Ties to a Founding Father – Part II

Posted on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 by Kathy Fisher in History, Long Branch
Tags: founding father, Thomas Nelson Jr.

In order to appreciate Thomas Nelson, Jr.’s personal and financial sacrifices to support the Revolution, one needs to understand his background and the scope of his wealth. From every standpoint, the Nelsons were one of Virginia’s foremost families.

Assessment of Nelson’s Wealth

Thomas Nelson, Jr. possessed a sizeable fortune—inherited from his father, William Nelson, and acquired through business interests—that allowed him and his family to maintain an elegant and privileged lifestyle, uphold his social and economic position, and solidify the family’s political power in subsequent years.[1]

A diversity of family businesses and a prosperous tobacco trade with England contributed to the prominence of the Nelsons during the early eighteenth century. Businesses inherited from Nelson’s father included the family mercantile business that he renamed “Thomas Nelson Jr. and Company,” a storehouse on Main Street in Yorktown, tobacco warehouses on the waterfront, a ferry service across the York River, and Swan Tavern in Yorktown.[2] Nelson also invested a small amount in an agricultural company for “raising and making Wine, Oil . . . and Silk.”[3] The venture ultimately failed during the Revolutionary War. As events leading to the Revolution unfolded, Nelson would spend less time on business and devote most of his time to public service.



The Nelson House, Photo by Katherine D. Fisher

The Nelson House in Yorktown, Virginia—his primary residence—was “an extraordinary creation for its time and place, and one of the earliest realizations of the so-called Georgian plan in this region.”[4] The mansion, erected on “an urban estate that extended down to the water’s edge”[5] was constructed with imported brick and included an “unusual degree of ornamental vigor, inside and out.”[6] The house is considered one of the best examples of Georgian architecture in Virginia.[7] The Nelsons’ home was a lively place where much social and cultural activity took place. Historian Jackie Behrend writes, “In this home, they entertained influential guests and gave lavish parties for visiting dignitaries on a regular basis.”[8]

The Nelson House was the principal home of Thomas Nelson, Jr, but duty often required him to spend time in Williamsburg on official government business. The distance from Yorktown to Williamsburg is twelve miles; each one-way trip took approximately two hours by coach or horseback. To reduce the burden of frequent travel between the two towns, Nelson resided in a family home called the Nelson-Galt House while in Williamsburg.

Nelson also owned Offley Hoo, a modest estate in Hanover County that his father had willed to him on his death in 1772. When he could no longer afford to renovate his house in Yorktown, Nelson often retreated to Offley Hoo to restore his health after frequent illnesses. The estate also provided a safe place for his family to live during the war when it was too dangerous to remain in Yorktown. Nelson also owned other plantations in Hanover County: Montair, Mallorys, Long Row, and Smiths.

When the tax records began in 1782, Thomas Nelson, Jr. owned a total of 18,156 acres of land in York (10 lots), Hanover, Prince William, and Warwick counties; Williamsburg (2 lots); 384 slaves; 76 horses; and 488 cattle—all taxable property worth more than £40,000, and managed by at least six overseers.[9]

Financial and Personal Sacrifices

Nelson’s financial support of the war was legendary. He frequently paid for military provisions out of his own pocket, when the state lacked sufficient funds plus the credibility upon which to expect loans from the public. In his biography of George Washington, Washington Irving cites the following example:

The combined French and American forces were now twelve thousand strong exclusive of the Virginia militia which Governor Nelson had brought into the field. An instance of patriotic self-devotion on the part of this functionary is worthy of special record. The treasury of Virginia was empty. The governor, fearful that the militia would disband for want of pay, had endeavored to procure a loan from a wealthy individual on the credit of the State. In the precarious situation of affairs the guarantee was not deemed sufficient. The governor pledged his own property and obtained the loan at his individual risk.[10]

Nelson was compelled to support the war effort and gave freely of his own fortune during a time when Virginians had no confidence in the state’s solvency. Britain was planning to invade Virginia in 1779, and the Virginia Assembly needed two million dollars to provide and provision troops for her defense. Wealthy men had no faith in state government and refused to lend money, but they trusted Nelson’s security, and subsequently allowed Virginia to receive the funds[11] in his name.

