“My interest, under the will of Mrs. Judith Randolph, I desire my executor to sell if he shall see fit, but not otherwise.
“The land above the Owen’s ferry road and the lower quarter, and the land I bought of the Reads, to be sold at my said executor’s discretion, and whatever m[cut out in the original]y debts I give and bequeath to Francis Scott Key and the Rev. Wm. Meade, to be disposed of towards bettering the condition of my manumitted slaves.
“I have not included my mother’s descendants in my will, because her husband, besides the whole profits of my father’s estate during the minority of my brother and myself, has contrived to get to himself the slaves given by my grandfather Bland, as her marriage portion when my father married her, which slaves were inventoried at my father’s death as part of his estate, and were as much his as any that he had. One-half of them, now scattered from Maryland to Mississippi, were entitled to freedom at my brother Richard’s death, as the other would have been at mine.
“Witness my hand and seal.”
The name [cut out in the original].
(Seal.)
“In the presence of
“Richard Randolph, Jr.”
“Codicil to this my will, made the 5th day of December, 1821. I revoke the bequest to T. B. Dudley, and bequeath the same to my executor, to whom also I give in fee simple all my lots and houses in Farmville, and every other species of property whatever that I die possessed of, saving the aforesaid specifications in my will.”
[The name cut out of the original.]
“Amelia County.
“The reason of the above revocation I have communicated to Wm. J. Barksdale, Esq.”
The codicil of 1826.
“In the name of God, Amen. I, John Randolph, of Roanoke, being of sound mind and memory, but of infirm health, do ordain this codicil to my last will and testament, now in the possession of Wm. Leigh, Esquire, of Halifax county, Virginia, executor thereof, which said appointment I do hereby confirm, with all the bequests made to him therein, and bequests to or for the benefit of all, each and every of my slaves, whether by name or otherwise, and all bequests to him and them which may be contained in my codicil to my last will. I make the same provision for my body servant John that I made in my will for his father Essex, and the same provision for the said John’s wife Betsy that I made for Hetty, the wife of Essex aforesaid, and similar provision for my man servant Juba, and his wife Celia, and the same for mulatto Nancy at the Lower Quarter, Archer’s wife. And I humbly request the General Assembly (the only request that I ever preferred to them) to let the above named, and such other of my old and faithful slaves as desire it, to remain in Virginia, recommending them, each and all, to the care of my said ex’or, who I know is too wise, just and humane, to send them to Liberia, or any other place in Africa, or the West Indies.