Nathaniel Burwell

Nathaniel Burwell (April 15, 1750March 29, 1814) was an American politician and plantation owner. Perhaps the most distinguished of five men of that name to serve in the Virginia General Assembly before the American Civil War (as distinguished below), this Nathaniel Burwell won election to the Virginia House of Delegates as well as the Virginia Ratifying Convention, and also served as the county lieutenant for the James City County militia. 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 (17181756). 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 a colonial governor 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 in the Virginia General Assembly of 1710-1712 and Gloucester County in the General Assembly of 1720, but died in office before the 1722 session and was succeeded by Giles Cook. Although the elder Nathaniel's widow remarried well, to Dr. George Nicholas (16851734), who helped raise her two sons and two daughters, her wealthy father Robert "King" Carter (16631732) purchased approximately in Martin's Hundred at the eastern end of James City County and bought African slaves to work the new plantation. Nathaniel Senior's eldest son Lewis Burwell (1710-1754) received his father's Gloucester plantations ( in 1732).