Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/53

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VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY

During his administration, the Marquis do Lafayette was entertained as the nation's ffuest.

C)n retiring from the presidency, Mr Monroe retired to his country seat at **Oak Hill." Loudoun county. Virginia, but in 1829-30 he was a member of the state con- vention. Subsequently he went to live with his son-in-law. Samuel L. Gouverneur, then postmaster at Xew York. He was financial- ly embarrassed, and sought to enter upon the practice of law. but his years and im- paired health forbade success, and he lived a very quiet and uneventful life, until his death, July 4. 1831. He was married, in 1/86. to Elizabeth, daughter of Lawrence Kortright. of Xew York.

Moore, Bernard fi-294).

Nelson, Thomas, was born in Yorktown, December 26. 1738. son of William Nelson, president of the Virginia council. He re- ceived his preliminary education in Virginia under the Rev. Mr. Yates, of Gloucester county; later, in 1752. was placed in a pre- paratory school at Hackney, England. Thence he went to Trinity College, and was graduated at Cambridge, A. B. He returned to Virginia in 1761, where in 1762 he married Lucy, daughter of Colonel Philip and Mary (Randolph) Grymes. of Middlesex county. He was a member of the Virginia house of burgesses from 1761-1775 from York county, and in 1774, when that body was dissolved by Lord Dunjnore, he was among the pro- testants against the action of the governor, urged the appointment of deputies to a gen- eral congress, and was returned to the next house. He was a member of the Williams- burg convention. August i, 1774, and that of March, 1775, where he proposed to meet

British aggression with armed opposition, and was appointed colonel of the Second \'irginia Regfiment by the convention in July. 1775. On his election as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1775. ^^ ^^ signed his commission as colonel and ser\*ed in Congress. 1775-77, signing the Declar- ation of Independence. He was a member of the Virginia constitutional convention of May, 1776. He resigned his seat in Con- gress in May. 1777. on account of illness, and in August. 1777, was appointed com- mander of the state forces, and raised and equipped a troop of cavalrymen, accompany- ing them to Philadelphia. He expended a large sum of money in this patriotic pur- l)ose. but as the troop was not called into MTvice he was never repaid for his outlay except by the act of August 8. 1778. in which it was "resolved that the thanks of Congress be given to the Honorable General Nelson and to the officers and gentlemen for their trave. i^enerous and patriotic efforts in ihc cause of their country." He was returned to Congress in 1779, and served a few months, but another sudden illness forced him to resign. When the invasion of Vir- gmia was threatened in May, 1779, he or- ganized the militia and at his own expense sent two regiments to the South. In June, 1780. when Virginia resolved to borrow $2.- 000,000 for the Continental treasury to pro- vide for the maintenance of a French fleet, he secured a large part of that amount by personal endorsement, which he was obliged to pay. He was elected governor June 12 1781 ; commanded the Virginia militia in the siege of Yorktown ; ordered the artillery to open upon his own house, which he sup- posed was the headquarters of the British general; was present at the surrender of

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