Thomas Nelson, Jr.

Thomas Nelson Jr. ( born December 26, 1738 in Yorktown, Virginia, Kingdom, † January 4, 1789 in Hanover County, Virginia) was a North American planter, soldier and politician. He represented Virginia in the Continental Congress and was in 1781 the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Nelson is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Life

Thomas Nelson Jr. was a grandson of Thomas Nelson, an emigrant from Scotland, who was among the first settlers in Yorktown. His father, William Nelson was also a leader of the colony, and for a short time their governor. Nelson was born in Yorktown, and received as many Virginianer this time in England his education. He attended Eton College before he went to Trinity College. He graduated in 1760 and returned the following year returned to Virginia.

Thomas Nelson was elected in 1761 for the first time in the House of Burgesses of Virginia. The following year he married Lucy Grymes. ( My maternal uncle was Peyton Randolph, their paternal aunt was the mother of Henry Lee. ) Their son Hugh Nelson ( 1768-1836 ) later became a deputy in the Congress of the United States.

When in 1774 the Revolutionary War approached, dismissed the royal governor, John Murray, the Burgesses. Nelson took part in the rebel Congress, which it met in response. He supported movements to resist against the Boston Port Act. The following year he was an active voice in the reorganization of the militia outside royal control and loyalist influences. He was appointed Colonel of the 3rd Virginia Regiment, but the post refused, when he was elected to the Continental Congress little later.

Nelson's first term in Congress lasted until 1777, when an attack of illness forced him to retire. Although he was still a member of Congress, he took the time to return home and to play an important role in the Constitutional Convention of Virginia in the spring of 1776. He returned in time back to the Congress to sign the Declaration of Independence. He was commanding general of the Lower Virginia Militia and was followed by Thomas Jefferson as Governor of Virginia.

Thomas Nelson died at the home of his son in Hanover County and is buried in the cemetery grace in Yorktown.