He succeeded in raising a large portion of the loan money, a total of $1,430,239, about $500,000 short of the goal but a substantial sum nonetheless.[12] Nelson received securities from the state that later turned out to be worthless. The government never reimbursed him.

Historian and author Nell Moore Lee also supports the notion that Nelson’s dwindling economic status following the war resulted partially from enormous expenditures he incurred. She writes:

[Nelson] realized that his personal indebtedness had become quite involved. He had paid his own expenses while serving the state and had dipped into his own purse to help outfit the volunteer cavalry corps he had recruited in 1778. . . . General Nelson had raised and equipped the cavalry at his own expense and had furnished horses from his estate for the Corps. . . . Forage and provisions required along the march toward Philadelphia were paid for by the General. . . . Thomas Nelson had literally begged people to lend money to the state by pledging his own funds and property as a guaranty for the government.[13]

Lee notes that the Virginia Committee of Claims agreed, as a memorial to Nelson, to reimburse him for some of his expenditures during the war, but “he never received the compensation from the Commonwealth of Virginia.”[14] In addition, Nelson “had accepted the command of the militia forces of the Commonwealth without compensation.”[15]

Nelson’s sizeable inheritance from his father could not offset his financial losses. Richard Channing Moore Page notes that William Nelson left his son landed property, including the Nelson House plus about £40,000 in cash—a great deal of money in the 1700s.[16] In spite of these holdings, Page concludes, quoting Bishop William Meade, “he died poor—having given nearly all he had to the cause of liberty.”[17]

Nelson made another legendary personal sacrifice. When the American and French armies were engaged in battle with the British in Yorktown on October 9, 1781, Nelson demonstrated his trademark patriotism. He ordered his troops to fire cannons on his own mansion when he discovered that General Cornwallis might be occupying the house, using it as a British headquarters. As the firing commenced, General Nelson was asked to point out a good target toward which the artillerists could direct their fire. Nelson indicated a large house that he suggested was probably Cornwallis’ headquarters. “The house was his own.”[18] Nelson declared to General Lafayette:

Spare no particle of my property so long as it affords comfort or shelter to the enemies of my country.[19]



Cannonball in East Wall of Nelson House, Photo by Katherine D. Fisher

Some accounts relate that Nelson dismounted from his horse and fired the first shot, and even offered a reward of twenty-five dollars to soldiers for every cannonball fired into the house.[20]

One shot blasted through the mansion and killed two British officers. Subsequent cannonballs expelled the occupants from the building. Damage done to the structure was repaired long ago, but cannonballs from those attacks have been placed in the eastern wall of the building facing Nelson St. to fill scars, as shown above.

Thus, Nelson was willing to sacrifice not only his own money for the cause of freedom, but also his own house.

Below is an account in which Nelson, in order to help farmers called to military service, neglected his own tobacco harvest and sent his slaves and tenants to work in the farmers’ fields:

He stripped his plantation of his fine hunting and carriage horses and gave them to the army. He fed the hungry militia of surrounding counties from his own granary. For all this, Nelson was acclaimed widely. His credit stood high, a Virginian wrote, when the credit of the Commonwealth could not bring a sixpence in to her treasury. But Nelson was also being eaten out of house and home. On one occasion he personally paid the arrears of two regiments, one in York, and the other in Williamsburg.[21]

Nelson’s Health

Nelson suffered from bouts of asthma and periodic strokes throughout his lifetime. The combination of constant financial pressures, plus enormous demands placed on him as governor and general of the Virginia militia, aggravated his condition, leaving him vulnerable to repeated attacks. Despite bad health, Governor Nelson was able to keep the government intact and strengthen the military for the final siege in Yorktown in 1781[22] in which he led 3,000 Virginia militiamen as part of George Washington’s forces in Yorktown.[23] Nelson was almost constantly engaged in the field when the British army invaded Virginia in 1781, “to the detriment of his already poor state of health.”[24]

In a biographical sketch of Nelson, historian B. J. Lossing underscores the strength of Nelson’s commitment despite chronic poor health throughout his lifetime. Lossing explains:

In the spring of 1777, Mr. Nelson was seized with an alarming illness, which confined its attack chiefly to his head, and nearly deprived him, for a time, of his powers of memory. His condition was described as a mild stroke. His friends urged him to withdraw from Congress for the purpose of recruiting his health, but he was loath to desert his post.[25]

