USA > Virginia > Virginia and Virginians; eminent Virginians, executives of the colony of Virginia, Vol. I > Part 8
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Thomas Nelson was a member of the Virginia Conventions of 1774 and 1775, and displayed extraordinary boldness in resisting British tyranny. He was elected by the Convention, in July, 1775, Colonel of the Second Virginia regiment, which post he resigned on being elected to the Continental Congress the same year. He was a conspicuous member of the Virginia Convention of 1776, which framed the Consti- tution of Virginia. He was a member of the Committee on Articles of Confederation, and July 5th, 1776, signed the Declaration of Independ- ence. Restless for active service in the field, he resigned his seat in Congress in May, 1777, and in August following was appointed Com- mander-in-chief of the State forces of Virginia. He soon after raised a troop of cavalry, with which he repaired to Philadelphia. Resuming his duties in the Virginia Legislature, he strongly opposed the proposi- tion to sequestrate British property, on the ground that it would be an unjust retaliation of public wrongs on private individuals. He was again elected to Congress, in February, 1779, but was obliged, by indisposition, to resign his seat. In May he was called upon to organ- ize the State militia, and repel an invading expedition of the enemy. A loan of $2,000,000 being called for by Virginia in June, 1780, which, in that period of despondeney and distrust, being difficult to obtain, General Nelson, by strenuous endeavors, and on his own personal security, raised a large portion of the amount. He also advanced money to pay two Virginia regiments ordered to the South, which refused to march until arrearages due them were paid. In the then critical aspect of affairs, upon the resignation of Governor Jefferson, a
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military executive being deemed a necessity, General Nelson was, June 12th, 1781, elected to succeed him, opposing in person, with what militia he could command, with sleepless vigilance and untiring energy, the enemy who were ravaging the State, anticipating the wants of the service with remarkable comprehensive forecast, and a provision won- derful in view of the difficulties which beset him. His gallantry and nobility of soul, as evinced at the siege of Yorktown, have already been noted in the sketch of his father, President William Nelson.
General Nelson died at his seat, "Offley," in Hanover County, Janu- ary 4th, 1789, leaving as a legacy to his family naught but an imperish- able record-sublime in its lofty aims and disinterested patriotism; for his advances to Virginia had impoverished him, and the claims of his remaining creditors literally beggared them. An effort was made in 1822, by the late Hon. St. George Tucker, before the Virginia Assem- bly, for indemnity to the heirs of General Nelson for advances made by the latter during the Revolution, which, after various contemptuous delays, was at last referred to a select committee, who rendered "an eloquent report, setting forth in glowing language" the merits, etc., of General Nelson, and concluding with the words, "That a just regard for the character of the State requires that some compensation should be made to his representatives for the losses sustained." The report was adopted by the House of Delegates, and, on motion, the committee was discharged from the duty of bringing in a bill in conformity thereto. The matter remained dormant until 1831, when, being again brought up, it was referred to the First and Second Auditors of the State, who reported against the claim.
The heirs finally petitioned Congress on the 10th of December, 1833, when, after vexatious delays, it was finally reported on, and unfavorably. Never before in the history of nations have patriotic services so eminent and so essentially vital, and sacrifices personally so absolute, been more ungratefully requited. The disease which carried off General Nelson wasasthma, occasioned by exposure incident to his military services. His remains were conveyed to Yorktown, and buried at the foot of the grave of his father. No stone marks the spot. His grandson, Philip Nelson, presented, December 7th, 1839, a petition to the General As- sembly of Virginia for the payment of the claims of General Nelson, which, after various delays, in sheer hopelessness of success, was with- drawn in September, 1840. A fort built at Louisville, Kentucky, in 1782, was named Fort Nelson in honor of General Nelson, as was also Nelson County, Virginia, formed in 1807 from Amherst County. His statue in bronze is one of the six which adorn the Washington monument in the public square at Richmond, Virginia. A representation of this grand and much admired work of art, in connection with the Capitol building, is given in this work. The only portrait of General Nelson, for which he ever sat, is preserved in the State Library of Virginia.
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It was painted by Chamberlain, in London, in 1754, whilst the subject was a student at Etou. It represents him as a handsome, ruddy- cheeked, brown-haired youth, with oval contour of face and a most engaging expression of countenance.
