James Ewell Heath (1792–1862), public official and author, was a native of Virginia most likely born in Northumberland County. He represented Prince William County in the House of Delegates from 1814 until his election to the Council of State late in 1816. Heath became state auditor in 1819 and held the position until 1849. The following year President Millard Fillmore appointed him commissioner of pensions, and he served until 1853. The census described Heath as an editor in 1850 and a clerk a decade later. He wrote a novel and a play both set in Virginia. In 1831 Heath was a founder and the first recording secretary of the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society (later the Virginia Historical Society), and he served as a vice president, 1848–50. When Thomas W. White founded the Southern Literary Messenger in 1834, Heath was an unpaid author and editor for the magazine until the following year. He owned eight slaves in 1840, and ten years later his real estate was valued at $2,000 (ANB description begins John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, eds., American National Biography, 1999, 24 vols. description ends ; DAB description begins Allen Johnson and Dumas Malone, eds., Dictionary of American Biography, 1928–36, repr. 1968, 20 vols. in 10 description ends ; Valentine Museum, Richmond Portraits … 1737–1860 [1949], 87; Leonard, General Assembly description begins Cynthia Miller Leonard, comp., The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619–January 11, 1978: A Bicentennial Register of Members, 1978 description ends , 279, 283, 287; JHD description begins Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia description ends [1816–17 sess.], 75 [9 Dec. 1816]; DNA: RG 29, CS, Richmond, 1830–60; Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines [1930–38; repr. 1970], 1:631–4; Richmond Enquirer, 5 Jan. 1832; Virginia Historical Register, and Literary Advertiser 1 [1848]: 47; 2 [1849]: 53; 3 [1850]: 51; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States description ends , 8:274, 276, 311, 327 [16 Dec. 1850, 5, 10 Mar. 1851]; Richmond City Hustings Court Will Book, 22:8–9; gravestone inscription in Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond).