South Carolina has a number of well-known Revolutionary War heroes: Thomas Sumter, a Virginian who left the Old Dominion as a debtor (he was even imprisoned for his debts in Virginia) and settled in Stateburg, South Carolina. During the Revolution, Sumter would become a brigadier-general and gained fame for partisan warfare, a tactic that the […]
In May 2022, I wrote an article on my 6th great grandfather, Benjamin Temple of King William County, Virginia. He was a veteran of the French and Indian War, having served with George Washington and, later, was a lieutenant-colonel in the 1st and 4th Continental Light Dragoons during the Revolutionary War. Post war, Benjamin Temple […]
In the lead up to Ken Burns’ new documentary, The American Revolution, I have continuously been seeing advertisements for the premier this coming weekend. Inspired by the advertisement that quotes Benjamin Franklin from his letter to Samuel Cooper on May 1, 1777, in which Franklin says, “our Cause is the Cause of all Mankind”, it […]
Henry Skyren was born about 1729 in Whitehaven, England. Not much is known about his upbringing, home, or family life. It is likely that he grew up in a strongly religious household as he became an Anglican minister. On June 2, 1760, Skyren was appointed by John Lincoln, the Lord Bishop of London, the office […]
In the colonial era, documents mentioning enslaved persons are hard to come by, and even rarer are documents with details about the slaves themselves. Newspaper advertisements for runaway enslaved persons would often mention slaves by name and brief descriptions and what they may have last been wearing; this was the exception because at that time […]
Colonial Virginia history has many women who hold a place in this Commonwealth, some well-known, but many who are not. One such woman who holds an important place among Virginia’s colonial history was Anne Catherine Spotswood. Born in 1728 in London, England, she was the daughter of Virginia’s former colonial Lieutenant Governor, Alexander Spotswood, and […]
The Year was 1676. There was much unrest in the colony as supporters of Governor Berkeley, those of Bacon, and natives were going around killing one another. Much of the hubbub was the result of many people looking for a leader of the people to stand up to what was occurring throughout the colony, the […]
The year 1676 saw the colony of Virginia in a state of Rebellion. The unrest that would come to be known as Bacon’s Rebellion, began at a time of discord in the colony over economic issues and tensions between Indian’s and colonists. On one side was Governor William Berkeley; the other Nathaniel Bacon, Berkeley’s cousin […]
In early August of 1609, when Robert Partin arrived at Jamestown, he probably thanked God that he made it there alive. In May 1609, the Virginia Company had reorganized and gained a second charter and began recruiting for a third supply of settlers to the colony of Virginia. It is believed that Robert was an […]
A few weeks ago, I was talking about genealogy with a co-worker of mine. He told me that he was related to Simon Bolivar, a famous South American revolutionary leader. Ironically, when I was a student at Longwood University, for my Colonialism course I wrote a thesis paper for that class about Bolivar. The following […]