Ann Cary Randolph Morris

Ann Cary Randolph Morris (1774-1837), born on Tuckahoe Plantation near Richmond, was the eighth child of Ann Cary and Thomas Mann Randolph (Sr.). From childhood Ann was close to her cousin, Martha Jefferson Randolph, and the two women corresponded intermittently throughout their lives.

Following her mother's death in March 1789 and her father's subsequent remarriage in September 1790, Ann took up residence with her sister Judith and family at Bizarre, near Farmville, Virginia. In April 1793, Judith's husband Richard was accused of "feloniously murdering a child said to be borne of Nancy [Ann] Randolph."^[1] Defended by Patrick Henry and John Marshall, he was acquitted of the crime.

Ann remained at Bizarre after her brother-in-law's death in 1796, but was asked to leave in 1805. She returned to Tuckahoe briefly, stayed with friends in the vicinity, visited for extended periods at Monticello, where her brother, Thomas Mann Randolph (Jr.) and her now sister-in-law Martha Jefferson Randolph lived, and then moved on to Richmond. Ann found it difficult to live there on her limited means, however, so she traveled north to Rhode Island and then to Connecticut in hopes of improving her circumstances.

Finally, having agreed to work as housekeeper for Gouverneur Morris, whom she had met in 1788, Ann settled at Morrisania in New York in April 1809. In December of that year the two were married and their son Gouverneur Morris, Jr., was born in 1813. Ann's husband died in 1816 and she remained at Morrisania, looking after the welfare of their son, until her own death.

Further Sources

• Anderson, Jefferson Randolph. "Tuckahoe and the Tuckahoe Randolphs." Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 45, no. 1 (1937): 55-86.
• Bentley, Barbara. Mistress Nancy. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1980. A fictional treatment of Ann's years at Morrisania.
• Crawford, Alan Pell. Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman – and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth-Century America. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
• Doyle, Christopher L. "The Randolph Scandal in Early National Virginia, 1792-1815: New Voices in the 'Court of Honour.'" Journal of Southern History 69, no. 2 (2003): 283-318.
• Kierner, Cynthia A. Scandal at Bizarre: Rumor and Reputation in Jefferson's America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
• Nancy Randolph Papers, 1805-1962. Special Collections Research Center, Earl Gregg Swem Library, College of William and Mary.
• Walz, Jay and Audrey Walz. The Bizarre Sisters. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pierce, 1950. A fictional account of the "Bizarre Scandal."