BENJAMIN HARRISON.
Benjamin Harrison succeeded Thomas Nelson as Governor of Virginia, upon the resignation of the latter, from ill-health, November 30th, 1781. He served for three years, when he was succeeded, November 29th, 1784, by Patrick Henry. An extended sketch of the life of Benjamin Harrison will be found under the head of "The Declaration of Independence and its Signers," in another portion of this work.
EDMUND RANDOLPH.
Edmund Randolph was born in Williamsburg, the capital of the Colony of Virginia, August 10, 1753. He was of distinguished lineage. His father, John Randolph, was Attorney-General of the Colony, and the son of Sir John Randolph, who had filled the same office and received the honor of Knighthood for eminent services to the Crown, and was the fifth son of the emigrant ancestor of the family in Virginia, William Randolph, born in Yorkshire, England; died at his seat, "Turkey Island," James River, April 11, 1711. The mother of Edmund Randolph was Ariana, daughter of Edmund Jenings, Attorney-General of Maryland and of Virginia, and at one time the Acting Governor of the last. Pey- ton Randolph, the first President of the Continental Congress, was his uncle.
Educated at William and Mary College, Edmund Randolph early de- termined on the profession of law, which his ancestors, paternal and maternal, had so eminently adorned. But his career was temporarily interrupted by the exciting occurrences of 1775, when ardently enlisting in the cause of the "rebellious" colonists, he was disinherited by his father, who remained " loval " to the Crown, and sailing with Lord Dun- more for England, subsequently died there. Upon the appointment of Washington as Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, then invest- ing Boston, Edmund Randolph became a member of his staff and secretary, remaining in such capacity during the greater part of the siege. But having been adopted by his unele, Peyton Randolph, who owned several large plantations in Virginia, whose public duties precluded his attention to them, and who died in October, 1775, he was compelled by his ex- tended interests to return to Virginia, to civil life. He combined with the management of his estates the practice of law. in which he was eminently successful.
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On the 29th of August, 1776, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Carter Nicholas, Treasurer and Speaker of the House of Bur- gesses of Virginia, and granddaughter of Robert "King" Carter. In the same year he was a delegate from Williamsburg to the Convention which adopted the first constitution of the State, and before the close of the year was elected Mayor of the same city. He was appointed by the Convention Attorney-General under the new constitution, with an annual salary of £200, and at a subsequent session of the General Assembly he was elected its clerk, an office which has been filled by such men as George Wythe and William Wirt. In 1779 he was a delegate to the Continental Congress, of which he remained a member until 1782. Upon the resignation of Patrick Henry as Governor of Virginia, he succeeded him in the office by the election of the General Assembly, December 1, 1786, and was chosen by the same body one of the seven delegates to the Convention at Annapolis, and in the following year, in 1787, a member of the convention that formed the Federal Constitution, and introduced what was called the " Virginia plan." In 1788, he was returned by the county of Henrico, being then a resident of Richmond, to the con- vention which was called to decide upon the Federal Constitution. Decem- ber 1, 1788, Edmund Randolph was succeeded as Governor of Virginia by his kinsman, Beverley Randolph. In 1784 he was appointed Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Virginia, and in 1786 was elected Grand Master of the same body, " when he was pleased to appoint the Honorable John Marshall as his Deputy." They served in their respective positions until 1788. It is of interest to note that the Masons' Hall in Richmond, a large wooden struct. ure on the south side of Franklin, near Eighteenth Street, the oldest building for Masonic purposes in America, was erected in 1785, during the term as Grand Master of James Mercer and whilst Edmund Randolph was Deputy Grand Master. The name of Edmund Randolph is masonic- ally perpetuated in that of the Richmond Randolph Lodge, No. 19, char- tered October 19, 1787. In 1790 he was appointed by Washington the first Attorney-General of the United States, and on the 2d of August, 1794, he succeeded Jefferson as Secretary of State, which office he held until the 19th of August, 1795, when he withdrew to private life and resumed the practice of law. His person and his eloquence are vividly embalmed by Wirt in the pages of his British Spy. Hugh Blair Grigsby, another masterful delineator, in his Virginia Convention of 1776, says of Edmund Randolph's service in the Federal Convention of 1787, " His career in that body was surpassingly brilliant and effective, * * * nor was his course in the Virginia Convention of Ratification less imposing." The with- drawal of Edmund Randolph from the Cabinet of Washington, in 1795, was made the occasion, and the causes of it, of misrepresentations and calumnies by his political enemies, which he ably refuted and effectively silenced by the " Vindication," then published by him, and which was
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republished with a preface by his grandson, Peter V. Daniel, Jr., in 1855. Edmund Randolph died in Frederick County, Va., September 12, 1813. His daughter Lucy married Peter Vivian Daniel, born in Stafford county, Va., 1785; appointed, March 3, 1841, Justice of the United States Supreme Court ; died at Richmond, May 31, 1860. His son, Peter V. Daniel, Jr., long President of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Poto- mac Railroad, is a prominent member of the Richmond Bar. A MS. history of Virginia, by Edmund Randolph, which is several times quoted from in these sketches, is in the collections of the Virginia Historical Society.