Clearly the demands of the Revolution took their toll on Nelson’s health. He often had to return home to recuperate from ill health. Almost as soon as he began to recover, he was called back to duty to lead the military. When he was ordered in 1780 to take command of the army south of the James River, he became ill again. The sickness “was described as a ‘violent pleurisy’ and [Nelson] was out of commission for nearly two months.”[26]

Nelson would suffer sporadic bouts of illness, withdraw from public life to recuperate, and rejoin the Revolutionary cause. For six months he took on the relentless and demanding duties of the dual roles of governor and general, but was ultimately forced to resign from the governor’s office and retire to private life within a month after the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown.[27] In November 20, 1781, he wrote to the speaker of the house of delegates:

The very low state of health . . . to which I am reduced, and from which I have little expectation of soon recovering, makes it my duty to resign the government, that the state may not suffer for want of an executive.[28]

In another account of Virginia patriots, historian R. A. Brock argues that Nelson undertook the helm of the Virginia resistance with “sleepless nights and untiring energy,”[29] despite the fact that “his advances to Virginia had impoverished him, and the claims of his remaining creditors literally begged them [his family].”[30] His asthma was often aggravated by “exposure incident to his military services.”[31]

After Nelson retired as governor, his health continued to decline with more frequent attacks of asthma. He was no longer involved in public affairs. In the end, his constant worry over the state of his finances hastened his decline and eventual death. Dr. Augustine Smith, who treated Nelson in his final weeks at his plantation, Montair, in Hanover County believed that the stress of debts and depression stemming from his inability to provide for his family caused his death:

From his unexampled patriotick exertions . . . he had exhausted a fortune and at the time of his death saw his property arrested, and a prospect of sinking from affluence, almost to absolute poverty. You can easily conceive the poignant distress of a man in this situation, with an amiable wife and a dozen children. . . . He cou’d not bear it. I saw that the exquisite tortures of the mind were the disease that destroyed his body.[32]

State’s Ongoing Refusal to Reimburse Nelson for Wartime Expenses

For decades I was vaguely aware of Nelson’s role in America’s battle for freedom during the Revolutionary War era. I also knew he was not the only one of the fifty-six Signers of the Declaration of Independence to risk his personal fortune for the cause of liberty. However, as I began to learn what he sacrificed financially and personally for the American Revolution and how he is remembered, I was astounded to discover the overwhelming volume of work he accomplished and dedication he demonstrated to help free the colonies from England’s grip. I was further appalled to discover that despite Nelson’s many financial contributions, without which the war could not have been effectively waged, the government refused to reimburse him or his heirs for most of those funds. I have often wondered if the battle for independence from Great Britain would have succeeded if Nelson had not played a major role.

Nelson’s inadequate financial records may have been the key factor in the state’s refusal to reimburse him. Noted Nelson historian and author Emory G. Evans asserts that records supporting his case were possibly lost during the period of 1780-81.[33] However, Nelson may have inadvertently sabotaged his claims for reimbursement with a final sacrifice, which depleted his reserves of political capital with the Commonwealth, and would have far-reaching personal consequences. Fehrenbach explains in the following excerpt:

During the last crisis, Nelson saw to it that the troops were cared for, fair means or foul. He impressed goods and rations by force, when there was no money to pay for them. He forced other citizens to take paper money—legal tender in the state—for supplies they refused to sell except for specie. The British did have hard money, and Nelson laid embargoes and dealt harshly with anyone caught selling supplies to Cornwallis. He did all these acts, so utterly necessary to assist an American victory, by executive action, and without having the warrants signed by the Council. The acts were thus illegal, and this was a great point seized upon by many Virginians who had hoped to avoid the war altogether until Nelson forced them to sacrifice for it. Charges were brought up against him in the legislature.

The legislature’s answer was to pass an act of indemnity, forever absolving Governor Thomas Nelson, Jr. of any and all ‘official’ crimes committed in the service of his country.

