Nathaniel Burwell

Personal life

Burwell was born on April 15, 1750, at Carter's Grove in James City County, Virginia, to the former Lucy Ludwell Grymes and her husband Carter Burwell (1718—1756). He was born into the First Families of Virginia and named after his paternal grandfather Nathaniel Burwell (1680–1721), who had inherited the family plantation in Gloucester County (while his younger brothers inherited lands in York County and adjacent James City County when they came of legal age). His father (this Nathaniel's paternal great-grandfather) Lewis Burwell was the progenitor of the Burwell family of Virginia and held high political office until his teenage daughter Lucy rejected colonial governor Francis Nicholson as an unwelcome suitor. Her three surviving brothers, as well as several grandsons and great-grandsons were elected to the House of Burgesses when they came of age. After marrying Elizabeth Carter of Middlesex County the year of his father's death, the elder Nathaniel Burwell established a home at Fairfield across the York River in 1709. He would mingle with other Virginia gentry and represented Jamestown and later Gloucester County in the Virginia General Assembly.

Although the elder Nathaniel's widow remarried well, to Dr. George Nicholas (1685—1734), who helped raise her two sons and two daughters, her wealthy father Robert "King" Carter (1663—1732) purchased approximately 1,400 acres (570 ha) in Martin's Hundred at the eastern end of James City County and also bought African slaves to work the new plantation. Nathaniel Senior's eldest son Lewis Burwell (1710–1754) received his father's Gloucester plantations (5,080 acres (2,060 ha) in 1732). Not only did the younger son Carter Burwell turn his somewhat smaller inheritance from his maternal grandfather (and guardian until his death) into a profitable plantation (still using enslaved labor), upon reaching legal age and assuming control from the successor guardian he also followed his father political career as one of James City County's delegates to the House of Burgesses in 1742—1747, 1748—1749 and 1751—1755 (alongside Benjamin Waller after his cousin Lewis died in 1744), and built the historic house (now part of Colonial Williamsburg and the National Register of Historic Places) where this Nathaniel was born. However, his wife would also become a young widow, and remarried to widower William Nelson (who would succeed King Carter as trustee for his grandsons, as well as served as a Burgess and later briefly as the colony's Governor). This Nathaniel formally took possession of Carter Burwell's property in 1771, when he reached legal age. Before that time, as his second guardian and eventual stepfather William Nelson ran the plantations, Nathaniel followed Burwell family tradition and attended the College of William & Mary, where he was one of the first two students to be awarded the Botetourt Medal for academic achievement.

Following another family tradition, not long after taking full control of the various inherited plantations, Nathaniel Burwell married Susanna Grymes (1752—1788) on November 28, 1772. They had eight children before Susanna died in 1788. Burwell remarried a year later, to Lucy Page Baylor (1759—1843), who bore another eight children and survived him by decades.

Political career

Burwell became one of the justices of the peace for James City County in 1772 (the justices then jointy also governing counties in that era). Two years later he began serving on the county's Committee of Safety. He won election to the Virginia House of Delegates for two concurrent years, 1778 and 1779, serving alongside William Norvell. After a gap, Burwell won re-election for a third term during 1782.

Six years later in 1788, James City County voters elected Burwell and Robert Andrews to represent them in the Virginia Ratifying Convention, concerning the proposed Federal Constitution. Burwell did not actively debate, but did vote for its ratification.

Burwell led the local James City County militia before the war, but after his wife's death in 1788, spent more and more time with the estates he had inherited from his maternal grandfather considerably to the west in Frederick County, Virginia, not far from the Shenandoah Valley and the Potomac River (and which later became Millwood in Clarke County, Virginia). Initially, Burwell had only visited the semi-mountain area in the summers, but with the assistance of neighbor and former Revolutionary War general Daniel Morgan began erecting a permanent residence in 1790. He called the new house about a half mile from the village (named for his gristmill and where he leased property since 1785 to erect a tannery) Carter Hall.

Planter and slaveowner

In addition to using enslaved labor on his own estates (including Carter's Grove), this Nathaniel Burwell served as guardian of his nephew Nathaniel Bacon Burwell (1759—1791) and managed the properties known as King's Creek and the Lightfoot quarter that the youth inherited from his father James Burwell (this Nathaniel's uncle). Within five miles of the Carter Grove plantation were auxiliary plantations (all using enslaved labor) known as New Quarter, Foaces, Black Swamp and Abraham's, as well as his cousin Lewis Burwell's plantation at Kingsmill and the adjacent North Quarters and Bray Quarters (a/k/a Utopia), and his uncle's Fairfield plantation across the York River and his cousin Robert's farms in Isle of Wight county down the James River.

