Thomas Bloomer Balch was a Presbyterian pastor during the American Civil War. Thomas was born to Stephen Bloomer Balch and Elizabeth [Beall] Balch on February 28, 1793, at Georgetown, District of Columbia, US. Thomas was a graduate of the College of New Jersey in 1813 and Princeton Theological Seminary in 1817, where he was a member of the American Whig Society. Hampden-Sydney College conferred an honorary DD on him in 1860. Daniel Webster is supposed to have described him as the most learned man he had ever known.
Baltimore Presbytery ordained Thomas on October 31, 1816. For several years he assisted his father in the church at Georgetown, Virginia. He accepted a call to Snow Hill, Rehoboth and Pitts Creek, Maryland July 19, 1820. Snow Hill is the oldest Presbyterian Church in America.
Thomas Balch was listed as a missionary in Fairfax County, Virginia, from 1829 to 1836. His brother-in-law, Septimus Tuston, had been a regular preacher at Greenwich, Virginia, between 1825 and 1842. This connection may have led to Thomas becoming the stated supply at Warrenton and Greenwich, Virginia 1836–38 and again 1874–78. He also supplied in Prince William and Nokesville.
Just after he accepted the call to the churches in Maryland, Thomas Balch married Susan Carter of Fairfax, Va. (8/21/22) Susan was the daughter of Charles Beal Carter of Shirley. Charles Beale Carter was an uncle of General Robert E. Lee. No doubt the marriage into the prominent and wealthy family helped Thomas financially.
When Thomas and Susan moved to Prince William and Fauquier Counties, they bought a place between Auburn and Greenwich. He called the property Ringwood. He along with Jane Alexander Milligan ran a boarding school for girls there. Part of the structure was later remodeled.
Thomas and his wife were direct observers of the American Civil War and interacted with both Confederate and Federal troops. Thomas wrote of their personal experiences in My Manse During the War .
He died February 14, 1878, at his home, Ringwood. His wife, Susan, had expired the year before. His friend William Wilson Corcoran provided stones for the couple and they are buried in the Greenwich Presbyterian Cemetery in Greenwich, Virginia. During his lifetime Thomas Balch had ‘become almost as highly regarded by Virginia Presbyterians as his famous father had been by the citizens of Georgetown and Washington.'
Dr. Thomas B. Balch frequently wrote for the Southern Literary Messenger, The Christian World, and published in Christianity and Literature.
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Georgetown is a historic neighborhood, and commercial and entertainment district located in Northwest Washington, D.C., situated along the Potomac River. Founded in 1751 in the Province of Maryland, the port of Georgetown predated the establishment of the federal district and the City of Washington by 40 years. Georgetown remained a separate municipality until 1871 when the United States Congress created a new consolidated government for the whole District of Columbia. A separate act, passed in 1895, specifically repealed Georgetown's remaining local ordinances and renamed Georgetown's streets to conform with those in the City of Washington.
Robert "Councillor" Carter III was a lawyer and planter from the Northern Neck of Virginia, in what became the United States. For two decades he sat on the Colonial Virginia Governor's Council. After the American Revolutionary War, and influenced by his Baptist faith, Carter began what became the largest manumission and release of enslaved African Americans in North America in the 74 years prior to the American Civil War. By a deed of gift filed with Northumberland County on September 5, 1791, and related documents filed in Westmoreland County in subsequent years, Carter began manumitting 500 slaves from his plantations in his lifetime. He also settled many of them on land he gave them.
Robert "King" Carter was a merchant, planter and powerful politician in colonial Virginia. Born in Lancaster County, Carter eventually became one of the richest men in the Thirteen Colonies. As President of the Virginia Governor's Council, Carter served as the royal governor of Virginia from 1726 to 1727 after the previous governor, Hugh Drysdale, died in office. He acquired the moniker "King" from fellow Virginians in his lifetime connoting his wealth, autocratic business methods and political power. Carter also served as the colony's Treasurer, many terms in the House of Burgesses and twice fellow members elected him as their Speaker.
