Page:Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography volume 2.djvu/74

 U-GOVERNORS OF THE STATE-1776-1861

Henry, Patrick, governor, June 29, 1776- June I, 1779 (q. v.).

Jefferson, Thomas, governor, June i, 1779- June I, 1781 (q. v.).

Fleming, William, councillor and acting governor, son of Leonard and Dorothea Fleming, was born in Jedburgh, Scotland, February 18, 1729. He attended a private school in Dumfries, and later studied sur- gery at the University of Edinburgh. At the close of his term he entered the British service as a surgeon's mate, and soon after was taken prisoner by the Spaniards. After a rigorous confinement he was released and came to Virginia, where in August, 1755, he entered Washington's regiment. He served as ensign and lieutenant, and in 1762 he was made captain in the regiment commanded by Colonel Adam Stephen. After the peace in 1763 he resumed the practice of his pro- fession in Staunton, where he married Anne, sister of Colonel William Christian, April 9. 1763. He removed to Botetourt county, gave up the practice of medicine, and en- gaged in the work of a farmer at his home, fought the battle of "Point Pleasant/' he v/as one of his colonels and was badly wounded. In 1776 he was made county lieutenant of Botetourt by the committee of safety, and when the state government was formed he was a senator from the district of Botetourt, Montgomery and Kentucky, and later became member of the council. During the interval between the expiration
 * Belmont." When General Andrew Lewis

of Mr. Jefferson's second year as governor, June I, 1781, and June 12, when General Thomas Nelson was made governor, he exer- cised the authority of chief magistrate as the only member of the council remaining at the seat of government. He called out the militia and took other means to resist Corn- wallis' troops, who had flooded the State, for which acts he was indemnified by the legislature. In 1782 he was appointed chair- man of a committee to enquire into the accounts of all commissaries and other agents appointed for the western country. Later he was a member of the convention of 1788 for Botetourt county, and under in- structions voted for the constitution. He was a man of strong literary tastes, had one of the finest libraries in Western Virginia, and was a member of the board of trustees of Washington College. He died August 5, 1795-

Nelson, Thomas, Jr., governor, June 12, 1 78 1 -November 30, 1781 (q. v.).

Harrison, Benjamin, governor, November 30, 1781-November 29, 1784 (q. v.).

Henry, Patrick, (second term), November 29, 1784-December I, 1786 (q. v.).

Randolph, Edmund, governor, December I, 1786-December I, 1788 (q. v.).

Randolph, Beverley, born at *'Chatsworth," Henrico county, 1754, son of Colonel Peter and Lucy Boiling Randolph : his father sur- veyor of customs, 1749* and long a member of the house of burgesses. He was gradu-

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