USA > Virginia > Virginia and Virginians; eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 6
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The name of Botetourt is commemorated in that of one the counties of Virginia.
The portrait of the Governor given in this work is from a very rare print, of which probably the copy in the collections of the Virginia His- torical Society is the only one in America.
WILLIAM NELSON.
The progenitor of the Nelson family in Virginia was Thomas (distin- guished in the traditions of the family as "Scotch Tom"), the son of Hugh and Sarah Nelson, of Penrith, Cumberland County, England, who was born February 20, 1677, and emigrated to the Colony in early man- hood. He settled as an importing merchant at Yorktown, then the chief seaport of Virginia. Here he died, October 7, 1745. He married twice; first, Margaret Reed, and secondly, Mrs. Francis Tucker nee Cour- teney. He had issue by his first wife, two sons and a daughter, and by the last a daughter. Some notice of each of his sons may here be ap-
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propriately given in virtue of their important association with the history of Virginia and because the second has been conflicted in the minds of some with his more eminent nephew of the same name. William Nelson, the eldest son of the emigrant "Scotch Tom," was born in 1711, and died November 19, 1772. He followed in the respected career of his father as a merchant, adding largely by his honest gains to the ample estate which he inherited. It is claimed in evidence of his enterprise that he imported goods to supply the then incipient marts of Baltimore and Philadelphia, as well as for Virginia consumption. He was long a member of the Council of Virginia and often its presiding officer. Hence the designation of President Nelson, by which he was commonly called. On the death of Lord Botetourt, October 15, 1770, President Nelson, in virtue of his office, was invested with the Government of the Colony, which he administered until the arrival of the Earl of Dunmore, early in 1772. He married in February, 1737, Elizabeth, daughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Carter) Burwell, and had issue five sons and one daughter. Three of these sons, one of whom was General Thomas Nelson, Jr., distinguished themselves in the American Revolution. The tombs of both, Thomas Nelson, the emigrant, and of his son President William Nelson, with elaborately wrought marble slabs with the arms of the family, are in the old church-yard at Yorktown. This epitaph of the last is a glowing recitation of public service and personal worth :
[Nelson arms-Per pale, argent, and sable, a chevron between 3 fleur de lis coun- ter-changed. Crest-a fleur de lis.]
Here lies the body of the HONORABLE WILLIAM NELSON, ESQ.,
Late President of His Majesty's Council in this Dominion, in whom the love of man and the love of God so restrained and enforeed each other and so invigorated the mental powers in general as not only to defend him from the vices and follies of his country, but also to render it a matter of difficult decision in what part of laud- able conduct he most excelled: whether in the tender and endearing accomplishments of domestic life, or in the more active duties of a wider cireuit, as a neighbour, a gentleman, or a magistrate, whether in the graees of hospitality or in the exereises of charity or of piety. Reader, if you feel the spirit of that excellent ardour, which aspires to that felicity of conscious virtue, animated by those consolations and divine admoni- tions, perform the task and expect the distinetion of the righteous man.
He died the 19th of November, Anno Domini 1772, Aged 61.
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The second son of "Scotch Tom," the emigrant, Thomas Nelson, Jr., as he subscribed himself, was born in 1716, and died at Yorktown in 1786. He occupied a seat in the Virginia Council for thirty years, during which protracted period he also acted as its Secretary. This was an office of important trust and of emolument, it being charged with the preservation of the records of all public acts, and of the land office.
Secretary Nelson, as he was known in virtue of his office, married Lucy, daughter of John and Martha (Burwell) Armstead, by whom he had issue ten children, among whom were three sons who served with distinction in the army of the Revolution.
The noted Nelson House, which attracted so much attention in the Cen- tennial observances at Yorktown in 1881, is a large two-storied brick structure with corners of hewn stone, " built on the old English model," and stands on the main street of Yorktown, fronting the river. The time of its erection, according to the gentle annalist Bishop Meade, may be fixed at 1712, since he narrates that " the corner stone of it was laid by old president Nelson (born 1711), when an infant, as it was designed for him. He was held by his nurse, and the brick in his apron, was passed through his little hand." The good bishop whose ancestors were among the occupants of its spacious halls, thus enthusiastically apos- trophizes the old mansion : "It was long the abode of love, friendship, and hospitality.
Farewell, a prouder mansion I may see, But much must meet in that which equals thee !"
As one said of modern Italy, " Our memory sees more than our eyes in this place." What Paulding said of Virginia, may emphatically be said of York :
" All hail, thou birthplace of the glowing west ! Thou seem'st like the ruined eagle's nest."
