Four primary documents from the Virginia planter who pledged his fortune and delivered on the pledge. The letter to Jefferson. The letter to Washington. The Yorktown command. The death in debt.
Thomas Nelson Jr. was born at Yorktown, Virginia in 1738, the eldest son of a wealthy planter-merchant family. He was sent to England at fourteen for his education, attending Eton and then Cambridge. He returned to Virginia in 1761, entered the family business, and was elected to the House of Burgesses while still aboard the ship bringing him home. He became one of the most outspoken advocates for independence in Virginia.
In Congress, Nelson moved that Virginia's delegates be authorized to vote for independence. He wrote to Thomas Jefferson on January 2, 1777, describing conditions in Virginia and urging Congress to press the war more aggressively. That letter is at Founders Online.
I suppose You have heard of the dreadful Situation of our State. It is past all description. The Enemy have penetrated into the very Heart of our Country and the Militia from the various Parts of the State, who could have stopt their Progress, have scarce made any Opposition.
Nelson's health broke under the strain of service and he resigned from Congress in 1777. He returned to command Virginia's state forces, personally organizing and funding militia units when state resources were exhausted. In June 1781, when Thomas Jefferson declined re-election as Governor, unable to serve a state under British invasion, Nelson succeeded him, serving simultaneously as civil Governor and commander of the Virginia Militia.
Nelson wrote to Washington on August 22, 1777 on the state of Virginia's defenses. Washington replied within two weeks. Both letters are at Founders Online.
In every part of Virginia the Militia are called out & yet none go. The Enemy are ravaging at pleasure & our people are fleeing before them like Sheep.
Nelson commanded the Virginia Militia during the Siege of Yorktown in the autumn of 1781, working alongside Washington and Rochambeau. His family home was in Yorktown. The account that Nelson personally ordered Continental artillery to fire on his own house, because British officers were quartered there, is described by the National Park Service and the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence as likely apocryphal. The house that was destroyed during the siege was that of his uncle, Secretary Thomas Nelson. His own house stands today with two cannonballs embedded in its brick walls.
What is confirmed in the record: Nelson spent extensively from his personal fortune to fund Virginia's war effort, borrowed money he could not repay, and left public life in November 1781 completely exhausted and effectively bankrupt.
Nelson resigned as Governor in November 1781, overcome by asthma and financial collapse. He had pledged his personal credit to fund the militia and could not repay what he had borrowed. His creditors pursued him. He spent his final years at an estate in Hanover County, Virginia, living with his son. He died on January 4, 1789, at the age of fifty, eleven years before most of his fellow Virginia signers.
His body was originally placed in an unmarked grave in Yorktown out of fear that creditors might claim it as collateral. He now rests under a marked stone near Grace Episcopal Church in Yorktown.
Thomas Nelson Jr. died on January 4, 1789, at Offley Hoo in Hanover County, Virginia, at the age of fifty. He is buried at Grace Episcopal Churchyard in Yorktown. His papers are at the Virginia Historical Society.