Thomas "Scotch Tom" Nelson

rdf:langString Thomas "Scotch Tom" Nelson

rdf:langString Thomas Scotch Tom Nelson

rdf:langString Thomas Scotch Tom Nelson

rdf:langString Penrith, Cumberland, England

rdf:langString Nelson's house in Yorktown

rdf:langString Businessman, Politician, Merchant

rdf:langString Thomas "Scotch Tom" Nelson (1677–1747) was a businessman and politician who immigrated from England to become a merchant at Yorktown in the Colony of Virginia. He was from Penrith, Cumberland. Arriving at the beginning of the 18th century, he was the immigrant ancestor of the Nelsons, one of the First Families of Virginia. His son William Nelson (1711–1772) inherited the family business and acquired extensive land holdings throughout the colony. He developed plantations, devoted at first to tobacco and later to mixed crops. William became a powerful politician, serving as both president of the Governor's Council and as acting governor. William Nelson's son, Thomas Nelson Jr. (1739–1789) (grandson of "Scotch Tom"), was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a Brigadier General during the American Revolutionary War, when he was residing at Nelson House, and a governor after statehood. Nelson County, Virginia and Thomas Nelson Community College in the Virginia Peninsula subregion of Hampton Roads are among places named in honor of Thomas Nelson Jr. Scotch Tom's great-grandson, Hugh Nelson (1768–1836), served in the U.S. Congress. Among his other notable descendants were U.S. diplomat and noted author Thomas Nelson Page (1853–1922) and industrialist William Nelson Page (1854–1932), who co-founded the Virginian Railway with financier Henry Huttleston Rogers. The chemist Dr. Donna J. Nelson is Scotch Tom's sixth great-granddaughter.