John Tayloe Corbin (December 15, 1739 – February 16, 1794) was a Virginia planter and politician who represented King and Queen County in the

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses () was the lower house of the Virginia General Assembly from 1619 to 1776. It existed during the colonial history of the United States in the Colony of Virginia in what was then British America. From 1642 to 1776, the Hou ...

. The son of powerful planter

Richard Corbin Richard Corbin (1713 or 1714-May 20, 1790) was a Virginia planter and politician who represented Middlesex County in the House of Burgesses and the Virginia Governor's Council. Although a noted Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War (duri ...

, a member of the Governor's Council, he was likewise a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War (during which two brothers served in British forces), but remained in Virginia. He was named after his maternal grandfather

John Tayloe I Colonel (U.S. honorary title), Col. John Tayloe I (February 15, 1688November 15, 1747) of Richmond County, Virginia, Richmond County on Northern Neck of Virginia, Virginia's Northern Neck became one of the richest plantation owners and businessme ...

Early life and education

The eldest son of the former Elizabeth Tayloe, daughter of burgess

, and her planter husband

. He was descended from the

First Families of Virginia The First Families of Virginia, or FFV, are a group of early settler families who became a socially and politically dominant group in the British Colony of Virginia and later the Commonwealth of Virginia. They descend from European colonists who ...

and his father would rise to a seat on the Virginia Governor's Council during this boy's childhood. Corbin received an education appropriate to his class.

Career

Corbin continued the family's planter and political traditions. In the Virginia tax census of 1787, he paid taxes on 30 enslaved adults and 54 teenage slaves, as well as 14 horses, 54 cattle and ten wheels (including 2 chariots and 1 chair) in King and Queen County. He also owned 28 adult slaves and 45 teenage slaves, thirteen horses and 99 cattle in Middlesex County which were not tithable. King and Queen County voters first elected Corbin as one of their representatives in the House of Burgesses in 1769, and he won re-election until 1775. During that time his father continued as a member of the Virginia Governor's Council. In 1776 the Virginia Convention noted his loyalty to Britain, and he stopped his public activity, instead concentrating on his plantations.

Personal life

In 1771, he married Mary Waller (1752-1796), daughter of burgess and judge Benjamin Waller. They had sons

(1771-1819), John T. Corbin Jr. of Gales plantation in Middlesex County (1776-1799), Gawin Lane Corbin (1778-1821) and Henry Eltonhead Corbin of Gales plantation in Middlesex County (1794-1826) and daughters Elizabeth Tayloe Corbin (1780-1832; who married her cousin Richard Henry Corbin and then Elliott Muse), Martha Maria Corbin (b. 1784; who married John B. Whiting of Gloucester County), Ann Frances Corbin (1786-1811; who married Tayloe Braxton), and Henrietta Matilda Corbin (b. 1792; who married Madison Dillard).

Death and legacy

John Tayloe Corbin died in 1794. His sons Major Richard Corbin of Laneville plantation and Gawin Lane Corbin of Kings Creek Plantation in York County would both distinguish themselves in the War of 1812 as well as serve in the Virginia House of Delegates representing various Tidewater counties. The Library of Virginia has his papers.https://ead.lib.virginia.edu/vivaxtf/view?docId=lva/vi00735.xml

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbin, John Tayloe 1739 births 1794 deaths House of Burgesses members People from King and Queen County, Virginia American slave owners 18th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly