Thomas Nelson Jr. (December 26, 1738 – January 4, 1789) was an American

Founding Father The following list of national founding figures is a record, by country, of people who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e. ...

, soldier and statesman from

Yorktown, Virginia Yorktown is a census-designated place (CDP) in York County, Virginia. It is the county seat of York County, one of the eight original shires formed in colonial Virginia in 1682. Yorktown's population was 195 as of the 2010 census, while York Co ...

. In addition to serving in the Virginia General Assembly for many terms, he twice represented

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

in the Continental Congress, where he signed the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of th ...

in 1776. Fellow Virginia legislators elected him to serve as the commonwealth's governor in 1781, the same year that he fought as a brigadier general in the

siege of Yorktown The Siege of Yorktown, also known as the Battle of Yorktown, the surrender at Yorktown, or the German battle (from the presence of Germans in all three armies), beginning on September 28, 1781, and ending on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virgi ...

, the last battle of the Revolutionary War.

Early and family life

Nelson was the grandson of

Thomas "Scotch Tom" Nelson Thomas "Scotch Tom" Nelson (1677–1747) was a businessman and politician who immigrated from England to become a merchant at Yorktown in the Colony of Virginia. He was from Penrith, Cumberland.

, an immigrant from

Cumberland, England Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 1 ...

, who was an early pioneer at Yorktown. Nelson Jr. was born in 1738 at Yorktown; his parents were Elizabeth Carter Burwell (daughter of Robert "King" Carter and widow of Nathaniel Burwell) and William Nelson, who was a leader of the colony and briefly served as governor. Like many Virginians of the

planter class The planter class, known alternatively in the United States as the Southern aristocracy, was a racial and socioeconomic caste of pan-American society that dominated 17th and 18th century agricultural markets. The Atlantic slave trade permitted ...

, Nelson was sent to England for his education. He attended Newcome's School before entering Christ's College, Cambridge, Christ's College at University of Cambridge, Cambridge University 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.

Planter

Upon returning to Virginia, Nelson assisted his father in the operation of his several plantations, which depended on the labor of enslaved African Americans. Following his marriage to young widow Lucy Grymes Burwell, he also managed the estates left to her sons from her first marriage. These included Carter's Grove left to her son Nathaniel Burwell. During the American Revolutionary War, Nelson bought 5,400 acres of land and an unspecified number of slaves in Prince William County, Virginia, Prince William County from financially strapped Lewis Burwell (who died in 1779).

Political career

York County voters elected Nelson to the Virginia House of Burgesses as a young man in 1761; he succeeded Robert Carter Nicholas Sr., 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, Virginia, Williamsburg in 1774), the Second Virginia Convention (which met at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia, 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). Digges represented York County alongside Corbin Griffin at the first non-colonial session of the Virginia House of Delegates in the fall of 1776. But Nelson won the 1777 and 1778 elections to represent York County in the House of Delegates, where he served alongside Joseph Prentis. Prentis relinquished his seat in 1778 to serve on the Council of State and was replaced by Nelson on September 21, 1778. In 1779, 1780 and 1781, Nelson served alongside William Reynolds and relinquished his legislative seat upon being elected governor of Virginia in June 1781. Nelson's first term in the Congress continued until 1776, when a bout of illness forced his resignation for the 1778–1779 term. After his recovery, he was again elected and served another year. During his first stint as a member of Congress, Nelson also returned to Virginia to play a key role in its Constitutional Convention in the spring of 1776. He returned to Congress in time to sign the

that summer. Thomas Nelson was one of the thirteen committee members appointed in the Continental Congress on June 12, 1776, to "prepare and digest the form of confederation", they drafted the Articles of Confederation. He was a Brigadier general (United States), brigadier general of the Lower Virginia Militia and succeeded Thomas Jefferson as governor of Virginia (after William Fleming's nine days as acting governor). Nelson was engaged in the final Siege of Yorktown. According to legend, he urged General George Washington (or, in some versions, Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, Marquis de Lafayette) to fire on his own home, the Nelson House, where General Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, Cornwallis had his headquarters, offering five Guinea (coin), guineas to the first man to hit his house. Following his term as Virginia's governor, Nelson again won election to the Virginia House of Delegates. He represented York County alongside Joseph Prentis in the assemblies of 1782 and 1783, but was replaced by Nathaniel Nelson in the assembly of 1784–1785. He and Prentis won the next election and again served in the sessions of 1786–1787 and 1787–1788. They were replaced by Robert Shield and William Nelson in the assembly of 1788.

