Ralph Wormeley IV

Ralph Wormeley (October 5, 1715-1789) who like his namesake grandfather (Ralph Wormeley) was a planter and politician who represented Middlesex County in the House of Burgesses. He and his bookloving and loyalist son also operated Rosegill plantation, now on the National Register for Historic Places, using enslaved labor. Early life and education The elder of two sons born to Elizabeth (d. 1761), the wife of prominent but deliberately non-officeholding planter John Wormeley (1689-1726), he would have a younger brother (John Wormeley who married Ann Tayloe and only had a daughter Elizabeth). The family also included eight sisters, of whom half died as infants and are note named her. However, the four surviving sisters married into the First Families of Virginia: Elizabeth (1713-1740) married Col. Landon Carter of Sabine Hall in Richmond County, Judith (1714-1751) married George Lee of Mt. Pleasant in Westmoreland County, Sarah(1717-after 1752) married Christopher Robinson of Hewick in Middlesex County; and Agatha (b. 1721) married Beverley Randolph of Gloucester County. He received a private education and returned from England upon his father's death in 1726. Career This Ralph Wormeley was born at and inherited Rosegill plantation in Middlesex County. Although his father's 1725 will is lost, an Act of the Virginia General Assembly in November 1728 acknowledged that John Wormeley died with great debts, although he also held valuable land in Middlesex, Gloucester, King William and York Counties, as well as a thousand acre parcel in Caroline County and a reversionary interest in 2000 acres in King George County. Furthermore it provided half to his widow during her life, as well as for the education of this man and for his brother John until they turned 21 years old. Eventually, all the debts were paid from the profits of the estate and sale of some lands. Ralph Wormeley IV also administered his mother's will in 1761, which included a bequest of lands in York and King and Queen counties to his brother John Wormeley Jr.