointments.^[13] At the local level, he became clerk of Henrico County Court in 1673 and held the position until he was asked to serve as a Justice of the peace in 1683. He also served as sheriff and coroner.^[14]

Randolph represented Henrico County in every assembly of the House of Burgesses from 1684 to 1698, was Speaker of the House of Burgesses in 1698, and was the Clerk of the House from 1699 to 1702.^[14] He fell ill in August 1702 and his son, William, took his place. Randolph resigned the clerkship completely in March 1703.^[15]

Randolph was a founder and one of the first trustees of the College of William and Mary.^[14] His son, John Randolph, secured a royal charter for the College on one of several trips to London to conduct business for the colony.

Randolph was a friend of William Byrd, and he served as an advisor to Byrd’s sons during their political careers.^[16] He is mentioned in one of Byrd's diaries as "Colonel Randolph", his militia title.

Randolph built a mansion on the Turkey Island plantation on high ground overlooking the island and the river. It featured a ribbed dome and was known as the "Bird's Cage".

Descendants[link]

William Randolph had at least nine children^[17] and was familially connected to many other prominent individuals:

• William Randolph II of Wilton (born November 1681) married Elizabeth Beverley (the daughter of Peter Beverley, a Speaker of the House of Burgesses and Treasurer of Virginia) around 1705 and had five children who lived to adulthood.^{[10][17][18][nb 1]} He was the grandfather of Beverley Randolph, the eighth Governor of Virginia.^[17] and Ann Bolling Randolph Fitzhugh.^[20]
• Thomas Randolph of Tuckahoe (born ~June 1683)^[17] married Judith Churchill and/or Judith Fleming between 1705 and 1712.^{[nb 2]} He was the great-grandfather of John Marshall, as well as the great-great-grandfather of Ann Cary (Nancy) Randolph, who married Gouverneur Morris, and her brother Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., who married Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha.
• Isham Randolph of Dungeness (born December 1684)^[17] married Jane Rogers in 1717 and had nine children, including Jane Randolph (who married Peter Jefferson and was the mother of Thomas Jefferson),^[17][20] Mary Randolph (who was the mother of Charles Lilburn Lewis and grandmother of Isham and Lilburn Lewis),^[23] Ann Randolph (who was the mother of James Pleasants, Jr., the 22nd Governor of Virginia),^[17] and Susannah Randolph (who married Carter Henry Harrison I and was the great-grandmother of Carter Henry Harrison III and great-great-grandmother of Carter Henry Harrison IV) – both five-time mayors of Chicago.^[17][24]
• Richard Randolph of Curles Neck (born ~May 1686)^[17] married Jane Bolling, a descendant of Pocahontas, around 1714.^[17] He was the grandfather of the colorful Congressman John Randolph of Roanoke.^{[nb 3]}
• Henry Randolph (born ~October 1687)^[17] did not marry.^[17]
• Sir John Randolph of Tazewell Hall (born ~April 1689)^[17] married Susanna Beverley around 1718.^[17] He studied at the Inns of Court, practiced law in Williamsburg. John was the only native of Colonial America to receive a knighthood. He was the father of Peyton Randolph, President of the First Continental Congress, and John Randolph, a Loyalist. The latter's son, Edmund Randolph, served as a Virginia delegate to the Constitutional Convention and became the first U.S. Attorney General.
• Edward Randolph of Bremo (born ~October 1690)^[17] married Miss (Elizabeth?) Grosvenor around 1715.^[17]
• Mary Randolph (born ~1692)^[17] married Captain John Stith, a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and the son of John Stith, around 1712.^[17][25][26] Her son, William Stith, was the third president of the College of William and Mary;^[17] her son-in-law, William Dawson, was the second president of The College of William & Mary.^[25][27] Mary was the great-grandmother of Congressman William Johnston Dawson.^[25][27] Her second son, John Stith III, was the great-great-grandfather of Armistead C. Gordon and also Junius Daniel, Brigadier General of the Confederate States Army.^[26][28]
• Elizabeth Randolph (born ~1695)^[17] married Richard Bland around 1711 and had five children,^[17][29] including Mary Bland (who married Henry Lee I and was the mother of Henry Lee II, the grandmother Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee III, and the great-grandmother of Robert E. Lee),^[2] Theodorick Bland of Cawsons (who was the father of Congressman Theodorick Bland as well as grandfather to John Randolph of Roanoke),^{[30][nb 3]} and the statesman Richard Bland (who was the great-great-grandfather of Roger Atkinson Pryor).^[29]

Researchers are unsure of the total number of children born to William Randolph and Mary Isham Randolph, because of deaths in infancy and the tendency to name children after their deceased siblings. However, it is known that at least nine children survived into adulthood.^[16] The sons of William Randolph were each distinguished by the estates left to them.^[31]

Early generations of Randolphs married into several other gentry families, including Beverley, Bland, Fleming, Byrd, Fitzhugh, Carter, Cary, Harrison and Page. Later affiliations included members of the Lewis, Meriwether and Skipwith families.

Legacy[link]

In their wealth and social status, the Randolphs were much like other families of the Chesapeake elite. If anything set them apart it was their participation in the political life of the colony, clearly traceable to William Randolph's example. Randolphs and close relatives formed the predominant political faction in the colonial government during the 18th century, with many members of the elected House of Burgesses and the appointed, and more exclusive, Council.

Most of the Randolphs, like the rest of the Virginia gentry, strongly supported the Revolution. However, John Randolph (son of Sir John), in opposition to both his brother Peyton and son Edmund, remained loyal to Great Britain and left Virginia. It was the period of William Randolph's most famous descendants. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, and 18-year-old John Marshall was at Valley Forge for the trying winter of 1777–1778.

Observations[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2010)

Turkey Island derives its name from the first explorers of the James River, who noted that it contained a large population of wild turkeys. The term can refer to the surrounding area as well as the island. William Randolph's residence overlooked Turkey Island, and he is buried near the site of the house.^[16]

Tuckahoe was the Native American name for an edible water plant. It became a pejorative reference for members of elite Tidewater society. It is likely that the cultural term tuckahoe derives from Tuckahoe Plantation, established by William Randolph's son, Thomas. Tuckahoe is the only remaining intact plantation of William's sons.

Dungeness is the headland of a shingle beach in Kent, England, which must be rounded to approach the Thames Estuary. The founder of Dungeness Plantation, Isham Randolph, spent several years of his adult life as a ship's captain, and therefore was familiar with the feature. The name may have been chosen to suggest a turning point in a long voyage. The similar headland at the southwestern top of Cornwall, Land's End, has inspired the names of several enterprises, including two plantations.

The name "Bremo" comes from a Germanic word meaning "edge", in this case the edge of a river. The root also occurs in the English word "brim". The plantation identified with Edward Randolph was near Turkey Island, in Henrico County. The extant Bremo Plantation was established in the early 19th century in Fluvanna County, far to the west. These plantations are shown on the 1751 Fry-Jefferson map.

Notes[link]

1. ^ William Randolph II had seven children. Two of his earliest children, Beverely and William, died very young and their names were given to older children.^[19]
2. ^ Most sources indicate that Thomas Randolph married a woman named either "Judith Churchill" or "Judith Fleming" around 1705 or 1710 and that the couple had three children.^[10][17] Historian William Edward Railey reported that T. Randolph married Churchill in 1710, but that she died in 1712 (possibly during the birth of his oldest son, William).^[21] Railey notes that T. Randolph married his second wife, Fleming, that same year on 16 October 1712.^[21][22]
3. ^ ^{a b} Richard Randolph and Elizabeth Randolph were both ancestors of John Randolph of Roanoke. Richard was his grandfather; Elizabeth was his great-grandmother.

