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Thomas Nelson Jr.
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Thomas Nelson Jr.
Thomas Nelson Jr. (December 26, 1738 – January 4, 1789) was a Founding Father of the United States, general in the Revolutionary War, member of the Continental Congress, and a Virginia planter. In addition to serving many terms in the Virginia General Assembly, he twice represented Virginia in the Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Fellow Virginia legislators elected him to serve as the commonwealth's governor in 1781, the same year he fought as a brigadier general in the siege of Yorktown, the final major battle of the war.
Nelson was the grandson of Thomas "Scotch Tom" Nelson, an immigrant son of a cloth merchant from Penrith in Cumberland, England, who after three voyages to the Virginia colony settled at and developed Yorktown, where the York River drained into Mobjack Bay. During the following three decades, Scotch Tom not only increased his wealth, but parlayed it into influence so that his children (and grandchildren) married into the First Families of Virginia. Complicating matters, each generation would have at least one boy named to honor the immigrant father, who had accumulated over 6500 acres of land (including choice lots in Yorktown and Williamsburg) by the time of this boy's birth.
This boy was born at Yorktown in 1738, the firstborn child of Scotch Tom's firstborn son, William Nelson, who assisted and expanded the family's mercantile business and became a prominent colonial leader, even becoming the President of the Governor's Council (the highest office to which a Virginia born man could aspire) and briefly served as the colony's interim governor. His mother was Elizabeth Carter Burwell (daughter of Robert "King" Carter, the wealthiest man in Virginia in that era), the sister of Lewis Burwell who became President of the Virginia Governor's Council, and widow of burgess Nathaniel Burwell. Complicating matters, his father's younger brother was also named Thomas Nelson (1716-1782), and he was prominent as the Virginia colony's deputy secretary as well as for his service on the Virginia Governor's Council (on which he served with his brother for decades, then succeeded as that body's last president) and operation of plantations. That man's sons (another William, Thomas and Wilson Cary Nelson) moved to Hanover County (where this man would die years later) as well as several other areas including Caroline, Prince William and Mecklenburg Counties and some of that Thomas' descendants married Nelson cousins. [Custom of the colonial/independence time could use "Jr" to designate a younger relative of an important individual, hence the "Jr." here.] Through his paternal great-great-grandfather, George Reade, Nelson was a third cousin of first U.S. President and fellow Founding Father George Washington, though it is unknown if either of them knew they were related.
Like many Virginians of the highest level of the planter class, Nelson was sent to England for his education. He attended Newcome's School before entering Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1758. He graduated in 1760 and returned to Virginia the following year. Nelson was an ancestor of Thomas Nelson Page and William Nelson Page.
Upon returning to Virginia, Nelson assisted his father in the operation of his several plantations, which depended on the labor of enslaved African Americans. He married Lucy Grymes (b. 1743), daughter of Philip Ludwell Grymes of Brandon in Middlesex, Virginia. Her aunt of the same name (b.1720) was the widow of Carter Burwell of Carter's Grove plantation and mother to Nathaniel Burwell.
During the American Revolutionary War, Nelson bought 5,400 acres of land and 400 enslaved people in Prince William County from financially strapped Lewis Burwell (who died in 1779).
York County voters elected Nelson to the Virginia House of Burgesses as a young man in 1761; he succeeded Robert Carter Nicholas in this part-time position. He served his first six terms alongside veteran delegate Dudley Digges.
As Virginians became dissatisfied with colonial governance, Digges and Nelson were elected to represent York County during the five Virginia conventions that preceded statehood: the First Virginia Convention (which met in Williamsburg in 1774), the Second Virginia Convention (which met at St. John's Church in Richmond in March 1775), the Third Virginia Convention (which met in Richmond in the summer of 1775), the Fourth Virginia Convention (which met in the winter of 1775–1776 in Richmond and Williamsburg, which Nelson was unable to attend), and the Fifth Virginia Convention, which met in Williamsburg in the summer of 1776 (Nelson left this convention in May to attend the Continental Congress).
