Thomas Nelson Jr. | Founding Father, APUSH

Thomas Nelson Jr. was a Virginia politician who rose to prominence during the American Revolution and signed the Declaration of Independence, making him one of the nation’s Founding Fathers.

Overview

Thomas Nelson Jr. was a merchant, planter, soldier, and politician from Yorktown, Virginia, who became a leading figure in the Patriot Cause during the American Revolution. Educated in England, Nelson returned to Virginia in 1761, where he joined the House of Burgesses and the militia. As tensions with Britain increased over the Grenville Acts and the Townshend Acts, Nelson aligned with Patrick Henry and other prominent revolutionary leaders. In 1775, he was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress, replacing George Washington, who had resigned to lead the Continental Army. Nelson helped build support for independence and signed the Declaration of Independence. In 1781, he was elected to be the 4th Governor of Virginia, following Thomas Jefferson. During the war, he organized and led militia forces and was involved in the Siege of Yorktown.

Personal Facts

Born: December 26, 1738, in Yorktown, Virginia.
Parents: William “President” Nelson (father), Elizabeth Burwell (mother).
Spouse: Lucy Grymes (1762).
Died: January 4, 1789, in Hanover County, Virginia. He was 50.
Buried: Grace Episcopal Churchyard, Yorktown.
Nickname: General Nelson.
Part of: Signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Biography

Early Life and Education

Thomas Nelson was born on December 26, 1738, in Yorktown, Virginia. He was the eldest son of William Nelson and Elizabeth Burwell. He was named after his grandfather, Thomas “Scotch Tom” Nelson, who helped develop Yorktown, Virginia, and became a prominent merchant.

Nelson Jr. was sent to England for his education.
After studying at a private school in Hackney, he entered Christ’s College at Cambridge in May 1758 and remained there until March 1761.
Nelson returned to Virginia in 1762.

Marriage

On July 29, 1762, he married Lucy Grymes, the daughter of Philip and Mary Randolph Grymes. The couple had 13 children, 11 of whom survived infancy, including Hugh Nelson.

Hugh Nelson (1768–1836) followed in his father’s political footsteps, serving in the Virginia House of Delegates, where he was the 13th Speaker, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the 6th United States Minister to Spain.

Early Political Career

While still on the ship returning from England, Nelson was elected by voters in York County to serve in the House of Burgesses. In 1764, he joined the King’s Council of Virginia.

Virginia Planter

Nelson helped his father manage several plantations. These plantations, like others in the Southern Colonies, depended on an enslaved workforce. Despite his apparent wealth, Nelson lived an extravagant lifestyle and was constantly in debt.

AHC Notes

His father died in 1772. As the eldest son, he would have inherited his father’s plantations.
Sources vary on the amount of land Nelson inherited or purchased. It ranges from roughly 5,400 to 20,000 acres.
Sources also vary on the number of enslaved people he owned.

Patriot Cause

Nelson remained in the House of Burgesses and became more active in politics and the military during the early 1770s.

Nelson called for a boycott of British goods in 1774 and led a local tea party, all in protest of the Tea Act (1773).
As the first steps toward the Revolution unfolded in Virginia, he participated in the Virginia Conventions and supported plans for war.
In March 1775, he backed Patrick Henry’s call to prepare Virginia to defend itself against the British.
Nelson became a colonel in the Second Virginia Regiment when Virginia organized state regiments in July 1775.

After Congress appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, the Virginia delegation was left with an empty seat. The Virginia Convention elected Nelson to replace him. Nelson resigned from his military commission before leaving for Philadelphia.

Upon his arrival in Philadelphia, around September 15, he met John Adams, who wrote that Nelson was “a fat man, like the late Colonel Lee of Marblehead. He is a speaker, and alert and lively for his weight.”

AHC Notes

Virginia Conventions (1774–1776) — A series of meetings in which leaders of the Patriot Cause organized resistance to British policies. This included providing support for Boston in the wake of the passage of the Intolerable Acts, electing delegates to the First and Second Continental Congress, establishing a Committee of Safety, and organizing the colony’s military forces. The 5th Virginia Convention declared the British government in Virginia was “totally dissolved” and issued instructions to Richard Henry Lee to propose independence. This Convention also adopted George Mason’s Declaration of Rights, the precursor to the U.S. Bill of Rights, and adopted the 1st Virginia Constitution

Declaration of Independence

At the Virginia Convention of 1776, Nelson introduced the resolutions drafted by Edmund Pendleton and supported by Patrick Henry, urging Congress to declare independence from Britain.

The convention approved the resolutions on May 15, 1776, and Nelson carried them to Congress in Philadelphia.
Nelson, a wealthy and well-established Virginian, joined with Henry, a frontiersman of limited means, to lead their supporters toward independence.
When Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, Nelson signed it on August 2, 1776, as one of Virginia’s delegates.