According to Carter Burwell's will, his slaves were to be kept as part of the family estate until this Nathaniel came of age, although some purchased from Mann Page and living in the Neck of Land quarter were to eventually become the property of his younger son Carter Burwell II (1754—1776). Some of the daughters (through their husbands) contested the will, so the estate did not finally settle until 1779, when this Nathaniel retained almost all the slaves, repurchasing some of the Neck of Land Quarter slaves from the husband of one of his sisters. Meanwhile, guardian William Nelson had (in addition to hiring out some slaves), switched farming strategies from tobacco (which tended to make land infertile after several years, although it accounted for half of plantation revenues in the 1760s) to products for the expanding Williamsburg market, including corn, wheat and livestock (for meat and butter), and processing cider and cutting firewood. This prudent management strategy (unusual for a nonresident owner) raised gross revenues per hand from about £12 in the early 1760s to £18 by the time Nathaniel reached legal age in 1771, higher returns than most large planters had achieved in the 1750s.

According to Thomas Jefferson, Nathaniel Burwell gained a reputation as "one of the most skillful managers in the country, and of untainted integrity." He built a new mill at the Carter's Grove plantation in 1772, so three years later he was supplying customers in Williamsburg and Yorktown; by 1774 he stopped growing tobacco at Carter's Grove and only grew enough corn for his livestock, together with more wheat and oats for the horses, as well as concentrated the artisans and carters as well as his horses there. During the revolutionary war years, Burwell hauled surplus wool to Frederick county for sale, but his primary market was Williamsburg, where he sold meat, flour, fodder, cider, butter and milk. He also used his excess bran from the mill to feed hogs, and traded in whiskey (from his new distillery in Frederick county as West Indian rum grew difficult to procure) and firewood, both in great demand. However, he continued to grow tobacco on his best lands into the 1800s, including the Foaces and New Quarter plantation.

Death, family and legacy

This Nathaniel Burwell died at Carter Hall on March 29, 1814, and was buried at the Old Chapel Cemetery nearby. His gravestone notes his military rank as "Colonel" and that he donated the land for the chapel and graveyard (now also on the National Register of Historic Places). He had more than 16 children, including another Nathaniel Burwell (1779–1849) who in 1809 bought Saratoga (Boyce, Virginia) from Gen. Morgan. Nathaniel Jr. helped to form Clarke County from the eastern part Frederick County, and at nearly 2400 acres and 52 slaves was its largest landowner. He served as one its justices of the peace at various times, as well as its joint delegate in the Virginia General Assembly with neighboring Warren County (which the Castleman family dominated politically).

This Nathaniel's estate was not settled until his widow's death in 1843, she having outlived all but five of this Nathaniel's 16 children. This Nathaniel's firstborn and heir, Carter Burwell III, only survived him by five years, and he had a sickly son. His widow remarried but her next husband and a series of administrators ran through those assets, such that the remaining Carter Grove bondspeople were soon hired out or sold, and that property left the Burwell family in 1838. This Nathaniel's youngest son, Thomas H. N. Burwell (1805–1841), returned to York County and bought out some remaining heirs, and perhaps some slaves.

This Nathaniel Burwell grandson (through his son William Nelson Burwell of 'Glenowen' (1791—1822)) Nathaniel Burwell (1819—1896) was a judge or justice of the peace for Clarke County during the American Civil War, after authorizing procurement of arms for the Confederacy in early 1861. During that conflict, this Nathaniel Burwell's longest lived son, George Harrison Burwell (1799—1873) operated Carter Hall and let General Stonewall Jackson encamp on the property in the fall 1862. He also had a dozen children, including Private Nathaniel Burwell (1838—1862), who died that fall of wounds incurred fighting for the Confederacy in the Stonewall Brigade at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

Three sons of Nathaniel Burwell (1819—1896) became Confederate officers, with Robert dying of wounds received at the Battle of Brandy Station, George surviving the war but moving to and dying in Mexico, and sons Philip, John and William surviving and becoming physicians; their youngest brother Thomas (1861—1923) became a farmer and inherited Carter Hall.

Non-direct relative legislators

Another veteran (and relative through great-grandfather Lewis Burwell III) Nathaniel Burwell (1750–1801), sometimes called "Major" Burwell, was likewise born in 1750 (but at Kings Mill in King William County) and represented King William County alongside Robert Pollard in the House of Delegates in the 1799—1800 and 1800-1801 sessions before his death at "Vermont Place" in that county. His wife was Martha Diggs. They had seven children (including another Nathaniel, as well as Thomas and Dudley Diggs Burwell and four daughters).

Another more distant relative, also Nathaniel Burwell, represented Roanoke County in the House of Delegates for a single term, 1842—1843.