The Nelson mansion descended to the eldest son of President Nelson, the glorious patriot, General Thomas Nelson, Jr., and was his residence until the threatened dangers of the prospective siege of York prompted the removal of his family to "Offley," in Hanover county. The head- quarters of Lord Cornwallis during the siege were first in the mansion of Secretary Thomas Nelson, which was destroyed by the fire of the patriot army. The Nelson House, described, and still standing, was also occupied by Cornwallis or portions of his staff subsequent to the destruc- tion of the mansion of Secretary Nelson, and while thus the shelter of the foe, General Nelson loftily exemplified his patriotism. Hav- ing command of the first battery which opened upon Yorktown, he
H
LORD DENMORE Last Roval Currnor of Virginia.
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pointed the first gun against his own dwelling, and offered to the gunner a reward of five guineas for every bombshell that should be fired into it. The marks of their effects are visible to this day.
Among the illustrations of our work is a delineation of the com- memorative Yorktown monument proposed to be erected by the nation.
LORD DUNMORE.
John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore, the last royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, was born in 1732. He was descended in the female line from the royal house of Stuart, and succeeded to the peerage in 1756. He was appointed Governor of New York in January, 1770, and of Virginia in July, 1771. He arrived in the Colony carly in 1772, and found that he had already incurred suspicion on account of the appointment of Captain Edward Foy as his clerk or private secretary, with a salary of five hundred pounds, which was to be derived from newly created fees to be exacted from the colonists. The Governor, however, relinquished the objectionable fees, and thus conciliated so cordial a feeling that the Assembly expressed their gratitude in terms of warmth and affection. They also endeavored to permanently honor the family titles of Lord Dunmore and of his eldest son George, Lord Fincastle, in creating from Frederick County those of Berkeley and Dunmore, and from Botetourt that of Fincastle, by aets passed in February, 1772. The flood of patriotic resentment, incident upon the struggle for freedom, eaused them subsequently, in October, 1776, to obliterate Fincastle County, by dividing it into the counties of Kentucky, Washington, and Montgomery, and to change, in October, 1777, the name of Dunmore to "Shanandoa," now rendered Shenandoah. Cap- tain Peter Hog, a gallant soldier of the French and Indian War, an intimate friend of Washington, was appointed Deputy Attorney-General of Virginia for the county of Dunmore, by Lord Dunmore, April 10, 1772. Captain Hog became distinguished in the practice of law, and his descendants in the name of Hoge, Hogg, Hall, Blair, Blackley, Hawkins, McPherson, and others, are numerous in Virginia and West Virginia, and are held in high social estimation. Fincastle, the county- seat of Botetourt, is said by Howe ( Historical Collections of Virginia, p. 202) to have been named after the seat of Lord Botetourt in Eng- land; but it is probable that it was a revival of the name of the obliterated county.
The Assembly of February, 1772, passed also several important acts for the promotion of internal improvements, in making roads and canals, and clearing the navigation of the Potomac and Matapony rivers. The Assembly was prorogued to the 10th of June. Dunmore, notwith- standing his recent complaisance, evinced his regal proclivities and
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jealousy of popular assemblies, by proroguing the Virginia Burgesses from time to time, until at last a forgery of the paper currency of the Colony compelled him to call the Assembly together again by proclama- tion, March 4, 1773. The political horizon of America was again dark- ening by gathering clouds. A British armed revenue vessel having been burned in Narragansett Bay, an act of Parliament was passed, making such offenses punishable by death, and authorizing the accused to be transported to England for trial. Virginia had already, in 1769, remonstrated against this last measure. Patrick Henry, Jefferson, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Dabney Carr, and others were at this gloomy and threatening period in the habit of meeting together in the evening in a private room in the old Raleigh Tavern, to hold consultations on the state of affairs. In conformity with an agreement entered into by them, Dabney Carr, the brother-in-law of Jefferson, on the 12th of March, moved a series of resolutions, recom- mending a committee of correspondence, and instructing them to inquire in regard to the newly constituted court in Rhode Island. Richard Henry Lee and Patrick Henry made specches of memorable eloquence on this occasion. Mr. Lee was the author of the plan of inter-colonial committees of correspondence; and Virginia was the first Colony to adopt it. The resolutions passed without opposition, and Dunmore immediately dissolved the House of Burgesses. These resolutions "struck a greater panic into the ministers" than any thing that had taken place since the passage of the Stamp Act. The Committee of Correspondence appointed were Peyton Randolph, Robert Carter Nicholas, Richard Bland, Richard Henry Lee, Benjamin Harrison, Edmund Pendleton, Patrick Henry, Dudley Digges, Dabney Carr, Archibald Cary, and Thomas Jefferson. On the day after the dissolution of the Assembly, the Committee addressed a circular to the other American Colonies.
