Elizabeth Page to Thomas Jefferson, 27 November 1821
From Elizabeth Page
Shelly Gloster Cty Novber 27 1821
Venerable Sir
I shoud be very much obliged to you to give me all the information you can recollect respecting the Money expended in the Revolutionary War, by my Father General Thomas Nelson. I make no doubt Sir you recollect the Sacrifice my Father made of his Property to Raise Money to carry on the Proceedings of the War at that time. The Widow and Heirs of General Thomas Nelson are in want, and mean to apply to the Virginia Legislature for remuneration. Be pleased Sir to give me information in such a form, as wou’d be received by the Legislature, and directed to Thomas Nelson Page in Richmond. Blessings attend you and your Family,
Elizabeth Page, who |
was Elizabeth Nelson Eldest |
Daughter of General Thomas Nelson |
RC (ViW: TC-JP); endorsed by TJ as received 6 Dec. 1821 and so recorded in SJL.
Elizabeth Nelson Page (1770–1854), planter, was born at Yorktown. She was the sixth child and eldest daughter of Revolutionary War general and Virginia governor Thomas Nelson. In 1788 she married Mann Page (1766–1813), who owned Shelly, a Gloucester County estate. Following her husband’s death, Page managed the plantation. In 1820 she owned seventy-four slaves, and three decades later she owned forty-seven slaves and real estate valued at $14,000 (Richard Channing Moore Page, Genealogy of the Page Family in Virginia [1893], 78, 171–2; 19 [1911]: 204–5; ViHi: Page Family Papers; DNA: RG 29, CS, Gloucester Co., 1820, 1850, 1850 slave schedules).
Thomas Nelson’s widow, Lucy Grymes Nelson, and other heirs petitioned the virginia legislature on 19 Dec. 1821 for compensation for personal funds Thomas Nelson spent to support the American effort during the Revolutionary War. On 26 Feb. 1822 the committee to which the petition was referred deemed it reasonable, but apparently no bill was prepared before the 1821–22 legislative session ended. In the following term the Virginia House of Delegates granted leave on 27 Dec. 1822 to draft a bill “concerning the representatives of general Thomas Nelson deceased,” but on 20 Feb. 1823 the House gave Nelson’s widow and heirs permission to withdraw from consideration the petition and documents they had submitted in December 1821 ( [1821–22 sess.], 60, 201–2; [1822–23 sess.], 75, 209). Between 1833 and 1846 Nelson’s heirs submitted a series of similarly unsuccessful petitions to the United States Congress ( , esp. 27:41, 200, 37:351 [11 Dec. 1833, 14 Jan. 1834, 16 June 1846]).
Index Entries
- Congress, U.S.; and Revolutionary War compensation claims search
- Nelson, Lucy Grymes (Thomas Nelson’s wife); and compensation for husband’s service search
- Nelson, Thomas (1738–89); compensation for heirs of search
- Page, Elizabeth Nelson (Thomas Nelson’s daughter; Mann Page’s wife); and compensation for father’s service search
- Page, Elizabeth Nelson (Thomas Nelson’s daughter; Mann Page’s wife); identified search
- Page, Elizabeth Nelson (Thomas Nelson’s daughter; Mann Page’s wife); letter from search
- Page, Thomas Nelson; and Revolutionary War compensation claims search
- Revolutionary War; compensation claims search
- Virginia; and Revolutionary War compensation claims search
- women; letters from; E. N. Page search