But the same act made no attempt to indemnify him for his personal losses. Nor did any future state or national legislature do so. The notes Nelson had signed to secure credit for the state fell due. Nelson’s estates were forfeited. Whatever others might do, he paid his debts, like an honest man. He lost everything he owned, and retired to a small house in Hanover County with his wife and children. There were no more fox hunts or parties.[34]

Even though the Nelson heirs attempted to recover some of Nelson’s expenses from Congress through repeated petitions, their efforts were fruitless. This could only be interpreted as the state’s lack of appreciation for what Nelson had done: “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.” [35]

Controversy Surrounding Nelson as Commander of the Virginia Militia

As governor, Nelson had extensive powers (also regarded as dictatorial) granted to him by the legislature. Those powers allowed him, only with the state Council’s approval, to provide and provision troops wherever and whenever he deemed necessary. But when the British troops were rapidly closing in on Virginia, he exceeded those powers and acted urgently without the consent of the Council, which for a variety of reasons, was unable to act expediently to allow Nelson to get what he needed. In short, Nelson did whatever was necessary to defeat the British. He risked censure and punishment for his conduct. In the end, his efforts paid off. Historian John Sanderson explains:

It was certainly owing, in no small degree, to his exertions, that the frail materials of the army were kept together until they secured the liberties of the country, by the glorious and final blow given to the enemy at Yorktown.[36]

Soon after Nelson retired as governor and returned to private life, the matter of his conduct surfaced again. Edmund Pendleton added one of the first blows when he wrote to James Madison after Nelson’s resignation:

The Governor has resigned, probably vexed to see his great popularity so suddenly changed into general execration, for having by his imprudent seizures, intercepted the specie that was about to flow amongst the people. [37]

A petition was presented to the House of Delegates, which declared that Nelson abused his powers, violated laws, acted without the consent of the Council, and that he acted to dispense with such laws. There was no regard from the petitioners that Nelson had to act as he did. Sanderson, incredulous that someone such as Nelson—who was largely responsible for the successful outcome of the Revolutionary War—would be subject to reprimand, clearly expresses his sentiment in the following passage:

There are always those who hang around the skirts of the good and manly, to annoy them with petty molestations, and to gratify themselves by carping at, and misinterpreting their conduct, through either a pitiful envy, or a grasping selfishness. [38]

Rev. Charles A. Goodrich cites in his brief Nelson biographical sketch that when the legislature was presented with charges that Nelson “transcended his powers in acting without the consent of his council,”[39] Nelson himself requested an investigation into his conduct carried out in his official capacities. On December 22, 1781 he wrote to John Taylor, Speaker of the House of Delegates of Virginia:

Having been informed that my conduct as Governor has been arraigned in a memorial from the County of Prince William, I must beg the House of Delegates will indulge me with half an hour today, that I may lay before them a candid state[ment] of facts and my reasons for adopting the measures that have given offence.[40]

Below is a copy of the original letter Nelson wrote to John Taylor:





Nelson was ultimately exonerated from these charges. Unfortunately, the report absolving him from blame no longer exists, but the legislature passed an act officially indemnifying his conduct:

CHAPTER XXIV

AN ACT to indemnify Thomas Nelson, Junior, Esquire, late Governor of this Commonwealth, and to legalize certain Acts of his administration.

I. Whereas upon an examination it appears, that previous to, and during the siege of York, Thomas Nelson, Junior, Esquire, late Governor of this Commonwealth, was compelled by the peculiar circumstances of the State and Army, to perform many acts of government without the advice of the Council of State, for the purpose of procuring subsistence and other necessaries for the allied Army under the command of his Excellency, General Washington:

II. Be it enacted, That all such acts of government, evidently productive of general good and warranted by necessity, be judged and held of the same validity, and the like proceedings be had on them as if they had been executed by and with the advice of Council, and with all the formalities prescribed by law.

III. And be it farther enacted, That the said Thomas Nelson, Junior, Esquire, be, and he hereby is, in the fullest manner, indemnified and exonerated from all penalties and damages which might have accrued to him from same.[41]

In my next blog, I will explain and clarify the confusion surrounding Nelson’s legacy.

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[1] Evans, Emory G. “The rise and decline of the Virginia aristocracy in the eighteenth century: the Nelsons.” The Old Dominion; essays for Thomas Perkins Abernethy. Darrett Bruce Rutman, ed. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1964.[2] —. Thomas Nelson of Yorktown: Revolutionary Virginian. Williamsburg: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1975.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Wilson, Richard Guy, ed. Buildings of Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Trudell, Clyde F. Colonial Yorktown: An Exploration through one of America’s most richly historic Towns: its Houses, Heroes, and Legends. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: Thomas Publications, 1971.