See also[link]

• Ancestry of Thomas Jefferson

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Colonial Wills of Henrico County, Virginia, Part One, 1654–1737, abstracted and compiled by Benjamin B. Weisiger III, p. 90. http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa.states.virginia.counties.henrico/2157/mb.ashx
• Daniels, Johathon Worth. 1972. The Randolphs of Virginia", Doubleday.
• Eckenrode, H.J. 1946. The Randolphs: The story of a Virginia family. New York: The Bobbs Merrill Company.
• Fischer, David Hackett, 1989. "Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America", Oxford University Press, USA.
• Fiske, John, and James Grant Wilson, eds. 1900. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume V: Pickering – Sumter, 174–179. New York: D. Appleton and Company. http://www.archive.org/details/appletonscyclopa05wils.
• Kukla, Jon. 1981. Speakers and clerks of the Virginia House of Burgesses 1643–1776. Richmond, VA: Virginia State Library.
• Malone, Dumas (Ed.). 1963. Dictionary of American biography, volume VIII: Platt-Seward, 371–372. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
• Randolph, Wassell.. William Randolph I of Turkey Island (Henrico County) Virginia and his immediate descendants. Memphis, Tenn.: Seebode Mimeo Service : Distributed by Cossitt Library, 1949.
• Sankey, Margaret D. “Randolph, William (1650–1711), colonist in America.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography August 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

External links[link]

• Portrait of William Randolph: Virginia Historical Society
• Portrait of Mary Isham Randolph: Virginia Historical Society
• Picture of Virginia Historical Marker for Turkey Island
• Photographs from Turkey Island, including excavation of Randolph's mansion
• Genealogy site discussing Randolph's will and property.
• For an accurate view of the life of William Randolph, written and moderated by historians at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, visit William Randolph
• 1751 Fry-Jefferson Map

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Spanish American

David Farragut · Manuel Dominguez · Vicente Martinez Ybor · Rita Lydig · Leo Carrillo · Adele Mara · Rita Hayworth · Bob Martinez · Héctor Elizondo · Martin Sheen · Raquel Welch · Frank Lorenzo · Kenny Ortega · Daisy Fuentes · Mary Joe Fernandez · Lilian Garcia · Julian Casablancas · Jerry Garcia
Total population
Spaniard - 635,253 (2010 Census) [1] White Hispanics (of Spanish ancestry) 26,735,713 (2010 Census)
Regions with significant populations
California, New Mexico, Florida, Texas, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, Western United States
Languages
American English · U.S. Spanish · European Spanish
Religion
Roman Catholic (predominant) · Agnostic or Atheist · Jewish minorities
Related ethnic groups
Spaniards · Basque Americans · Catalan Americans · French Americans · Italian Americans · Portuguese Americans · other European Americans · White Hispanic Americans · Portuguese people

A Spanish American is a citizen or resident of the United States whose ancestors originate from the southwestern European nation of Spain.^[2] Spanish Americans are the earliest European American group, with a continuous presence since 1565.^[3]

Immigration waves[link]

In colonial times there were a number of Spanish populations in the present–day U.S. with governments answerable to Madrid. The first settlement was in St. Augustine, Florida, followed by others in New Mexico, California, Arizona, Texas, and Louisiana. In 1598, San Juan de los Caballeros was established, near present day Santa Fe, New Mexico, by Juan de Oñate and about 1,000 other Spaniards. After the establishment of the American colonies, an additional 250,000 immigrants arrived either directly from Spain, the Canary Islands or, after a relatively short sojourn, from present-day central Mexico. The Canary Islanders settled San Antonio de Bejar, San Antonio, Texas, in 1731.^{[citation needed]} Most of the Spanish settlers in present-day Texas, California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona were of ethnically-mixed ancestry, or mestizo. Most self-identified Spanish-Americans in the Southwest differentiate themselves nominally from the population of Mexican-Americans who came after the Mexican Revolution.^[4][5]

The earliest Spanish settlements in then northern Mexico were the result of the same forces that later led the English to come to North America. Exploration had been fueled in part by imperial hopes for the discovery of wealthy civilizations. In addition, like those aboard the Mayflower, most Spaniards came to the New World seeking land to farm, or occasionally, as historians have recently established, freedom from religious persecution. Some of the new Spanish settlers were descendants of Spanish Jewish converts, while others were descendants of Spanish Muslim converts.

Basques stood out in the exploration of the Americas, both as soldiers and members of the crews that sailed for the Spanish.^[6] Prominent in the civil service and colonial administration, they were accustomed to overseas travel and residence. Another reason for their emigration besides the restrictive inheritance laws in the Basque Country, was the devastation from the Napoleonic Wars in the first half of the nineteenth century, which was followed by defeats in the two Carlist civil wars. (For more information about the Basque, and immigrants to the United States from this region, please see the article Basque Americans).

