Peyton Randolph was an American politician and planter who was a Founding Father of the United States. Born into Virginia's wealthiest and most powerful family, Randolph served as speaker of Virginia's House of Burgesses, president of the first two Virginia Conventions, and president of the First Continental Congress. He also served briefly as president of the Second Continental Congress.
Thomas Nelson Jr. was a Founding Father of the United States, general in the Revolutionary War, member of the Continental Congress, and a Virginia planter. In addition to serving many terms in the Virginia General Assembly, he twice represented Virginia in the Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Fellow Virginia legislators elected him to serve as the commonwealth's governor in 1781, the same year he fought as a brigadier general in the siege of Yorktown, the final battle of the war.
George Wythe was an American academic, scholar and judge who was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. The first of the seven signatories of the United States Declaration of Independence from Virginia, Wythe served as one of Virginia's representatives to the Continental Congress and the Philadelphia Convention and served on a committee that established the convention's rules and procedures. He left the convention before signing the United States Constitution to tend to his dying wife. He was elected to the Virginia Ratifying Convention and helped ensure that his home state ratified the Constitution. Wythe taught and was a mentor to Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Henry Clay and other men who became American leaders.
Wilson Cary Nicholas was an American politician who served in the U.S. Senate from 1799 to 1804 and was the 19th Governor of Virginia from 1814 to 1816.
Mann Page (1749–1781), sometimes referred to as Mann Page III, was an American lawyer, politician and planter from Spotsylvania County, Virginia, who served in the House of Burgesses and first Virginia House of Delegates as well as a delegate for Virginia to the Continental Congress in 1777. His elder half brother was Virginia Governor John Page. Since the name was common in the family, and five men of the same name served in the Virginia General Assembly, relationships are discussed below.
Colonel Robert Carter I was a planter, merchant, and government official and administrator who served as Acting Governor of Virginia, Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, and President of the Virginia Governor’s Council. An agent for the Northern Neck Proprietary, Carter emerged as the wealthiest Virginia colonist and received the sobriquet “King” from his contemporaries connoting his autocratic approach and political influence. Involved in the founding of the College of William and Mary, he acquired at least 300,000 acres and engaged one thousand enslaved laborers on fifty plantations.
The Gunpowder Incident was a conflict early in the American Revolutionary War between Lord Dunmore, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, and militia led by Patrick Henry. On April 20, 1775, one day after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, Lord Dunmore ordered the removal of the gunpowder from the magazine in Williamsburg, Virginia to a Royal Navy ship.
The Randolph family of Virginia is a prominent political family, whose members contributed to the politics of Colonial Virginia and Virginia after statehood. They are descended from the Randolphs of Morton Morrell, Warwickshire, England. The first Randolph in America was Edward Fitz Randolph, who settled in Massachusetts in 1630. His nephew, William Randolph, later came to Virginia as an orphan in 1669. He made his home at Turkey Island along the James River. Because of their numerous progeny, William Randolph and his wife, Mary Isham Randolph, have been referred to as "the Adam and Eve of Virginia". The Randolph family was the wealthiest and most powerful family in 18th-century Virginia.
George Nicholas was an American lawyer, planter, patriot, military officer and politician who helped to write the first Kentucky constitution and became the first professor of law at Transylvania University. He also briefly served as Attorney General of Kentucky, and several terms in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Harry Innes was a Virginia lawyer and patriot during the American Revolutionary War who became a local judge and prosecutor as well as helped establish the state of Kentucky, before he accepted appointment as United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Kentucky and served until his death.
John Tyler Sr. was an American lawyer, planter, politician and judge who served in the Virginia House of Delegates and became 15th Governor of Virginia and later United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Virginia. He was the father of U.S. President John Tyler.
Joseph Prentis was a Virginia politician. He represented Williamsburg in the Virginia House of Delegates, and served as that body's Speaker from 1786 until 1788. From 1788 until his death, Prentis was a judge in the General Court of Virginia.
The Burwells were among the First Families of Virginia in the Colony of Virginia. John Quincy Adams once described the Burwells as typical Virginia aristocrats of their period: forthright, bland, somewhat imperious and politically simplistic by Adams' standards. In 1713, so many Burwells had intermarried with the Virginia political elite that Governor Spotswood complained that " the greater part of the present Council are related to the Family of Burwells...there will be no less than seven so near related that they will go off the Bench whenever a Cause of the Burwells come to be tried."
Nathaniel Burwell was an American politician and plantation owner. Perhaps the most distinguished of five men of that name to serve in the Virginia General Assembly before the American Civil War, this Nathaniel Burwell won election to the Virginia House of Delegates as well as the Virginia Ratifying Convention, and also served as the county lieutenant for the James City County militia.
Colonel John Chiswell, was a planter, land speculator, early industrialist and member of the Colonial House of Burgesses who in his final years caused a scandal which led to his well-publicized death, possibly a suicide on the eve of his trial for killing a merchant in western Virginia.
Charles Carter was a Virginia planter and politician, one of four men of the same name who served in the Virginia General Assembly during the late 18th and early 19th century. One historian has distinguished him as "of Cleve", the name of the plantation he developed in King George County, Virginia, which he represented in the House of Burgesses for nearly three decades, from 1736 until his death in 1764. As discussed below, he may also be noteworthy as an early Virginia winemaker. His son, also Charles Carter, but known for much of his lifetime as Charles Carter Jr., served alongside his father in the House of Burgesses representing King George County, and continued to serve until financially embarrassed following the death of their political ally, powerful speaker John Robinson. However, the younger man survived the resulting scandal concerning loans made from currency scheduled to be burned, having bought property in Stafford County and represented that county for many years, despite the American Revolutionary War and ongoing financial problems.
Charles Hill Carter was a Virginia planter who represented Lancaster County in the Virginia House of Burgesses (1758–1775) and all five of the Virginia Revolutionary Conventions, and also sat on the first Council of State in 1776.
Dudley Digges was a Virginia attorney, planter, military officer and politician who served in the House of Burgesses (1752-1776) and all the Virginia Revolutionary conventions representing York County. Possibly the most famous of three related men of the same name who served in the Virginia legislature during the 18th century, this man was the third son of Yorktown merchant Cole Digges who served in both houses of the Virginia legislature.
