The Person:
From Wikipedia entry on Edmund Randolph:
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"Edmund Jennings Randolph (August 10, 1753 – September 12, 1813) was an American attorney and politician. He was the seventh Governor of Virginia, the second Secretary of State, and the first United States Attorney General.
Randolph was born on August 10, 1753 to the influential Randolph family in Williamsburg in the Colony of Virginia. He was educated at the College of William and Mary. After graduation he began reading law with his father John Randolph and uncle, Peyton Randolph. In 1775, with the start of the American Revolution, Randolph's father remained a Loyalist and returned to Britain; Edmund Randolph remained in America where he joined the Continental Army as an aide-de-camp to General George Washington.
Upon the death of his uncle Peyton Randolph in October 1775, Randolph returned to Virginia to act as executor of the estate, and while there was elected as a representative to the Fourth Virginia Convention. He would go on to serve as mayor of Williamsburg, and then as the first Attorney General of the United States under the newly formed government. He was married on August 29, 1776 to Elizabeth Nicholas (daughter of Robert C. Nicholas), and had a total of six children, including Peyton Randolph, Governor of Virginia from 1811 to 1812.
After leaving the federal cabinet Randolph returned to Virginia to practice law. His most famous case was defending Aaron Burr at his trial for treason in 1807.
Randolph lived his final years as a guest of his friend Nathaniel Burwell at Carter Hall, near Millwood, Virginia, in Clarke County. He suffered from paralysis in his final years and died, aged 60, on September 12, 1813. He is buried nearby at the Burwell family cemetery adjacent to "Old Chapel".
Randolph County, West Virginia was formed in 1787 and named in Governor Randolph's honor.
Randolph County, Illinois was as well, because Randolph was Virginia's governor at the time it ceded what was then sometimes called Illinois County, Virginia (a title disputed by Pennsylvania, among others) to the new federal Government, which created the Northwest Territory. That Randolph county's motto is "where Illinois began," because it was among the first two settled counties in that territory, and contains Kaskaskia, which was first seat of Illinois County, later became the Illinois territory's capital and ultimately the state's first capital."
The Place:
From the Wikipedia page for Randolph County, Ilinois:
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"Randolph County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it had a population of 33,476. Its county seat is Chester.
Owing to its role in the state's history, the county motto is "Where Illinois Began." It contains the historically important village of Kaskaskia, Illinois's first capital.
The county is part of Southern Illinois in the southern portion of the state known locally as "Little Egypt", and includes fertile river flats, part of the American Bottom; it is near the Greater St. Louis area.
Randolph County was organized in 1795 out of a part of St. Clair County. It was named in honor of Edmund Randolph, Governor of Virginia. George Rogers Clark of the army of Virginia captured the area from the British on July 4, 1778, near the end of the Revolutionary War. The area then became the seat, for several years, of Illinois County, Virginia, although the Congress of the Confederation legislated the existence of the Northwest Territory on July 13, 1787. Edmund Randolph was Governor of Virginia at the time Virginia ceded the Northwest Territory to the United States. In 1809, when Illinois became a separate territory, Territorial Secretary Nathaniel Pope, in his capacity as acting governor, issued a proclamation establishing Randoloph as one of the Illinois' two original counties. The county's boundaries were last changed in 1827, when land was taken to form Perry County.
The Mississippi River has played a prominent role in the county's history, altering its boundaries in 1881 when it severed the isthmus that connected Kaskaskia to the Illinois mainland, destroying the original village of Kaskaskia and forcing its historic cemetery to be relocated across the river to Fort Kaskaskia. Crains Island, southeast of Chester, is another enclave of Illinois west of the Mississippi that was created by a change in the river's course."
The Courthouse:
From the Lucas County Courthouse Wikipedia page:
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"The Randolph County Courthouse is a government building in central Chester, the county seat of Randolph County, Illinois, United States. Built in 1972, it is the latest of several buildings to serve as the seat of government in Illinois' oldest county, and the second erected in Chester after the relocation of county government from Kaskaskia in 1847 after a devastating flood.
The 1850 courthouse lasted well over a century, but it was replaced with the current structure in 1972. A modernist structure with large areas of exterior concrete, its main entrance is situated in a recess at the center of the facade, atop a flight of steps. Above the entrance, a panelled wall features the words "Randolph County Court House" and the county seal. Because the building is set into a river bluff, an observation deck was constructed at the rear to overlook the river, and the interior is five stories tall. A grand spiral staircase, set above a fountain, connects the floors."