Buildings, sites, districts, and objects in Virginia listed on the National Register of Historic Places:
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 Henry Randolph in 1643. 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.
Daniel French Slaughter was Virginia planter and politician from two distinguished families of politicians and soldiers.
Warrenton Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian congregation in Warrenton, Virginia that was organized around 1780.
New Baltimore is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in eastern Fauquier County, Virginia, United States. The population as of the 2010 census was 8,119. The community has existed since the early 19th century, but it has had its most significant growth since the 1980s. It is the portion of Fauquier County with the easiest access to Washington, D.C., and as a result, many people who live in New Baltimore commute into DC. Other major communities close to New Baltimore are Warrenton, Gainesville/Haymarket area, and Manassas. The area officially considered to be New Baltimore expanded significantly in 2006 with Fauquier County's designation of service districts, of which New Baltimore is one. The service district designation provides added access to utilities such as water and sewer, and targets the area for growth.
Robert Taylor Scott was a Virginia lawyer, politician and Confederate officer. Elected three times as Attorney General of Virginia, Scott also served one term in the Virginia House of Delegates and several terms as mayor of Warrenton, Virginia.
Stephen Bloomer Balch was a Presbyterian minister and educator in Georgetown, which is now part of Washington, D.C. In 1780, Balch established Georgetown Presbyterian Church, which was the second church in Georgetown. He also served as headmaster of the Columbian Academy in Georgetown.
Richard Chichester Mason was an American planter, physician and politician in Fairfax County, Virginia, which he twice represented in the Virginia House of Delegates. Mason also practiced medicine in Alexandria, Virginia and spent the American Civil War in Richmond working for the Confederate States Army.
Beverley Randolph Mason was an American military officer and educator who was the founder and principal of the Gunston Hall School for young women in Washington, D.C. Mason was a great-grandson of George Mason, author of the Virginia Bill of Rights.
Septimus Tustin was a Presbyterian clergyman who served as Chaplain of the United States House of Representatives in 1837 and as Chaplain of the United States Senate 1841–1846.
Greenwich is an unincorporated community in Prince William County, in the U.S. state of Virginia.
Thomas Marshall was a Virginia surveyor, planter, military officer soldier and politician who served in the House of Burgesses and briefly in the Virginia House of Delegates and helped form the state of Kentucky, but may be best known as the father of Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court John Marshall.
The Presbyterian Burying Ground, also known as the Old Presbyterian Burying Ground, was a historic cemetery which existed between 1802 and 1909 in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was one of the most prominent cemeteries in the city until the 1860s. Burials there tapered significantly after Oak Hill Cemetery was founded nearby in 1848. The Presbyterian Burying Ground closed to new burials in 1887, and about 500 to 700 bodies were disinterred after 1891 when an attempt was made to demolish the cemetery and use the land for housing. The remaining graves fell into extensive disrepair. After a decade of effort, the District of Columbia purchased the cemetery in 1909 and built Volta Park there, leaving nearly 2,000 bodies buried at the site. Occasional human remains and tombstones have been discovered at the park since its construction. A number of figures important in the early history of Georgetown and Washington, D.C., military figures, politicians, merchants, and others were buried at Presbyterian Burying Ground.
William Obediah Robey was an American Presbyterian minister and teacher in Leesburg, Virginia. He is the first African-American known to have taught school in Loudoun County, Virginia and was the first African-American member of the Leesburg Presbyterian congregation.
Ludwell Lee was a prominent Virginia lawyer and planter who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly representing Prince William and Fairfax Counties and rose to become the Speaker of the Virginia Senate. Beginning in 1799, following the death of his first wife, Lee built Belmont Manor, a planation house in Loudoun County, Virginia, which today is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Rev. David Wiley was an American surveyor, politician, writer, scientist, and Presbyterian minister who served as postmaster and mayor of Georgetown, District of Columbia.
