Catherine Fairchild Randall

According to subsequent resources, Catherine Fairchild was born about 1761. She more likely was the sister or other relation of Albany resident Jesse Fairchild.

She married John Randall. A wedding ring was engraved with their initials and the date 1780. Their family is said to have been quite large (perhaps eleven children). Beginning, in 1786, several of the children were christened at the Albany Presbyterian church.

These Randalls lived in the North End of Albany in the area known as Watervliet and probably along Market Street where later city directories fixed their residence at 107 North Market Street.

An unlocated painting of her and a daughter dated about is said to have been painted by Ezra Ames and commissioned by her son, the noted surveyor John Randel, Jr..

During the 1810s and after, the parents visited with their children at their distant homes across New York and in New Jersey. Her son's biographer also shows us some of the correspondence Catherine maintained with her dear children and grandchildren.

John Randall Sr. died in 1823. Although they had spread out across the region, Catherine then may have lived with one of her grown children as her name dropped from the Albany-area, community-based record.

On August 18, 1836, the Albany newspaper noted simply that "Catherine, widow of John Randel died" at the age of seventy-five.

Sources: The life of Catherine Fairchild Randall has not been assigned a CAP biography number. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.