BEVERLEY RANDOLPHI.
Beverley Randolph, the son of Colonel Peter and Lucy (Bolling) Ran- dolph of " Chatsworth," Henrico County, James River, Va. (" Surveyor of Customs of North America" in 1749, and long a member of the House of Burgesses ), and third in descent from William Randolph, of "Turkey Island," was born at his father's seat in 1754. He graduated from William and Mary College in 1771, and was, during the Revolu- tion, a member of the Virginia Assembly. He succeeded Edmund Ran- dolph as Governor of Virginia, December 1, 1788, and served until December 1. 1791, when he was succeeded by Henry Lee. He married Martha Cocke, and their descendants are represented also in the names of Randolph, Fitzhugh, and others equally worthy. Governor Randolph died at his seat, "Green Creek," in February, 1797.
HENRY LEE.
Henry Lee, popularly known as "Light-Horse Harry Lee" from his gallant and efficient service during the Revolutionary War, was born, January 29th, 1756, at "Leesylvania," which is situated on a point of land jutting into the Potomac River, three miles above Dumfries, then the county seat of Prince William. He was the son of Henry and Lucy (Grymes) Lee, and fifth in descent from Richard Lee, of Shropshire, England, the emigrant ancestor of the family in Virginia, and combined also in his descent the blood of the historic Corbin, Lud- well, and Bland families. He was the second cousin of the distin- guished brothers- Philip Ludwell, Thomas Ludwell, Richard Henry, Francis Lightfoot, William, and Arthur Lee. His youngest brother, Charles Lee, was Attorney-General in the second cabinet of Washing- ton. Henry Lee was educated at Princeton College, New Jersey, graduating thence in 1773. Intending the profession of law, he was about to embark for England to pursue his studies under the direction of his relative, Bishop Porteus, of London, when the commencement of hostilities with the mother country changed his destiny. In May, 1776,
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he was appointed by the Virginia Convention a captain in the cavalry regiment of Colonel Theodrick Bland, Jr., and in September, 1777, joined the main army. By the stern discipline which he introduced, he was enabled to move with celerity and effect, and his rapid and daring system of tactics made "Lee's Legion" highly efficient. Besides being present at other important actions in the Northern Department, he was at the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Springfield. He early became a favorite of Washington, who selected his company as a body- guard at Germantown. In the difficult and critical operations in Peun- sylvania, New Jersey, and New York, 1777-1780, Lee was always placed near the enemy, intrusted with the command of outposts, the superin- tendence of scouts, and such like service, for which his skill, daring, and self-possession pre-eminently fitted him. In January, 1778, Lee, with only ten men, was attacked in a stone house by two hundred British troopers, whom he repulsed. He was soon after promoted to the rank of major, with the command of an independent corps of two com- panies of horse, afterward increased to three, and a body of infantry. He co-operated, as far as cavalry could act, in General Wayne's attack upon Stony Point, and procured the intelligence upon which it was pro- jected. July 19, 1779, he surprised the garrison of Paulus Hook, and took one hundred and sixty prisoners. For his " prudence, address, and bravery" in this affair Congress voted him a gold medal.
Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, November 6th, 1780, Lee joined the Southern Army under Goueral Nathaniel Greene, in January, 1781. He was at once detached toward the Santee River, in South Carolina, to co-operate with the famous "Swamp-fox" Marion, and these officers were speedily engaged in the successful surprise of Georgetown. During the retreat of Greene before Cornwallis, Lec's Legion formed the rear guard. Whilst watching the movements of Cornwallis in North Carolina, he fell upon the Tory Colonel Pyle ( who was leading four hundred men to Cornwallis), and killed and captured most of his command. At the battle of Guilford Court House, Lee encountered the boastful and truculent Tarleton and drove him back with loss, afterward held his ground obstinately on Greene's left wing, and finally covered the retreat. It was by the advice of Lee that Greene adopted the daring policy of not following Cornwallis into Virginia, but of leaving that province to its fate, and marching south to end the conflict in South Carolina and Georgia. The result fully vindicated the expedieney of this policy. Lee with his Legion joining the partisan forces of Marion, by a series of vigorous operations reduced Forts Watson, Motte, and Granby. While on his way to join Colonel Pickens he surprised and took Fort Galphin. Augusta was taken after a siege of sixteen days. He was also at the unsuccessful siege of Fort Ninety-six. At the battle of Eutaw his gallantry contributed greatly to the successful result. Lee's impetuous charge, cansing the retreat of
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EDMUND RANDOLPH, Governor of Virginia, 1786-8.
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the British left wing, probably saved the army from defeat. In the extensive sweep which Lee's Legion made from the Santee to Augusta, embracing from the 15th of April to the 5th of June, this corps, acting in conjunction first with Marion, afterward with Pickens, and sometimes alone, had constituted the principal force which carried the British posts, and made upward of 1,100 prisoners-about four times its own number.
The health of Colonel Lee under his incessant and arduous service gave way, and from the effects of disease his spirits, too, became de- pressed, and led to his retirement from a most brilliant and effective career in the army, in January, 1782. His commander, General Greene, in a letter dated January 27th, 1782, expresses the deepest concern at this determination of Colonel Lee, and acknowledges to him " the greatest obligations -- obligations which I can never cancel," for "substantial service" of "lasting reputation," which are "the best panegyric that can be given of your actions." He continues: "I have the highest opinion of you as an officer, and you know I love you as a friend."
Very soon after the return of Colonel Lee to Virginia, he visited "Stratford," the seat of his kinsman, Colonel Philip Ludwell Lee, in Westmoreland County, on the bluffs of the Potomac, and in a short time was happily married to Matilda, the eldest daughter of his host. In the midst of his happiness he did not forget the brave men he had left in Carolina. His correspondence with General Greene, continued to the end of the war, is filled with evidences of the solicitude he felt for his soldiers. In 1786, Coloner Lee was elected to represent West- moreland County in the House of Delegates of Virginia, and was a representative in the Continental Congress, 1786-1788, and in the latter year was a member of the Virginia Convention to decide upon the Federal Constitution, of which compact he was a prominent advocate. He succeeded Beverley Randolph as Governor of Virginia, December 1st, 1791, serving until December 1st, 1794. After the disastrous defeat of General St. Clair in the Northwest, in 1791, which moved Washington to a profane outburst of passion, Lee is said to have been the preference of the President to succeed St. Clair; but a question of policy and of precedency in rank prevailed, and General Anthony Wayne was appointed instead. General Lee, however, in 1794, was commis- sioned a Major-General, to command the forces raised to quell the " Whisky Insurrection" in Western Pennsylvania, and, advancing at the head of 15,000 men, speedily silenced all tumult. In 1799, General Lee was again in Congress, in which body he voieed the grief of the American Nation upon the death of Washington. in the appealing eulogy in which occurs the enduring sentiment, " First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen." In 1809, General Lee wrote his "Memoirs of the War in the Southern Department of the United
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States," which was republished in 1827, with additions by his son, Major Henry Lee, and again in 1869, with revisions and a biography of the author, by his son, General Robert E. Lee. In 1811, General Lee removed with his family to Alexandria, for the purpose of educating his children. In the second war with England, after the first disastrous campaigns in Canada, he was offered and accepted a Major-General's commission in the army. Whilst making his arrangements to enter the service, business called him to Baltimore, and, being an inmate of the house of Mr. Hanson when the riot connected with the Federal Repub- lican newspaper occurred, he received injuries at the hands of the mob, from which he never recovered. The results of that night were fatal to General Lingan. The injuries of General Lee nearly deprived him of sight, and were otherwise so severe as to prevent his taking any part in the war of 1812, and eventually terminated his life. It was thought that a voyage to the West Indies and the influence of the mild climate there might restore him. Here he remained until 1818, when, despair- ing of recovery, he prepared to return home. He intended first to land at Savannah, Georgia, but only reached Cumberland Island on the coast, where he was received at the home of Mrs. Shaw, the daughter of General Greene. Here he died, March 25th, 1818, and was buried on the island. In person, General Lee was about five feet nine inches in height, well proportioned, of an open, noble, and benignant counte- nance, and a dark complexion. His manners were frank and engaging, and his disposition generous and hospitable. He was twice married. By his first wife, as stated, he had issue a son, Major Henry Lee, diplomatist and author of ability, and a daughter, Lucy, who married Bernard Carter. By his second wife, Anne Hill, daughter of Charles Carter, of "Shirley," James River, whom he married June 18th, 1794, General Lee had issue: Charles Carter, author and poet; Commodore Sidney Smith, of the United States and Confederate States navies; and General Robert Edward Lee, the peerless hero; and two daughters, Anne Carter and Mildred, who married respectively William L. Mar- shall and Edward Childe-the latter of Boston, Massachusetts.
