Anne Willis

Museum educator Anne Willis tells the story of their children's unlikely marriage.June 09, 2008
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Museum educator Anne Willis is here with the story of the feuding houses of Randolph and Nicholas , a feud that could have prevented their children, Edmund Randolph and Elizabeth Nicholas, from getting married.
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Anne Willis: Not quite, or the tragedy, in a sense.
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Anne: They had 31 years of marriage together.From the letter he wrote after her death, it seemed that it was a very happy marriage.They had at least six children together.He went on to be a most important member of the new government , both in Virginia and in the federal government , while she supported him through those years as a public servant.
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Anne: Exactly, exactly.
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Anne: Well, I think there were really two reasons.The Randolph family was known for their liberal thinking, especially in terms of religion, and government, too.
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Anne: That's right.He is a very interesting person to look at.
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Anne: Left his son behind, apparently from the records, you can infer that the son wanted to be left behind.He was very much in support of the revolutionary fervor that was developing in Virginia and throughout the colonies.

When his family left for England, he was in Philadelphia trying to make his way into George Washington's presence, and actually got appointments from Washington to be his aide de camp and also the master musterer of the regiment.He was making his political choice to support the Revolution while his father, mother and sisters were crossing the Atlantic to go, in quotes, back home.
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Anne: That is very interesting to think about.
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Anne: Exactly.
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Anne: You're exactly right, because the most interesting break, politically, between the Randolphs , or I should say, Peyton Randolph and Robert Carter Nicholas , was over the Robinson affair.
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Anne: Oh you're right, you're right.So what happens is that really, the acting governor at that time, Governor Fauquier, had been ordered by the king to dissolve the position of speaker of the house and treasurer of the colony.So he had not been able to do that because Robinson was such a popular figure.But at his death, and with this scandal erupting, Fauquier decides that he must divide the office of speaker and treasurer.
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Anne: Especially at that time.
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Anne: Yes, and I think there are two things that happened.Actually three things.
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Anne: You're right.

Museum educator Anne Willis tells the story of their children's unlikely marriage.June 09, 2008

Museum educator Anne Willis tells the story of their children's unlikely marriage.http://www.history.org/media/podcasts.cfm Mon, 09 Jun 2008 08:00:00 EST

Museum educator Anne Willis tells the story of their children's unlikely marriage.

The past was a foreign country , said Anne Willis , museum educator at Colonial Williamsburg.They did things differently then.It's like us going to Antarctica.Everything is different..

But the audience learned it's important to talk about slavery to better understand history , what Colonial Americans lived through and the effects those times have on people today.

"The past was a foreign country," said Anne Willis, museum educator at Colonial Williamsburg.