Patrick Henry was an American politician, planter and orator who declared to the Second Virginia Convention (1775): "Give me liberty, or give me death!" A Founding Father, he served as the first and sixth post-colonial Governor of Virginia, from 1776 to 1779 and from 1784 to 1786.
Henry County is a county located in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 50,948. The county seat is usually identified as Martinsville; however, the administration building, county courthouse, and Henry County Sheriff's Office are located on Kings Mountain Road in Collinsville.The Henry County Adult Detention Center is located on DuPont Road in Martinsville.
Joseph Martin, Jr. (1740–1808) was a brigadier general in the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War, in which Martin's frontier diplomacy with the Cherokee people is credited with not only averting Indian attacks on the Scotch-Irish American and English American settlers who helped win the battles of Kings Mountain and Cowpens, but with also helping to keep the Indians' position neutral and from siding with the British troops during those crucial battles. Historians agree that the settlers' success at these two battles signaled the turning of the tide of the Revolutionary War—in favor of the Americans.
Abraham Bedford Venable was a Virginia lawyer, planter and politician who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and briefly as U.S. Senator, as well as in the Virginia House of Delegates.
Red Hill Patrick Henry National Memorial, also known as Patrick Henry's Red Hill, in Charlotte County, Virginia, near the Town of Brookneal, is the final home and burial place of Founding Father Patrick Henry, the fiery legislator and orator of the American Revolution. Henry bought Red Hill Plantation at his retirement in 1794 and occupied it with his wife, Dorothea, and their children until 1799, the year of his death. In addition to the main house, Henry used another building as his law office. There were also dependencies and slave quarters on the working 2,930-acre tobacco plantation. The plantation was located on the Staunton River for transportation.
James Maury was a prominent Virginia educator and Anglican cleric during the American Colonial period and the progenitor of the prominent Maury political family. The Reverend James Maury was a participant with the notable lawsuit that became known as "The Parson's Cause" in 1763, in which the young attorney Patrick Henry argued that the colony had the right to establish its own method of payment to clergy.
Scotchtown is a plantation located in Hanover County, Virginia, that from 1771 to 1778 was owned and used as a residence by U.S. Founding Father Patrick Henry, his wife Sarah and their children. He was a revolutionary and elected in 1778 as the first Governor of Virginia. The house is located in Beaverdam, Virginia, 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Ashland, Virginia on VA 685. The house, at 93 feet (28 m) by 35 feet (11 m), is one of the largest 18th-century homes to survive in the Americas. In its present configuration, it has eight substantial rooms on the first floor surrounding a central passage, with a full attic above and English basement with windows below. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.
John Parke Custis was an American planter and politician, only son of Martha Washington and stepson of George Washington. He is now known for his progeny, especially those raised by President Washington.
Richard Corbin was a Virginia planter and politician who represented Middlesex County in the House of Burgesses and the Virginia Governor's Council. Although a noted Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War, he considered himself a Virginian and two of his descendants of the same name also served in the Virginia General Assembly following the conflict.
Dr. William Rickman served during the American Revolutionary War as the Director and Surgeon of the Continental Hospital of the Continental Army in Virginia. He was the first overseer of the Continental Army hospitals in Virginia.
Tuckahoe, also known as Tuckahoe Plantation, or Historic Tuckahoe is located in Tuckahoe, Virginia on Route 650 near Manakin Sabot, Virginia, overlapping both Goochland and Henrico counties, six miles from the town of the same name. Built in the first half of the 18th century, it is a well-preserved example of a colonial plantation house and is particularly distinctive as a colonial prodigy house. Thomas Jefferson is also recorded as having spent some of his childhood here. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1969.
Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart, born Eleanor Calvert, was a prominent member of the wealthy Calvert family of Maryland. Upon her marriage to John Parke Custis, she became the daughter-in-law of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington and the step-daughter-in-law of George Washington. Her portrait hangs today at Mount Airy Mansion in Rosaryville State Park, Maryland.
John Wayles was a colonial American planter, slave trader and lawyer in colonial Virginia. He is historically best known as the father-in-law of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States. Wayles married three times, with these marriages producing eleven children; only five of them lived to adulthood. Through Betty Hemings, a woman he enslaved, Wayles fathered six additional children, including Sally Hemings, who was the mother of six children by Thomas Jefferson and half-sister of Martha Jefferson.
The Birthplace of Patrick Henry (1736–1799), the Founding Father and American statesman from Virginia, was a farmhouse called "Studley", located in what is now the village of Studley in Hanover County, Virginia. The house, a two-story brick structure, was built in the 1720s by John Symes, whose wife Sarah married Patrick Henry's father John after Symes died. Patrick Henry was born in the house on May 29, 1736. By 1796 the farmstead included a significant number of outbuildings. The house was destroyed by fire in 1807, and now only archaeological remnants remain.
Robert Hairston was an 18th century settler who became a planter, politician, and military officer in Virginia and served in the initial session of the Virginia House of Delegates representing Henry County.
George Hairston was a Virginia planter, patriot and politician in Virginia who served one term in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Henry County after serving as a Colonel in the American Revolutionary War and later served as a Brigadier General in the War of 1812. The first of three men of the same name to serve in the Virginia General Assembly, unlike the two other men, he did not serve in the Virginia Senate, although this Hairston may be better known for building Beaver Creek Plantation, which remained his home and which he farmed using enslaved labor, or for helping to found Martinsburg.
Abram Penn, also known as "Abraham Penn" was a noted landowner and Revolutionary War officer from Virginia.
Alexander Hunter was a noted 18th century tobacco planter in Southwestern Virginia, and supplier to the American Revolutionary Army. His home, "Hunter's Place", was along the Smith River (Virginia) in Henry County.
Thomas Mann Randolph Sr. served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, the Revolutionary conventions of 1775 and 1776, and the Virginia state legislature. Married twice, he fathered 15 children. One marriage was to a cousin, Anne Cary, with whom they had 13 children. His second marriage, which resulted in two children, caused a dissention among family members. The youngest son, with the same name as his half-brother, Thomas Mann Randolph, inherited the family plantation, Tuckahoe plantation. Randolph expanded upon the house that began to be built during his parents' short marriage. Orphaned as a young boy, Randolph continued work on Tuckahoe when he came of age. He also purchased Salisbury house, which was used during his lifetime as a hunting lodge.
Dorothea Spotswood Henry was the wife of Patrick Henry. Upon their marriage while he was in office, she served as the first and sixth First Lady of Virginia during Henry's terms as governor, from 1777 to 1779 and 1784 to 1786.
