Mary's father was orphaned at a young age and raised by Thomas Jefferson's parents who were distant cousins.

[4] One sister, Virginia Randolph Cary, was a noted essayist[6] and another, Harriet, married Richard Shippey Hackley who became US Consul and they lived in Cadiz, Spain.

[4] The newlyweds lived at Presquile, a 750-acre plantation that was part of the Randolph family's extensive property in Chesterfield County, Virginia.

Marshal of Virginia[4] and by 1798, the family had moved to Richmond, where they built a house called "Moldavia" (a combination of Molly, a nickname for Mary, and David).

[3] In March 1808, an advertisement appeared in The Richmond Virginia Gazette: "Mrs. RANDOLPH Has established a Boarding House in Cary Street, for the accommodation of Ladies and Gentlemen.

The space between the two was packed with powdered charcoal and the refrigerator was filled with ice daily to cool butter, meat and other foods.

Years later an author claimed (falsely) that Randolph invented the refrigerator and that her design was stolen and patented by a Yankee who stayed in her boardinghouse.

[11] Randolph's influential housekeeping book The Virginia House-Wife was first published in 1824 and it was republished at least nineteen times before the outbreak of the Civil War.

[4] The book was 225 pages long, included nearly 500 recipes,[16] and resulted from Randolph's "practical experience as keeper of a large establishment, and perhaps in the hope of further augmenting the family income.

[4] The Virginia House-Wife was an overall household guide and in addition to recipes it also explained how to make soap, starch, blacking and cologne.