Description
Peyton Randolph, attorney general of the Virginia colony, speaker of the House of Burgesses, and chairman of the First and Second Continental Congress, sits for a portrait by English-born artist John Wollaston. Although Silas Deane, a Connecticut delegate to the Continental Congress, made note of Randolphs majestic deportment, and noble appearance, Randolphs cousin Thomas Jefferson had a less sanguine opinion. He was indeed a most excellent man, Jefferson said, but he was heavy and inert in body … [and] rather too indolent and careless for business.