Death and remembrance

He died at his son's home in Hanover County, Virginia, and is buried in the Grace Churchyard at Yorktown. Nelson was a member of Grace Church (Yorktown, Virginia), Grace Church. Colonel Innes made this tribute:

The illustrious General Thomas Nelson is no more! He paid the last great debt to nature, on Sunday, the fourth of the present month, at his estate in Hanover. He who undertakes barely to recite the exalted virtues which adorned the life of this great and good man, will unavoidably pronounce a panegyric on human nature. As a man, a citizen, a legislator, and a patriot, he exhibited a conduct untarnished and undebased by sordid or selfish interest, and strongly marked with the genuine characteristics of true religion, sound benevolence, and liberal policy. Entertaining the most ardent love for civil and religious liberty, he was among the first of that glorious band of patriots whose exertions dashed and defeated the machinations of British tyranny, and gave United America freedom and independent empire. At a most important crisis, during the late struggle for American liberty, when this state appeared to be designated as the theatre of action for the contending armies, he was selected by the unanimous suffrage of the legislature to command the virtuous yeomanry of his country; in this honourable employment he remained until the end of the war; as a soldier, he was indefatigably active and coolly intrepid; resolute and undejected in misfortunes, he towered above distress, and struggled with the manifold difficulties to which his situation exposed him, with constancy and courage. In the memorable year 1781, when the whole force of the southern British army was directed to the immediate subjugation of this state, he was called to the helm of government; this was a juncture which indeed 'tried men's souls.' He did not avail himself of this opportunity to retire in the rear of danger; but on the contrary, took the field at the head of his countrymen; and at the hazard of his life, his fame, and individual fortune, by his decision and magnanimity, he saved not only his country, but all America, from disgrace, if not from total ruin. Of this truly patriotic and heroic conduct, the renowned commander in chief, with all the gallant officers of the combined armies employed at the siege of York, will bear ample testimony; this part of his conduct even contemporary jealousy, envy, and malignity were forced to approve, and this, more impartial posterity, if it can believe, will almost adore. If, after contemplating the splendid and heroic parts of his character, we shall inquire for the milder virtues of humanity, and seek for the man, we shall find the refined, beneficent, and social qualities of private life, through all its forms and combinations, so happily modified and united in him, that in the words of the darling poet of nature, it may be said: His life was gentle: and the elements so mixed in him, that nature might stand up And say to all the world—this was a man.

Legacy and honors

* Nelson County, Virginia, and Nelson County, Kentucky, were named in his honor. * The Virginia State Council for Higher Education named Thomas Nelson Community College in Thomas Nelson Jr's honor in 1967. The college was renamed in 2022, removing his name altogether. * The Thomas Nelson High School was opened in 2012 in Nelson County, Kentucky. * The circa 1730 Thomas Nelson House (Yorktown, Virginia), Nelson House built by "Scotch Tom" Nelson in Yorktown, Virginia, was occupied by Thomas Nelson Jr. during the Revolutionary War. It was designated as a National Historical Landmark. It is maintained as part of the Colonial National Historical Park by the U.S. National Park Service.

Notes

References

*Leonard, Cynthia Miller, ''Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978'' (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978). *Walsh, Lorena S., ''From Calabar to Carter's Grove: the History of a Virginia Slave Community'' (University Press of Virginia, 1997).

External links

*
Biography by Rev. Charles A. Goodrich, 1856
Archival Records
A Guide to the Executive Papers of Governor Thomas Nelson Jr., 1781 June 12 – November 22
a
The Library of Virginia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson, Thomas Jr. 1738 births 1789 deaths People from Yorktown, Virginia American Episcopalians American people of English descent American slave owners Continental Congressmen from Virginia 18th-century American politicians Deaths from asthma Governors of Virginia House of Burgesses members Militia generals in the American Revolution Signers of the United States Declaration of Independence Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Nelson family of Virginia Virginia colonial people American planters