After settling in Chesterfield County, Virginia near Richmond circa 1759, he established and ran the Black Heath coal mines following the American Revolutionary War.

During that conflict, Heth and his brothers served officers in the Continental Army and would become founding members of the Society of the Cincinnati.

According to Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Henry Heth came to Virginia from England in 1759 along with his brothers, William and John, and after the American Revolutionary War all three became charter members of the Society of the Cincinnati.

Another reference states "that John Heth[4] emigrated from the North of Ireland in the earlier half of the eighteenth century" and "settled first in Pennsylvania not far from Pittsburgh".

[11] Henry Heth Sr. and his sons served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and received numerous land grants for their service.

This senior Heth was the captain of an independent company stationed near Fort Pitt in western Pennsylvania.

In 1795, along with John Stewart, Heth bought a 99.5-acre piece of land upon which the Black Heath coal pits were situated (near modern Midlothian.

Such was the quality of the coal from Black Heath that President Thomas Jefferson ordered some to be used in heating the White House.

Harry Heth maintained offices in Norfolk and Manchester (across the James River at Richmond), where he engaged in the coal business.