In the Summer, Dunmore visited the frontiers of the Colony, on a tour of observation. He remained some time at Pittsburg, and endeavored, with the aid of Dr. John Connolly, to extend the bounds of Virginia in that quarter. Late in April, 1774, the Countess of Dunmore and her family, George, Lord Fincastle, the Honorables Alexander and John Murray, and the Ladies Catharine, Augusta, and Susan Murray, arrived in Williamsburg, accompanied by Captain Foy and his wife. A younger daughter of Lord Dunmore, born subsequently and during his residence in the Colony, named Virginia, was formally adopted by the Assembly as the daughter of the Dominion, with provision for her life support. After the Revolution she reminded the State Assembly of its spon- tancously assumed obligations, and later in life, in the present century, she petitioned the United States Congress in mediation or by its own act to secure to her some provision, being infirm and in indigent circum- stances; but her prayers were unheeded. The visit to this country of
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the present representative of the earldom of Dunmore during the past year is fresh in the memory of the public. The three sons of Lord Dunmore were students in the College of William and Mary in 1774. Captain Foy had served with distinction in the battle of Minden, and. subsequently, as Governor of New Hampshire. The arrival of the family of Lord Dunmore was celebrated with an illumination of the city of Williamsburg, and the people with acclamations welcomed them to Virginia. When the Assembly met in May following, the capital presented a scene of unwonted gayety, and a court-herald pub- lished a code of etiquette for the regulation of the society of the vice- regal court. At the beginning of the session, the Burgesses, in an address, congratulated the Governor on the arrival. of his Lady, and agreed to give a ball in her honor on the 27th of the month; but the horizon was again suddenly overcast by intelligence of the act of Par- liament shutting up the port of Boston. The Assembly made an indignant protest against this act, and set apart the 1st of June, ap- pointed for the closing of the port, as a day of fasting, prayer, and humiliation, in which the divine interposition was to be implored to protect the rights of the Colonies and avert the horrors of civil war, and to unite the people of America in the common cause. On the next day Dunmore dissolved the Assembly. The Burgesses repaired immediately to the Raleigh Tavern, and in the room called "the Apollo" adopted resolutions against the use of tea and other East India commodities, and recommended an annual congress of representatives of the Colonies. Notwithstanding the ominous aspect of affairs, Wash- ington dined with the Governor on the 25th of May, and attended the ball, which was given, as proposed, to Lady Dunmore on the 27th. The Burgesses, remaining in Williamsburg, on the 29th of the month held a meeting, at which Peyton Randolph presided, and they issued a cir- cular, recommending a meeting of deputies to assemble in convention there on the first of August following. In April, 1774, the Indians renewed their hostilities upon the frontiers of Virginia. In September, Dunmore, with two regiments under Colonels William Fleming and Charles Lewis, marched to the relief of the inhabitants. General Andrew Lewis later marched with eleven hundred men. Dunmore concluded a peace with the Delawares in October; but a band of Dela- wares, Mingoes, Cayugas, lowas, Wyandots, and Shawnees, under the Chief Cornstalk, had determined to surprise the camp of Lewis with an attack. An engagement, known as the battle of Point Pleasant, took place on the 10th of October, in which the Virginians lost between forty and seventy-five in killed and one hundred and forty wounded. The loss of the savages was unascertained. Dunmore, later, coneluded a treaty with the several Indian tribes. Logan, the Cayuga chief, assented to the treaty, but, still indignant at the murder of his wife in
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the preceding spring, refused to attend the camp. In the charge by Jefferson, in his Notes on Virginia, that this tragic event was instigated or committed by Captain Michael Cresap, when it was known to him that one Greathouse was the author of the bloody deed, he most unworthily maligned the memory of a brave soldier, a useful pioneer, and an honorable man. In the beginning of 1775, the people of Vir- ginia were still in a state of anxious suspense, expecting civil war. The second convention assembled at Richmond on the 20th of March. Here, in the venerable St. John's Church, Patrick Henry sounded the tocsin of liberty. Militia, called minute men, were established. On the 20th of April, Lord Dunmore caused the removal of the powder from the magazine at Williamsburg to an English ship. This proceeding pro- duced great excitement, the people took arms under Patrick Henry, and Dunmore was forced to compromise the affair by paying for the powder. June 6th, he fled with his family, and took refuge on board the " Fowey" man-of-war. Rallying a band of tories, runaway negroes, and British soldiers, he collected a naval force, and carried on a petty warfare, plundering the inhabitants along the James and York rivers, and carrying off their