On December 26, 1738, Thomas Nelson Jr. was born in Yorktown, Va into family of means and influence. He received his primary education from Reverend Yates of nearby Gloucester County. Additional schooling took place in England at the prestigious Eton and Christ College at Cambridge. As he was returning from England upon completion of his studies, he was elected a representative to Virginia’s House of Burgesses. He also became involved in the family’s mercantile business.     

On July 29, 1762, Mr. Nelson married Lucy Grymes. Due to relational connections on her mother’s side of the family, she was a cousin of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Francis Lightfoot and Richard Henry Lee, and other founding fathers. 

Thomas Nelson Jr.’s involvement in colonial matters increased significantly in 1774 when the royal governor shuttered the House of Burgesses. The governing body had approved a measure that condemned the closing of the port of Boston. Some, including Mr. Nelson, convened in the Apollo Room at Raleigh Tavern to continue the business of representing the interests and furthering them. To protest England’s decision to close the Boston port, he arranged his own tea party in Yorktown and participated in it by tossing into the York River two half chests of tea. He also shipped necessary supplies to Boston to aid the city in light of the port closure. 

Two years later, he presented a resolution drafted by Edmund Pendleton that led to Richard Henry Lee’s resolution on independence. The measure read in part, “that our delegates in Congress be enjoined in the strongest and most positive manner to exert their ability in procuring an immediate clear and full declaration of independency.” Patrick Henry seconded the motion. Because of this action, instructions were sent to Philadelphia to the Virginia delegates of the resolution passed. Richard Henry Lee condensed it and presented it to the Congress on June 7th. 

The resolution presented a sober opportunity for the establishment of a new nation fashioned in a manner history had not witnessed. Debate was delayed while a committee worked on creating a declaration based on the resolution. Monday, July 1st arrived. John Adams rose early and remarked on the magnitude of the day, “This morning is assigned the greatest debate of all.” The Second Continental Congress convened ten o’clock in the morning and its members would not recess until nine hours later. The next day, 12 states voted “yea” for Rep. Lee’s resolution, with New York abstaining. 

No doubt, great satisfaction and joy filled Mr. Nelson’s breast at the passage of the resolution and the approval of its declaration on July 4th. And with fulfillment and purpose, he attached his name to the document on August 2nd. He continued serving in the Congress until he suffered a bout of severe asthma. He left for Nelson House where he recovered. After his convalescence, he led the Virginia militia, which he had organized and funded personally. 

In 1781, Thomas Jefferson did not run for reelection as governor of Virginia. Mr. Nelson succeeded Mr. Jefferson becoming the state’s chief executive in addition to his current position of general of the militia. During this period, Virginia was a force of dynamism, both civilly and militarily. Of note, the militia played a pivotal role in the Siege of Yorktown, the battle that concluded the war and, on the whole, guaranteed the colonists victory. In November, illness forced him to resign from the governorship. 

The war ruined Thomas Nelson Jr.’s personal fortune. His friend, Dr. Smith, remarked, “From his unexampled patriotick exertions during the late war he had exhausted a fortune and at the time I mention saw his property arrested, and a prospect of sinking from affluence, almost to absolute poverty. … I attended him in his last illness and saw that the exquisite tortures of the mind were the disease that destroyed his body.” 

In his son’s home, Mont Air, Thomas Nelson Jr. succumbed fully to the utter weakness of his mind and body on January 4, 1789. He lived to be 50 years of age.