Mary Randolph, the first recorded person buried in Arlington Cemetery was born in 1762 in Chesterfield County, Virginia, just south of Richmond. Randolph’s family tree is quite extraordinary. Her ancestors include the famed Native American princess Pocahontas and her husband Jamestown settler John Rolfe. She was a cousin of George Washington Parke Custis and his wife, and godmother to their daughter Mary Anna Randolph Custis who married Robert E. Lee. Randolph married her first cousin, David Meade Randolph, who was an officer in the Revolutionary War. He was appointed United…