slaves. December 9th, 1775, his followers suf- fered a severe defeat at the battle of Great Bridge, near Norfolk; and on the following night Dunmore took refuge on board his fleet. Jan- uary 1st, 1776, he set on fire and destroyed Norfolk, then the most flourishing and populous town in Virginia. Continuing his preda- tory warfare, he established himself early in June on Gwynn Island, in the Chesapeake Bay, whence he was dislodged by the Virginians, July 8th, being wounded in the leg by a splinter. He shortly afterward returned to England, and in 1786 was appointed Governor of Bermuda. He died at Ramsgate, England, in May, 1809. He was a man of cult- ure, and possessed a large and valuable library, volumes from which frequently appear in auction sales of books. The armorial book-plate from one of these is reproduced in the illustrations in this work. His portrait, which we also present, is from the portrait in oil in the State library at Richmond, and has never before been engraved. It may be trite to notice also, in connection with the last royal Governor of Vir- ginia, the chair of the Speaker of the Colonial House of Burgesses, now also preserved in the State library at Richmond, and of which we present a faithful semblance from a photograph specially made for us. It has never before been pictured. According to a statement by Ed- mund Randolph in a MS. and unpublished History of Virginia, in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society, the Speaker's chair was originally richly decorated with various insignia of royalty, of which it was denuded in the beginning of our struggle for independence by the hasty hands of fervent patriots, to whom all tokens of royalty were obnoxious.
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PATRICK HENRY.
In vigor of intellect, in its varied exemplifications, in true manhood, and in illustrious and material service in church, state and the army, in the one sex, and in the typical exhibition of the sweet graces and ex- alted virtues characteristic of Virginia and the Southern States, in the other and gentler, no citizen of the Old Dominion, within its annals or traditions, has been more honored in his descendants, including the present generation, than John Henry, a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, and son of John Henry and his wife Jane, the sister of William Robert- son, D.D., the divine, scholar and historian. He was a cousin of David Henry, the publisher of the Gentleman's Magazine, and through Dr. Robertson, the cousin of the distinguished Lord Brougham. The late British Premier, William Ewart Gladstone, is also of the same lineage. John Henry settled in Virginia some time prior to 1730. He enjoyed the friendship and patronage of Governor Robert Dinwiddie, who intro- duced him to the acquaintance of Colonel John Syme, of Hanover county, who dying, his widow, nee Winston, John Henry in time mar- ried. John Henry was a most useful citizen of Hanover county, serv- ing as Colonel of militia, surveyor, and presiding magistrate for many years. He had been liberally educated, was well grounded in the classics, and, withal, was endowed with an excellent judgment and a vigorous mind. He executed a map of Virginia, which was published in London, in 1770. A copy of it was in the possession of Joseph Horner, Esq., Warrenton, Virginia, a few years since. Charles Camp- bell (History of Virginia, p. 521), says that "appended to it is an epit- ome of the state and condition of Virginia. The marginal illustration is profuse and, like the map, well executed." Soon after the settle- ment of Colonel John Henry in Virginia, Patrick, a minister of the Church of England followed him, and in April, 1733, by his brother's interest, became rector of St. George's parish in the county of Spotsyl- vania. He was subsequently rector of St. Paul's parish, in Hanover county. The wife of Colonel John Henry, says Wirt, "possessed in an eminent degree, the mild and benevolent disposition, the undeviating probity, the correct understanding and easy elocution," for which the ancient family of Winston is distinguished. Her brother, William Winston, an officer in the French and Indian war, is said to have been noted for his oratorical powers. The grave of Colonel Henry, and presumably that of his wife, is at " Studley," their latest residence in Hanover county. Patrick, the second son and the youngest of the fan- ily of nine children, of Colonel John and Sarah (Winston-Syme) Henry, was born at "Studley," May 29, 1736. Under the tuition of his father he received the basis of a sound English education, with a knowledge of mathematics, and of the Greek and Latin, a well-thumbed copy of