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Thomas Nelson Jr.
Thomas Nelson Jr. (December 26, 1738 – January 4, 1789) was a Founding Father of the United States, general in the Revolutionary War, member of the Continental Congress, and a Virginia planter. In addition to serving many terms in the Virginia General Assembly, he twice represented Virginia in the Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Fellow Virginia legislators elected him to serve as the commonwealth's governor in 1781, the same year he fought as a brigadier general in the siege of Yorktown, the final major battle of the war.
Nelson was the grandson of Thomas "Scotch Tom" Nelson, an immigrant son of a cloth merchant from Penrith in Cumberland, England, who after three voyages to the Virginia colony settled at and developed Yorktown, where the York River drained into Mobjack Bay. During the following three decades, Scotch Tom not only increased his wealth, but parlayed it into influence so that his children (and grandchildren) married into the First Families of Virginia. Complicating matters, each generation would have at least one boy named to honor the immigrant father, who had accumulated over 6500 acres of land (including choice lots in Yorktown and Williamsburg) by the time of this boy's birth.
This boy was born at Yorktown in 1738, the firstborn child of Scotch Tom's firstborn son, William Nelson, who assisted and expanded the family's mercantile business and became a prominent colonial leader, even becoming the President of the Governor's Council (the highest office to which a Virginia born man could aspire) and briefly served as the colony's interim governor. His mother was Elizabeth Carter Burwell (daughter of Robert "King" Carter, the wealthiest man in Virginia in that era), the sister of Lewis Burwell who became President of the Virginia Governor's Council, and widow of burgess Nathaniel Burwell. Complicating matters, his father's younger brother was also named Thomas Nelson (1716-1782), and he was prominent as the Virginia colony's deputy secretary as well as for his service on the Virginia Governor's Council (on which he served with his brother for decades, then succeeded as that body's last president) and operation of plantations. That man's sons (another William, Thomas and Wilson Cary Nelson) moved to Hanover County (where this man would die years later) as well as several other areas including Caroline, Prince William and Mecklenburg Counties and some of that Thomas' descendants married Nelson cousins. [Custom of the colonial/independence time could use "Jr" to designate a younger relative of an important individual, hence the "Jr." here.] Through his paternal great-great-grandfather, George Reade, Nelson was a third cousin of first U.S. President and fellow Founding Father George Washington, though it is unknown if either of them knew they were related.
Like many Virginians of the highest level of the planter class, Nelson was sent to England for his education. He attended Newcome's School before entering Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1758. He graduated in 1760 and returned to Virginia the following year. Nelson was an ancestor of Thomas Nelson Page and William Nelson Page.
Upon returning to Virginia, Nelson assisted his father in the operation of his several plantations, which depended on the labor of enslaved African Americans. He married Lucy Grymes (b. 1743), daughter of Philip Ludwell Grymes of Brandon in Middlesex, Virginia. Her aunt of the same name (b.1720) was the widow of Carter Burwell of Carter's Grove plantation and mother to Nathaniel Burwell.
During the American Revolutionary War, Nelson bought 5,400 acres of land and 400 enslaved people in Prince William County from financially strapped Lewis Burwell (who died in 1779).
York County voters elected Nelson to the Virginia House of Burgesses as a young man in 1761; he succeeded Robert Carter Nicholas in this part-time position. He served his first six terms alongside veteran delegate Dudley Digges.
As Virginians became dissatisfied with colonial governance, Digges and Nelson were elected to represent York County during the five Virginia conventions that preceded statehood: the First Virginia Convention (which met in Williamsburg in 1774), the Second Virginia Convention (which met at St. John's Church in Richmond in March 1775), the Third Virginia Convention (which met in Richmond in the summer of 1775), the Fourth Virginia Convention (which met in the winter of 1775–1776 in Richmond and Williamsburg, which Nelson was unable to attend), and the Fifth Virginia Convention, which met in Williamsburg in the summer of 1776 (Nelson left this convention in May to attend the Continental Congress).
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