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Source: Frances Bland Randolph Chapter, NSDAR, Home Page

Frances Bland Randolph Tucker (1752-1788)
John Randolph Medical Center stands today on the site of Cawson's overlooking the mouth of Appomattox River in Hopewell, Virginia. There is no longer any trace of the home of Theodorick and Frances (Bolling) Bland, where their daughter Frances spent her childhood.

Frances Bland was a sixteen-year-old beauty in 1769, when she married John Randolph, eleven years her senior. They lived at Matoax, his plantation in Chesterfield County, which encompassed over a thousand acres on Appomattox River. Their marriage lasted only six years, for John Randolph died in October 1775, leaving his young widow with three small sons and a life right in Matoax, as well as the management of Bizarre, his plantation in Prince Edward County. She was thereby obliged to manage two large plantations, distant from one another, during the first years of the American Revolution. She did well, exhibiting prudence, diligence, competence and honor.

None of John and Frances Randolph's sons left children. The two elder sons, Richard and Theodorick, died in their twenties. The youngest son, famous "John Randolph of Roanoke," lived for almost sixty years, mesmerizing and exasperating fellow members of the United States Congress with his eloquent oratory, and shocking many with his vitriolic verbal attacks on his enemies, and his involvement in a caning and a duel!

Frances Bland Randolph was only twenty-three when John Randolph died, and two years later a chance encounter in Williamsburg, Virginia, with a young lawyer from Bermuda changed her life dramatically. By his own account, St. George Tucker had vowed never to marry a widow, but just one look at the beautiful face of Frances Randolph in Bruton Parish Church melted his resolve! He pursued her in the most elegant and romantic style imaginable by a well educated and gently bred young eighteenth century gentleman. Their letters attest to her hesitation and his ardor, her care for the well-being of her children and Tucker's corresponding assurances. While her extensive properties and material assets added to her desirability, there is no doubt from their letters, both before and after their marriage in 1778, that they cared deeply for each other.

St. George Tucker married without the wholehearted approval of his parents in Bermuda. They apparently did not object to Frances Randolph, but rather to his marrying and staying in Virginia, when they had expected he would return to Bermuda. He did not inform them of his marriage until after it had taken place. In 1780 he commissioned John Durand to paint both his and his wife's portraits, which he sent to Bermuda, hoping no doubt that Frances's obvious beauty and elegance would soften the blow of his absence.

Although born in Bermuda, St. George Tucker threw himself wholeheartedly into support of the American Revolution. His military service required frequent absences from home soon after their marriage. During the war, he rose to the rank of Colonel and was injured in 1781. Their correspondence during that period bemoaned their mutual loneliness. Frances remarked once that she had difficulty getting letters to him because most of her neighbors did not understand the intensity of their attachment and so they did not think to inform her when they were going to see him. During her husband's absences, Frances continued to manage both Matoax and Bizarre effectively.

Frances and St. George Tucker had five children: Anne Frances Bland Tucker, Henry St. George Tucker, Theodorick Tudor Tucker, Nathaniel Beverly Tucker, and Henrietta Eliza Tucker. Anne married Judge John Coalter and died in 1813. Henry St. George and Nathaniel Beverly both distinguished themselves as jurists and Professors of Law. Theodorick died when he was only twelve, and Henrietta Eliza, when she was eight. Had Frances Tucker lived long enough, she could have been justly proud to have two sons serve in the U. S. Congress. Henry St. George Tucker was elected to Congress in 1815 and served two terms. John Randolph of Roanoke served in the Congress from 1799-1813, from 1815-1817, from 1819-1825, and as a U. S. Senator from 1824-1827.

After the Revolutionary War, St. George Tucker busied himself establishing his law practice in Richmond. Once again, he was often absent from Matoax, and Frances was kept busy managing children and plantations. Their letters continued to provide solace and express mutual affection. In April 1787 he wrote to Frances, whom he called Fanny, that Richmond was the "dullest place in the universe," because he saw no one but lawyers and judges. She wrote of her daily routine and the children's activities and scholastic progress. Her health declined during the latter years of their marriage, and her death in January 1788 followed the birth of her last child by only a month. She was buried at the Randolph plantation, Matoax, beside her first husband, John Randolph.

St. George Tucker moved to Williamsburg with the children shortly after the death of his wife, and in 1791 he married Lelia, widow of George Carter and daughter of Sir Peyton Skipwith.