Immigration to the United States from Spain was minimal but steady during the first half of the nineteenth century, with an increase during the 1850s and 1860s resulting from the social disruption of the Carlist civil wars. Much larger numbers of Spanish immigrants entered the country in the first quarter of the twentieth century—27,000 in the first decade and 68,000 in the second—due to the same circumstances of rural poverty and urban congestion that led other Europeans to emigrate in that period, as well as unpopular wars.The Spanish presence in the United States declined sharply between 1930 and 1940 from a total of 110,000 to 85,000. Many immigrants moved either back to Spain or to another country.

Beginning with the Fascist revolt against the Second Spanish Republic in 1936 and the devastating civil war that ensued, General Francisco Franco established a reactionary dictatorship for 40 years. At the time of the Fascist takeover, a small but prominent group of liberal intellectuals fled to the United States. After the civil war the country endured 20 years of Autarky, as Fanco believed that post World War II Spain could survive or continue its activities without any European assistance. As a result, in the mid-1960s, 44,000 Spaniards immigrated to the United States. In the 1970s, when Franco abandon Spain's autarkic economic system, prosperity began to emerged in Spain, and Spanish immigration to the United States declined to about 3,000 per year. In the 1980s, as Europe enjoyed an economic boom, Spanish immigrants to the United States dropped to only 15,000. The 1990 U.S. census recorded 76,000 foreign-born Spaniards in the country, representing only four-tenths of a percent of the total populace.

Much as with French Americans, who are of French descent but mostly by way of Canada, the majority of the 24 million strong Spanish American population have come by way of Latin America, especially Mexico, but also Puerto Rico, Cuba, and other areas. Some are descendants of colonial settlers in the southwestern states, especially New Mexico, before they became part of the United States. They are today the largest Latin group in the United States, followed by Italian Americans (18 million) and French Americans (12 million).

People born in Spain[link]

Assimilation in the United States[link]

Spanish Americans are readily accepted into American society.^[9] The Spanish work ethic is compatible with the values of both pre– and post–industrial Europe. Leisure time is used to maintain essential social contacts and is identified with upward social movement.

Stereotypes of Spanish immigrants derive in part from legends created and spread by the English in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when the two countries were rivals for European and world domination. Revulsion is expressed at the alleged cruelty of bull fighting, a practice that is believed by supporters to exalt individual worth through the demonstration of almost chivalric courage. Other stereotypical images, including exaggerated ideas of wild emotional intensity, create the misperception of Spain as the land of the tambourine and castanets, fiery flamenco dancing, and the reckless sensualism of Bizet's opera heroine, Carmen. Most of these elements are only connected, and in a much attenuated degree, with the southern region, Andalusia. As in matters of religion, northern Spaniards often view the character of life in their own regions as profoundly different.

Spanish language in the United States[link]

Spanish language spread across the United States.

Spanish was the first European language spoken in North America. It was brought to the territory of what is the contemporary U.S. in 1513 by Juan Ponce de León. In 1565, the Spaniards founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest, continuously occupied European settlement in the modern U.S. territory.^[3]

Like other descendants of immigrants, Spaniards have adopted English as their primary language.^[10]

Influence[link]

Culture[link]

See: Hispanic Heritage Sites (U.S. National Park Service)

Many Spanish Americans still retain aspects of their culture. This includes Spanish food, drink, art, annual fiestas.^{[citation needed]} Spaniards have contributed to a vast number of areas in the United States. The influence of Spanish cuisine is seen in the cuisine of the United States throughout the country.

Cowboy[link]

See: Spanish Cowboy and Cowgirl

The cowboy has deep historic roots tracing back to Spain and the earliest settlers of the Americas through the New World tradition of the vaquero. The Spanish originated what we now consider the cowboy tradition, beginning with the hacienda system of medieval Spain. This style of cattle ranching spread throughout much of the Iberian peninsula and later, was imported to the Americas, specifically Mexico. The need to cover distances greater than a person on foot could manage gave rise to the development of the horseback-mounted vaquero.