Return to Virginia

Poor health forced Nelson to leave Congress and return to Virginia in the spring of 1777. Although he strongly supported the Revolution, he was not a radical. He opposed the Virginia Act of Sequestration of British Property in 1777 and reportedly said he would pay his debts “like an honest man.”

Brigadier General

In August 1777, the Governor and Council of Virginia appointed him Brigadier General and commander-in-chief of the state’s militia forces. Because of this, he earned the nickname “General Nelson.”

Nelson raised a volunteer cavalry troop largely at his own expense after Congress called for volunteer units.
He led them to Philadelphia in 1778, but Congress disbanded the troops because it lacked the means to support them.

Defense of Virginia

Nelson briefly returned to Congress in 1779 but soon fell ill again and went back to Virginia. For the rest of the war, he served as a financier, Governor, and commander of the state militia.

British forces began damaging raids in Virginia in 1779.
Nelson took a leading role in organizing militia resistance to the raids.

Governor of Virginia

On June 12, 1781, Nelson was elected to succeed Thomas Jefferson as Governor of Virginia. The legislature expanded his powers when British forces invaded Virginia that year, and he exceeded those limits while serving as a virtual military leader.

British Invasion of Virginia

General Charles Cornwallis led his forces into Virginia, intending to reach Yorktown and establish a port where he could receive troops and supplies. During this time, Nelson used his executive power to defend Virginia.

Nelson worked to raise troops and supplies to support the Marquis de Lafayette’s efforts.
Nelson joined the Yorktown Campaign when Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau marched south from New Jersey, hoping to trap Cornwallis in Yorktown and gain a decisive victory over him.

Siege of Yorktown

In September 1781, he led more than 3,000 Virginia Militia to join George Washington at the Siege of Yorktown.

Nelson went into the field with the Allied forces during the final operations.
He directed artillery fire against his own house to support the attack.
Nelson’s willingness to let American troops fire on his own home in Yorktown became a noted act of patriotism.
Washington thanked him for his support.

Nelson suffered from asthma, and the strain of being the Governor and leading the military made it worse. Because of this, he resigned from office in November 1781 and was replaced by Benjamin Harrison V, another Founding Father.

AHC Notes

Benjamin Harrison V (1726–1791) — Harrison was a Virginia politician who rose to prominence during the American Revolution. Although he signed the Declaration of Independence, making him a Founding Father, he is likely better known as the father of one President, William Henry Harrison, and the great-grandfather of another, Benjamin Harrison.

Later Years

Following the war, Nelson lost much of his personal fortune. He used his own money to cover public debts he had incurred to secure Virginia’s 1780 loan and to equip and supply troops. Unfortunately, the Virginia House of Delegates did not see fit to reimburse him.

These choices, combined with the risks of supporting the Patriot Cause, left him with little wealth while supporting a wife and 11 children.

He moved to a small property called “Offley” in Hanover County, where he lived simply during his final years. Long-standing asthma caused his death in early January 1789, and he was buried in the old churchyard at Yorktown.

Accomplishments and Milestones

1738, December 26 — Thomas Nelson was born in Yorktown, Virginia.
1761 — Nelson returned to Yorktown and entered the House of Burgesses.
1764 — Nelson took a seat on the King’s Council.
1772 — Nelson’s father died, and he may have inherited 20,000 acres and 400 enslaved people.
1774 — Nelson called for a boycott of British goods and led a local tea party.
1775, July — Nelson became a colonel in the Second Virginia Regiment.
1775 — Nelson resigned his commission after being elected to the Continental Congress to fill George Washington’s seat.
1777 — Nelson resigned from Congress in May because of serious illness.
1777, August — Nelson was appointed Brigadier General and commander of Virginia’s state forces.
1779 — Nelson returned to Congress, resigned after a few months because of asthma, and organized militia resistance during British raids in Virginia.
1781, June 12 — Nelson was elected Governor of Virginia and received emergency powers after the Charlottesville Raid.
1781 — Nelson worked to supply Lafayette’s Expedition and joined Washington and Rochambeau during the Yorktown Campaign.
1781, November — Nelson resigned his commission because his illness worsened his asthma.
1789, January 4 — Nelson died in Hanover County, Virginia.

AP US History (APUSH)

Alignment

Thomas Nelson Jr. is part of the following units, topics, and chapters in the AP US History curriculum:

Definition

Thomas Nelson (1738–1789) — Nelson was a Virginia Patriot who moved from colonial politics as a member of the House of Burgesses into leadership of the Patriot Cause as a member of the Virginia Contention. As a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence. He later served as Brigadier General commanding Virginia’s state forces and became Governor in 1781 during the British Invasion of Virginia and the Yorktown Campaign. Nelson is one of the nation’s Founding Fathers.

Written by Randal Rust