The sign accompanying the grave of Mary
Randolph. It reads
Mary Randolph, wife of David Meade Randolph, and first person known to be
buried at Arlington, was the eldest child of Thomas Mann and Ann Cary Randolph,
of Tuckahoe. Her maternal grandfather was Archibald Cary, of Ampthill; her
paternal grandfather was William Randolph, of Tuckahoe. She was a direct
descendant of Pocahontas; a cousin of Thomas Jefferson; of Mary Lee Fitzhugh
Custis, wife of George Washington Parke Custis, the builder of Arlington House;
and of Robert E. Lee. Her brother, Thomas Mann Randolph, governor of Virginia
1819-1821, married Martha Jefferson, daughter of Thomas Jefferson. Her eldest
son was William Beverley Randolph, through whom alone her line was descended.
Her youngest son, Burwell Starke Randolph, when a midshipman in the U.S. Navy,
fell from a mast and was crippled. Her devoted care of that injured son is
said to have hastened her death, and would seem to explain her epitaph.
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