Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/189

 COLOxXlAL COUXCILLORS OF STAl !•:

for a lime in Westmoreland county, but upon receiving the appointment as collector of cus- toms for South Potomac, removed to Fairfax county, where he built a mansion house. In 1742 he was a member of the house of bur- gesses, and in Xt)V.. 1743, was appointed U) tb.e coimcil. Col. b^airfax was a man of abil- ity, and played a prominent part in the French and Indian war. He was an early friend of \\ ashington, and by his introduction of him to Lord Fairfax, procured him his first posi- tion as surveyor. Died August 30. 1757.

Blair, John, president of the council and acting governor (q. v.).

Burwell, Lewis, president of the council and acting governor (q. v.).

Nelson, William, i:)resident of the coun- cil and acting governor ( (|. v.).

Lewis, John, Jr., of "Warner Flail." Glou- cester county, son of the Hon. John Lewis of the same place, was born in 1694. He appears from the journals of the council, to have been a member of that body from Oct. 27, 1648, to Xov. I, 1753, and perhaps later, as the rec- ords are incomplete. The date of his death is unknown.

Nelson, Thomas, of Yorktown, son of Thomas X'^elson, Sr., of the same place, was born in 1716, and died in 1782. He was ap- pointed secretary of state of Virginia in 1742, and w^as a member of the house of burgesses for York county in 1748 and 1749, and in all probability in preceding years. In 1749 he was appointed a member of the council, and the journals show him to have been a regular attendant at the board until the revolution. In 1775 he was president of the council, hav- ing perhaps acceded to that position on the death of his brother William in 1772. He

v>as a tirni adherent of the colonial side in the revoluti'jn, tlumgh he exerted himself to pre- vent any violence on the part of the people to- wards Lord Dunmore. The 'A'irginia Gazette" of May 6. 1775, has the following:

"The town of York being somewhat alarmed by a letter from Capt. Montague, commander o!" his majesty's ship, the "Fowey,'" addressed t( the Hon. Thomas Nelson Esq., president of iiis majesty's honorable council in Virginia, threatening to fire upon the town of York in case a party sent from his ship to the support of Gov. Dunmore, was attacked, the York county committee, taking into consider-ation the time the letter was sent, which was too 'ate to permit the president to use his influence had the pe(i])le been disposed to molest or attack the detachment, and further consider- ing that Col. Xelson, who, had the threat been carried into execution, would have been a prin- cipal sufferer, was at that very moment exert- ing his utmost endeavors in behalf of govern- ment and safety of his excellency's person, unanimously passed resolutions" denouncing Capt. "Montague.

Though Thomas Nelson, from his long tenure of the office of secretary, was commonly styled Secretary Nelson, he was also the last presi- dent of the colonial council. Some idea of his great popularity may be gathered from the fact that when the convention, on June 29, 1776, ballotted for the first governor of the new state, he was nominated as a candidate for that office (probably by the conservative party) and received forty-five votes to the sixty for Patrick Henry. On the same day hr was chosen one of the first privy council of the commonwealth, but declined the ap- pointment "on account of his age and infir- mities." He retired from pubHc life at this time and lived quietly at his home in York-