Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 1.djvu/191

 COLONIAL COUNCILLORS OF STATE

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a guard was stationed around the house. At daybreak, ^Irs. Corbin assurred Goodall that the King's money was never left there, but at Williamsburg and that Col. Corbin was then in that town. Henry, meanwhile, with 150 men, had marched on Williamsburg and halted at Doncastle's Ordinary to wait for Goodall. There was intense excitement at the capital, Dunmore made preparation for defence, and e\ en the patriots there were alarmed at the approaching storm. Carter Draxton. Col. Cor- bin's son-in-law, interfered and obtained from the latter a bill of exchange for £t,^o, the estimated value of the powder, which Henry promised to hold subject to the order for a general convention. In this way the disturb- ance in the country was temporarily allayed. It was subsecjuentiy ascertained that the pow- der was worth only about £112, and the resi- due of the money was returned to the receiver general. Though it was well known that Col. Corbin's sympathies and belief were with Eng- land in the contest, yet when he retired at the outbreak of the war. and lived quietly in the country, he received no molestation from the new government. Doubtless his high charac- ter and past services had much to do with this, but it may also have been due to his feeble health." There is an interesting reference to Col. Corbin in a letter written by his son. Francis P. Corbin, in 1813. In it is stated that the King actually sent a commission to Col. Corbin. appointing him governor of v'ir- ginia after the abdication of Lord Dunmore. but that it came too late anrl that Corbin pru- dently hid it in a secret drawer of his cscre- toire. Xo record has been found of the death of Richard Corbin, but it must have been in. or subsequent to, 1787.

Beverley, William, of "Blandfield," Essex county was the son of the historian, Robert

r.everley of "Beverley Park," King and Oueen county and was born about 1698. He was clerk of Essex county from 1716 to 1745, burgess from Orange county in 1736 and from ICssex in 1741, 1744, 1748, 1751 and doubtless in intervening years. Having large landed interests in the western part of the colony, he was appointed county lieutenant of Orange and Augusta counties and, in 1751, was made a member of the council. Col. Beverley was one of the commissioners from \"irginia to iiKct those from other colonies and treat with ti.e six nations at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1 7-14. r.everley was also appointed by Lord 1 '"air fax, one of the commissioners to settle in his behalf, the boundary of Xorthern Xeck. lie inherited large estates, including "Bever- ley Park,"" containing 7,600 acres, with "The Plains,"" of r,2oo acres adjoining, and "Bland- field'" on the Rappahannock, in Essex, where he built the brick mansion which is one of the finest remaining examples of colonial archi- tecture. He also became the possessor of im- mense tracts of land by patent. Besides sev- eial smaller grants of some thousand acres each, he obtained, Sept. 6, 1736, a grant of 118,420 acres lying around the present Staun- ton in Augusta county. This land, which he named "Beverley Manor," now- the name of a magisterial district in Augusta, he patented i:i partnership with several persons, but on the day alter the grant was made, they con- veyed their interests to him. This estate he sold to settlers in smaller tracts. His death occurred about iMarch i, 1756.

Grymes, Philip, of "Brandon," Middlesex county, and son of Hon. John Grymes of the same place, was appointed justice of Middle- sex in 1743. was a member of the house of burgesses in 1748, and, in 1749, was appointed receiver general of Mrginia. In 1751. he was