Of the military talents of General Henry Lee, General Greene said, "No man in the progress of the Southern campaign had equal merits with Lee;" and the "love and thanks" expressed to Lee in Washing- ton's letter, in 1789, show the affection which his generous qualities had inspired. In these sketches of the eminent men of Virginia it will be observed that the connection of many of them with the philanthropic and beneficent fraternity of Free Masons, of the period of the Revolu- tion and subsequent thereto, is noted. It has been asserted that nearly every general officer in the Continental army, from Washington down, was a Mason. From a report submitted to the Grand Lodge of Vir- ginia in 1867, by a venerable brother, Peyton Johnston, Esq., of Rich- mond, it is evidenced that General Lee was an earnest Mason, and that
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on the red field of war he practiced "Relief and Brotherly Love" in saving the life of Colonel Broun, a British officer, whom he recognized masonically as a brother of the "Mystic Tie." Lee County, formed in 1792 from Russell, was named in honor of General Lec.
ROBERT BROOKE.
Robert Brooke, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, a native of England, of gentle descent and of classic education, accompanied Robert Beverley, the historian, and Governor Spotswood, to Virginia in 1710. He was a skilled and probably a professional surveyor. He must have been appointed surveyor of the Colony immediately upon or very soon after his arrival. He accompanied Governor Spotswood in his famous expedition across the Blue Ridge Mountains, which set out from Williamsburg, August 20, 1716, and on the 5th of September following, drank the health of King George I. on the summit of the Appalachian range, and returning, the party reached " Germanna," the seat of the Governor, on the Rappahannock River, on the 10th instant following. Robert Brooke was decorated with one of the horseshoe badges described in the preceding sketch of Governor Spotswood. In 1736, Robert Brooke was one of the surveyors in behalf of His Majesty, George II .. to determine the disputed boundaries of the Northern Neck Proprietary of Lord Fairfax.
The commissioners in behalf the Crown were William Byrd, John Robinson and John Grymes ; Lord Fairfax being represented by William Fairfax, William Beverley and Charles Carter. Robert Brooke had several sons, the youngest of whom, Richard, married a Miss Taliaferro, who brought him as a dowry the seat and estate "Smithfield," on the Rappahannock, about four miles below Fredericksburg. By tradition, the estate was so called after Captain John Smith, the pioneer settler of Virginia. As mythical as this may appear, it is yet recorded that Smith ascended the Rappahannock with an exploring party in July, 1608, and that Richard Featherstone, a " gentleman " of the party, dying, he was buried on the banks of the river near where Fredericksburg now stands. Richard Brooke left four sons and a daughter by his wife as stated, and a fifth son by a second marriage. He died in 1792, aged sixty years. The two eldest sons, Laurence and Robert (under notice), were sent to the University of Edinburg to be educated for the two learned profes- sions, Medicine and Law, and did not return until the American Revo- lution was in progress.
Going over first to France, Dr. Laurence Brooke was appointed, through the influence of Benjamin Franklin, surgeon of the American privatcer, the " Bonhomie Richard," commanded by the celebrated John Paul Jones, and was in the engagement with the " Serapis " and all other actions of that
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