Burwell family of Virginia
Nathaniel Burwell built Carter Hall circa 1795 in eastern Frederick County, Virginia on the approach to the Shenandoah Valley.
Place names deriving from the Tidewater aristocrats include Burwell's Bay in Isle of Wight County, Virginia.
In 1650, the wealthy planter (who owned about 7000 acres of land) married Lucy Higginson, whose parents had likewise emigrated to the Virginia colony to escape the English Civil War, but whose father Robert, after leading the Middle Plantation militia and arranging a stockade to protect against raiding Native Americans, had died in 1649, leaving his widow and daughter destitute.
[4][5][better source needed] Lucy gave birth to one son before her husband died at age 33, when young Lewis Burwell (discussed below) was just an infant.
In addition to operating several plantations using enslaved labor, he served one term in the House of Burgesses (the first of six men of the same name to do so) and married twice.
[13] By 1740, shortly before this Burwell's death, most of the peninsula between the James and York Rivers was owned by Burwell families--this Lewis at Kingsmill, and trustees for sons of his late brothers Nathaniel (the Burgess from Gloucester County died in 1721; his sons are discussed below) at Martin's Hundred (that became Carter Grove) and James (1689–1718; the Burgess from York County also left a young heir) at King's Creek.
[16] Their second son, Armistead Burwell (1718–1754) married Christian Blair (daughter of the powerful politician John Blair) and represented Williamsburg in the Virginia House of Burgesses before moving to Mecklenburg County, as did his nephew, Lewis's third son, Thacker Burwell (1752–80; who married Mary Armistead).
Thacker's second son William A. Burwell discussed below become President Thomas Jefferson's secretary and the only member of the family to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
He returned quickly upon hearing of King Carter's death in 1732 and took control of his father's Fairfield and other plantations (totaling about 5000 acres).
Within five years of his return, he married Mary Willis, the daughter of a wealthy neighbor, and joined their two estates into a 7000 acre plantation.
[17][19] The eldest son of President Burwell was born in 1737 and became one of Virginia's wealthiest men when he inherited 7,000 acres in Gloucester County, including Fairfield Plantation, where he resided most of his life.
He also inherited about 5,000 acres further north in Prince William County, but had continual financial problems, partly due to his father's testamentary generosity toward his daughters, as well as his own fondness for breeding and racing horses, and economic troubles after the American Revolutionary War.
His political career included as Gloucester County justice of the peace (beginning in 1765), sheriff in 1767, and delegate to the House of Burgesses from 1769 until 1776.
Carter Burwell represented James City County in the House of Burgesses during the General Assemblies of 1742-1747, 1748-1749 and 1752-1755, all alongside Benjamin Waller.
Colonel Nathaniel Burwell (1750–1814) assumed control of Carter's Grove in 1771 when he reached legal age, and raised tobacco, corn and wheat using enslaved labor.
George Burwell added the large portico, which is "by tradition" ascribed to a design of William Thornton, architect of the United States Capitol.
Another historic home in Franklin County, Waverly, survives from a plantation and mills operated by his relative Armistead Lewis Burwell (1809–1883).