[8] Behrend, Jackie Eileen. The Hauntings of Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown. Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, Publisher, 1998.

[9] Main, Jackson T. “The One Hundred.” William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser. 11 (1954): 354-384.

[10] Irving, Washington, Charles Neider, ed. George Washington: A Biography. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1976.

[11] Chandler, J.A.C. Makers of Virginia History. New York: Silver, Burdett and Company, 1904.

[12] Evans, Emory G. Thomas Nelson and the Revolution in Virginia. Williamsburg: The Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, 1978.

[13] Lee, Nell Moore. Patriot Above Profit: A Portrait of Thomas Nelson, Jr., Who Supported the American Revolution With His Purse and Sword. Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 1988.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Page, Richard Channing Moore. Genealogy of the Page Family in Virginia: Also a Condensed Account of the Nelson, Walker, Pendleton, and Randolph Families. Harrisonburg, Virginia: C. J. Carrier Company, 1983.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Evans, Emory G. The Nelsons: A Biographical Study of a Virginia Family in the Eighteenth Century. Diss. U. of Virginia, 1957. Charlottesville: UMI, 1957.

[19] Meade, Bishop William. Old Churches, Ministers and Families of Virginia. 2 vols. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincutt Company, 1889.

[20] Chandler, J.A.C. Makers of Virginia History. New York: Silver, Burdett and Company, 1904.

[21] Fehrenbach, T. R. Greatness to Spare: The Heroic Sacrifices of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1968.

[22] Ferris, Robert G. and Richard E. Morris. The Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Flagstaff: Interpretive Publications, 2001.

[23] Fradin, Dennis Brindell. The Signers: The 56 Stories Behind the Declaration of Independence. New York: Walker & Company, 2002.

[24] Evans, Emory G. “The rise and decline of the Virginia aristocracy in the eighteenth century: the Nelsons.” The Old Dominion; essays for Thomas Perkins Abernethy. Darrett Bruce Rutman, ed. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1964.

[25] Lossing, B. J. Biographical Sketches of the Signers of the Declaration of American Independence, the Declaration Historically Considered; and a Sketch of the Leading Events Connected with the Adoption of The Articles of Confederation and of the Federal Constitution. Philadelphia, 1866.

[26] Evans, Emory G. Thomas Nelson and the Revolution in Virginia. Williamsburg: The Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, 1978.

[27] Lossing, B. J. Biographical Sketches of the Signers of the Declaration of American Independence, the Declaration Historically Considered; and a Sketch of the Leading Events Connected with the Adoption of The Articles of Confederation and of the Federal Constitution. Philadelphia, 1866.

[28] Sanderson, John. Robert T. Conrad, ed. Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Philadelphia: William Brotherhead, 1865.

[29] Brock, R. A. Virginia and Virginians: 1606 – 1888. Richmond, 1888.

[30] Ibid.

[31] Ibid.

[32] Evans, Emory G. Thomas Nelson and the Revolution in Virginia. Williamsburg: The Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, 1978.

[33] Ibid.

[34] Fehrenbach, T. R. Greatness to Spare: The Heroic Sacrifices of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1968.

[35] Brock, R. A. Virginia and Virginians: 1606 – 1888. Richmond, 1888.

[36] Sanderson, John. Robert T. Conrad, ed. Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Philadelphia: William Brotherhead, 1865.

[37] Evans, Emory G. Thomas Nelson of Yorktown: Revolutionary Virginian. Williamsburg: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1975.

[38] Sanderson, John. Robert T. Conrad, ed. Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. Philadelphia: William Brotherhead, 1865.

[39] Goodrich, Rev. Charles A. “Thomas Nelson Jr. 1738-1789.” Lives of the Signers to the Declaration of Independence. 12 November 2003 http://www.colonialhall.com/nelson/nelson.asp.

[40] “Letter to John Taylor, Speaker of the House of Delegates of Virginia requesting an inquiry into his conduct as Governor, dated 22 December 1781.” Papers, 1743-1880 [microform]. Robert Alonzo Brock Collection. Microfilm 41008, reel 4237

[41] Smith, Margaret Vowell. Virginia 1492 – 1892: A History of the Executives of the Colony and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Washington: W. H. Howdermilke & Co., 1893.