[1][2] The eldest son of the former Betty Tayloe (1719-1791) and her planter husband Richard Corbin (1714-1790) of "Laneville" plantation was born into the First Families of Virginia.
His great-grandfather Henry Corbyn had emigrated to Virginia, married a widow and begun the family's assimilation into the colony's political elite as well as acquired several valuable properties between the Mattaponi and Rappahannock Rivers that became many plantations, including Peckatone, Nesting, Machotick, Jones Farm, Gales, Corbin Hall and Buckingham (although the names of the counties in which they were located changed as populations increased).
That uncle's widow Hannah Lee Corbin not only outlived her husband and this man, but caused multiple scandals for her advocacy of women's rights and Baptist faith, continuing to manage his estate of more than 1700 acres in Caroline, Fauquier, King George and Westmoreland Counties, and refusing to marry her paramour Dr. Hall (whom she survived by many years, her first husband's will providing that she would forfeit the property upon remarrying).
1755), both of whom were alive but unmarried in 1783 (four years after this man's death); Thomas would move to England and accepted a British military commission.
[7][8] Their eldest daughter Betty Tayloe Corbin (1764-1798) married Col. George Turberville (1760-1798) of Westmoreland County who received significant land patents based on his service in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
[13][14] His family had lobbied for that appointment, which meant that both father and son served on the Council at the same time, which the royal government normally disfavored.
[16] Although two of his younger brothers more clearly demonstrated their Loyalist sympathies during the American Revolutionary War, the family apparently lived quietly in Middlesex County during the conflict, possibly because of their sister's husband, Carter Braxton.
Congressman, either because of this family's perceived British sympathies, or his privately expressed discomfort with slavery, although he also farmed using enslaved labor.