He attended the College of William & Mary and later studied law at Middle Temple at the Inns of Court in London, becoming a member of the bar in 1743.

[6] A lifelong resident of Williamsburg, the colony's capital, Randolph was to follow in the footsteps of his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, all of whom served as speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses.

Governor Robert Dinwiddie had imposed a fee for the certification of land patents, which the House of Burgesses strongly objected to.

Randolph left for London, over the objections of Governor Dinwiddie, and was replaced for a short time as attorney general by George Wythe.

Randolph resumed his post on his return at the behest of Wythe as well as officials in London, who also recommended the governor drop the new fee.

Sitting as the General Court, they also appointed Randolph one of the executors (along with Wythe and Edmund Pendleton) of the former speaker's estate, which was a major financial scandal.

Randolph chaired meetings of the first of five Virginia Conventions of former House members, principally at a Williamsburg tavern, which worked toward responses to the unwelcome tax measures imposed by the British government.

Randolph also served as the president of the Third Virginia Convention in July 1775, which as a legislative body elected a committee of safety to act as the colony's executive since Lord Dunmore had abandoned the capital and took refuge on a British warship.

Randolph returned as a Virginia delegate but suffered a five-hour-long fit of apoplexy and died while dining with Thomas Jefferson in Philadelphia on October 22, 1775.

[10] As the Continental Congress had assumed governmental duties for the colonies as a whole, such as appointing ambassadors, some consider Randolph to have been the first President of the United States, even though he died in 1775.