Peyton Randolph served as president of the First Continental Congress, which met in Philadelphia in 1774.
Randolph was a Virginia lawyer and political leader who had also served as speaker of Virginia’s House of Burgesses. The delegates elected him to preside over their first continental gathering, which addressed the crisis created by Britain’s Intolerable Acts.
He later became president of the Second Continental Congress when it convened in 1775, although illness forced him to leave that position. John Hancock succeeded him as president of the Second Continental Congress.
Randolph’s role is sometimes confused with that of George Washington, who became commander in chief of the Continental Army, or John Hancock, who presided when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. The office was a congressional presiding role, not a modern presidency.