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the Testament, in the former language, which was through life a prized possession, being still preserved by a descendant. The pecuniary cir- cumstances of Colonel Henry impelled him to qualify his sons at an early age to support themselves. With this view, Patrick was placed, at the age of fifteen, with a country merchant. In the year following, his father was encouraged by his apparent qualifications to purchase for his two sons, William and Patrick, a small adventure of goods, to "set them up in trade." The chief management of this mercantile venture devolved upon Patrick, whose levity of disposition, and proclivities for the chase and for social gatherings, illy comported with his responsibili- ties. The result was a very natural one; one year put an end to the business of the store, but Patrick was engaged for two or three years following, in winding up the disastrous experiment. Notwithstanding his misfortunes, at the early age of eighteen he married Sarah Shelton, the daughter, it has been said, of the keeper of a house of entertainment at the county seat of Hanover. By the joint assistance of their parents the young couple were settled on a small farm, and Mr. Henry, with the assistance of one or two slaves, again essayed the struggle for a liveli- hood, but his want of agricultural skill and his aversion to systematic labor, drove him, necessarily, after a trial of two years, to abandon this pursuit. Selling out for cash, at a sacrifice, his little possessions, he re- sumed his inauspicious mercantile pursuits, which he continued until some time in the year 1759, as evidenced by the memorial illustration in this work-reduced fac-similes from the originals, of an account in his autograph, and of a quaint pair of iron-framed spectacles, said to have been possessed and worn by him in advanced life. The second mercan- tile venture was more unfortunate than the first, involving him in abso- lute bankruptcy. His situation was indeed lamentable; penniless, with an increasing family, and with the resources of his friends exhausted, nevertheless he was sustained by innate fortitude and buoyancy of heart. Jefferson, who first made the acquaintance of Mr. Henry after his disas- ters in the winter of 1759-60, states that they were " not to be traced either in his countenance or conduct," and that his passion was " music, dane- ing and pleasantry." Mr. Henry now determined on the study of law, "and at last found the path for which he was designed, and into which he had been driven by the severe but kindly discipline of Providence." Within the alleged, but absurdly inadequate time of six weeks only in prep- aration, he obtained a license to practice at the age of twenty-four. Ac- cording to Wirt, Mr. Henry was but little employed in his profession for several years; his family was chiefly maintained during this period by his father-in-law, Mr. Shelton, who kept a tavern at Hanover Court House, Mr. Henry lending his assistance in the entertainment of the guests, and that his talent remained unknown until it blazed forth like a meteor, as the advocate of the people in the famous " Parson's Cause," tried at the November term, 1763, of Hanover Court. The opposing counsel
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was Peter Lyons, subsequently of the Supreme Court of Appeals, of the State.
The story is a winning one, but Mr. Wirt was mistaken as to the facts. Patrick Henry came to the bar in the latter part of 1760. His fee books, now in the possession of his family, show that his practice was extensive from the beginning. They disclose, according to a re- cent publication by his grandson, William Wirt Henry, that "from the September of 1760, when he came to the bar, to the 31st of De- cember, 1763," Patrick Henry charged fees in 1,185 suits, besides many fees for preparing papers out of court, indicating that his success was remarkable and his talents appreciated. In 1764 Mr. Henry re- moved his family to the county of Louisa, residing at a place called " Roundabout." In the fall of that year he had the opportunity of a new theater for his genius, as the advocate before the House of Bur- gesses, at Williamsburg, of Nathaniel West Dandridge, who contested the seat in that body, on the charge of bribery and corruption, of James Littlepage, who had been returned from Hanover County. Here Mr. Henry " distinguished himself by a copious and brilliant display on the great subject of the rights of suffrage, superior to any thing that had been heard before within those walls." The same year, 1764, is memo- rable as that of the passage of the Stamp Act, and for the origination of the great question which finally led to American Independence, to which, says Jefferson, " Mr. Henry gave the first impulse." On the 1st of May, 1765, Mr. Henry entered the House of Burgesses as the representative from Louisa County. His first address to the House was upon the proposition for a public Loan Office, devised by John Robinson, the Speaker, to allow the public money to be loaned out to individuals, on security. It was a scheme to hide certain misappropri- ations, which Robinson, as Treasurer, had made and wished to conceal. Henry opposed it with such vigor and eloquence that it was lost on the first vote. On the 20th he was added to the committee for courts of justice. A few days afterward his celebrated resolutions on the Stamp Act were offered. The original, hastily written npon the fly-leaf of an old law book, is now in the possession of Mr. William Wirt Henry. In the stormy debate which ensued, Patrick Henry vehemently ex- claimed : "Casar had his Brutus; Charles the First, his Cromwell, and George the Third"-"Treason!" cried the Speaker; the cry was echoed from every part of the House-" may profit by their example !* If this be treason, make the most of it." The resolutions were carried, the last by a majority of one only.
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