Presidential Cabinet Secretary, Virginia Governor. Edmund was born at Tazewell Hall in the colonial town of Williamsburg, Virginia to the prominent Randolph family and went to William and Mary College there. After graduation he studied law under his father, John Randolph, and uncle, Peyton Randolph. At the start of the Revolutionary War, his father, a loyalist, returned to England while Edmund joined the Continental Army as aide-de-camp to George Washington. In October 1775, Edmund would return to Williamsburg to act as executor of his uncle's estate and was elected as a representative to the Virginia Convention while attending to those duties. He soon became Mayor of Williamsburg and then the State of Virginia's first Attorney General. From 1779 through 1782, he was a delegate to the Continental Congress and at the same time ran a private law practice where he handled legal issues for George Washington and others. In 1786, Edmund was elected the 7th Governor of Virginia and in 1787, he proposed the Virginia Plan as a blueprint for a new national government. As a member of the "committee on detail", they were to adapt the Virginia Plan into the first draft of the U.S. Constitution. Upon its completion, he refused to sign the document as he felt it lacked sufficient checks and balances. In October 1787, he published an account of his objections but never-the-less urged its ratification in 1788. In September 1789, Edmund became the first U.S. Attorney General and in 1793, he succeeded Thomas Jefferson when he resigned as Secretary of State. In August of 1795, Edmund was urged to resign by President Washington due to allegations from the British that he was prone to bribery. The allegations were later proven false but the stigma would follow him for years. He returned to Virginia to continue his law practice and in 1807, he defended Aaron Burr against treason charges. In September of 1813, he died while visiting his friend Nathaniel Burwell of Carter Hall near Millwood, Virginia.