He was born in
Canterbury, the son of Edmund Randolph M.D. and his wife Deborah Master. The merchant
Bernard Randolph was his younger brother. He was admitted to
Gray's Inn in 1650, and matriculated at
Queens' College, Cambridge in 1651. It is not recorded that he was
called to the bar, or received a degree. Mason was grandson of
John Mason, and the heirs of
Ferdinando Gorges, in the provinces of New Hampshire and Maine. Earning Randolph the reputation of "evil genius of New England and her angel of death", his reports to the Lords of Trade (predecessors to the 18th century
Board of Trade) convinced
King Charles II to revoke the charter of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1684, and he was a leading figure in the unpopular
Dominion of New England. Randolph served as secretary of the dominion. While in that position, he argued for tighter Crown control over proprietary and charter colonies whose administrations lacked such oversight, and he was often given the difficult task of enforcing England's
Navigation Acts in whichever colony he was posted to, often against significant local popular and political resistance. His actions were a significant contribution to the development of the American colonies' administrative infrastructure, but he remained unpopular in the dominion. During the
1689 Boston revolt, which deposed
Edmund Andros and overthrew the dominion, he was jailed. In 1691, Randolph was appointed surveyor general of the customs, on the American mainland as well as in some of the island colonies, and a year later received an additional appointment as deputy auditor of Maryland. Randolph urged
William Blathwayt to pass legislation to prevent colonial misconduct related to trade in 1696. In 1696, Randolph appealed a Maryland Navigation Act case,
Randolph v. Blackmore which set the operational balance between jury freedom and judicial administration in that place. Having visited all the colonies north of the
Bahamas, he made a presentation to the government with a view to have the charters revoked in the American colonies by the parliament of 1700. Facing a postponed bill, the lawyer filed his evidence in a chancery court. ==Death==