References:

Churchill Gibson Chamberlayne, The Vestry Book and Register of Bristol Parish, Virginia, 1720-1789 (Greenville, SC, 1994)
H. J. Eckenrode, The Randolphs The Story of a Virginia Family (New York, 1946)
Rev. Philip Slaughter, D. D., A History of Bristol Parish, Va... (Greenville, SC, 1994)
Lyon Gardiner Tyler, LL. D., Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, vol. II (Baltimore, 1998) 34, 63-64, 202
Claudia Lamm Wood, "With Unalterable Tenderness": The Courtship and Marriage of St. George Tucker and Frances Randolph Tucker, Master's Thesis, Department of History, College of William and Mary (1988)
Letters of Frances Tucker and St. George Tucker, St. George Tucker Papers, Tucker-Coleman Collection, Earl Greg Swem Library, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
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Grave Site of Frances Bland Randolph Tucker
The grave of Frances Bland Randolph Tucker is located in the Randolph family cemetery at Matoax, the farm where she lived with her first husband, John Randolph. She was buried beside him there. As a young widow with small children, she married St. George Tucker and continued to live at Matoax with him. So it was only natural that she be buried there in the family cemetery when she died at the early age of thirty-five.
The cemetery is on the Randolph Farm property of Virginia State University, so it belongs to the Commonwealth of Virginia. The staff at VSU have been very cooperative in mowing the site periodically and building a foot bridge across a ravine to allow access to the grave site. The cemetery has gradually fallen into a sad state of disrepair. The metal fencing has begun to fall away from its concrete footings and the monument of Frances Bland Randolph Tucker is badly cracked and in desperate need of repair
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The Family of Frances Bland Randolph Tucker

Theodrick Bland married c1738 Frances, daughter of Drury Bolling. He was born c1702 at Jordan's, the son of Theodrick and Anne Bennet Bland. Their children were:
Elizabeth Bland born 4 January 1739
Theodrick Bland born 21 March 1741/2
Mary Bland born 22 August 1745
Ann Bland born 5 September 1747
Jane Bland born 30 September 1749
Frances Bland born 24 September 1752

Frances Bland married at her family home, Cawson's on Appomattox River (1) 9 March 1769, John Randolph. He was the youngest son of Richard Randolph of Curles on James River. He died 28 October 1775 at age thirty-four and is buried at Matoax. Their children were:
Richard Randolph, born 9 March 1770, died 14 June 1796
Theodrick Randolph, born 22 January 1771, died 14 February 1792
John Randolph "of Roanoke," born 2 June 1773, died 24 May 1833
Jane Randolph, born 10 November 1774, died 26 November 1774

Frances Bland Randolph married (2) 23 September 1778, St. George Tucker. He was born 29 June 1752 in Port Royal, Bermuda, and died in 1827. He served as a Colonel in the American Revolution and afterward as a law professor at the College of William and Mary, a U.S. District Court Judge, and was a respected legal scholar. Their children were:
Anne Frances Bland Tucker born 20 September 1779
Henry St. George Tucker, born 29 December 1780
Theodrick Tudor Tucker, born 19 September 1782
Nathaniel Beverly Tucker, born 6 September 1784
Henrietta Eliza Tucker, born 10 December 1787

References

Churchill Gibson Chamberlayne, The Vestry Book and Register of Bristol Parish, Virginia, 1720-1789 (Greenville, SC, 1994) 288, 291, 292.
Rev. Philip Slaughter, D.D., A History of Bristol Parish, Va. (Greenville, SC, 1994) 108-115, 155-160
Janet Coleman Kimbrough, A brief Outline of the Tucker Family (Williamsburg, 1977) 4
Claudia Lamm Wood, "With Unalterable Tenderness": The Courtship and Marriage of St. George Tucker and Frances Randolph Tucker, Master's Thesis, Department of History, College of William and Mary (1988) 41
Lyon G. Tyler, ed., "The Prayer Book of Frances Bland, the Mother of John Randolph, of Roanoke," William and Mary Quarterly, Series 1, vol. 17 (1908-9) 267-268

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---------------------------The Story of the Portrait
The following story has been handed down through the family along with the painting.

This portrait of Frances, then the wife of St. George Tucker of Williamsburg, Virginia, was painted in 1780 by John Durand. He also painted her husband's portrait at that time. Both portraits were sent by ship to his parents in Bermuda. In this way he was able to show them his beautiful bride. John Durand painted other portraits in Colonial Virginia, including those of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, but Frances Bland Randolph Tucker was surely his most beautiful subject.

After Frances Tucker died in 1788, her portrait was sent to her son, John Randolph of Roanoke. He never married, but his sister, Anne Tucker, married Judge John Coalter. Their daughter, Elizabeth Coalter, was her Uncle John's special favorite. In 1830 when she became engaged to be married to John Randolph Bryan, the son of John Randolph's good friend, Joseph Bryan, John Randolph gave the portrait to Elizabeth as a wedding present.

Before the marriage, however, the portrait was sent to Washington to be copied by an artist whose name is now remembered as Wood. He went bankrupt while the portrait was in his possession, and his shop with all its contents, including the portrait, was put under lock and key. Elizabeth Coalter was, of course, beside herself to think that her grandmother's portrait was lost to her! So her fiancé, who was in Washington then, resolved to rescue the painting. It is said that he broke into the artist's shop in the dark of night, retrieved the painting, and triumphantly presented it to his lady on the eve of their wedding!

The portrait was subsequently restored by the late Stephen S. Pichetto, who had done restoration work for the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the National Gallery in Washington. This photograph is displayed through the kind permission of the owner and with assistance from the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.