THOMAS
NELSON, JR. was born December 26, 1738 in Yorktown, Virginia.He
was the grandson of Thomas Nelson, known as "Scotch Tom", a
merchant-planter who was the American founder of one of the wealthiest of
Virginia families.His father was
William Nelson, long a member of the Council and at one time acting Governor of
the Province, who was generally known as "President Nelson".At
the age of fourteen, young Nelson was sent to Eaton in England for his
schooling.He subsequently graduated
from Cambridge and returned to America in 1761 at the age of twenty-two. While
still at sea on his way home from England, he was elected by York County to the
House of Burgesses.The following
year, he married Lucy Grymes, daughter of Philip Grymes, Esq. of Middlesex
County.At the time of his marriage,
his father gave him a large landed estate and a large sum of cash that enabled
him to maintain an elegant lifestyle.The
couple eventually had eleven children.
In
1764, Nelson was elected to the provincial council and served as an adviser to
the governor of Virginia.He was a
young man who embraced all things English and enjoyed his lifestyle as a country
gentleman.With the Stamp Act
however, came Nelson's fiery opposition to Britain's despicable attempt to
impose colonial taxation.He
continued as a member of the House of Burgesses in 1774, and during the same
year was appointed to the first general convention, which met at Williamsburg on
August 1st. The next year, 1775, he was again returned as a member to the
general convention of the province, and during this session he introduced a
resolution for organizing a military force in the province, a step which
obviously placed the colony of Virginia in opposition to the mother country.
In
1775 the third convention of Virginia delegates assembled at Richmond, Nelson
was appointed a delegate to represent the colony in the continental congress,
which was to assemble at Philadelphia. For the next two years, Nelson continued
to represent the colony of Virginia in the congress, where he was frequently
appointed on important committees, and was highly distinguished for his sound
judgment and liberal sentiments. Thomas Nelson, Jr. voted for independence and
signed the Declaration.He admitted
proudly that he was the only person out of nine or ten Virginians that were sent
with him to England for education that had taken part in the American
Revolution.All the rest were
Tories.
In May
1777, while attending congress, he was suddenly attacked with a disease of the
head, probably of a paralytic nature, which, for a time, greatly impaired his
memory. Nelson returned to Virginia and soon after he
resigned his seat in congress. His health gradually improved and his services
were again demanded by the public, and by the governor and council he was
appointed brigadier general and commander in chief of the forces of the
commonwealth.In this office he
rendered his most important services to his country in general, and to the
colony of Virginia in particular.His
ample fortune enabled him, in cases of emergency, to advance money to carry the
military.
Happily
for his country, his health again restored he entered with great animation into
several military expeditions against the British, who, at that time, were making
the southern states the chief theatre of war.In
1781, Thomas Jefferson, who had for three years filled the executive chair, left
it, upon which Nelson was called to succeed him. This was a gloomy period in the
annals of Virginia.In repeated
instances the state was invaded, and the path of the enemy marked by
destruction.Nelson himself was
engaged in the final siege of Yorktown and being a true patriot, he urged
General Washington to fire on his own home, the Nelson House, where Cornwallis
had his headquarters.
The
remainder of Nelson's life was passed in retirement.His
health and fortune were wrecked by the war and he moved his large family to a
small estate in Hanover County.There
he died of asthma on January 4, 1789, a week after he became sixty.
We invite you to read a transcription
of the complete text of the Declaration as presented by the National Archives.
&
The article "The
Declaration of Independence: A History,"
which provides a detailed account of the Declaration, from its drafting through
its preservation today at the National Archives.
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