Burwell family of Virginia
The Burwells were among the First Families of Virginia in the Colony of Virginia. John Quincy Adams once described the Burwells as typical Virginia aristocrats of their period: forthright, bland, somewhat imperious and politically simplistic by Adams' standards. In 1713, so many Burwells had intermarried with the Virginia political elite that Governor Spotswood complained that " the greater part of the present Council are related to the Family of Burwells...there will be no less than seven so near related that they will go off the Bench whenever a Cause of the Burwells come to be tried."
The family was closely associated with the Fairfield Plantation in Gloucester County, Virginia, but several Burwells also built and operated other Virginia and North Carolina plantations, some buildings of which survive today and are on the National Register of Historic Places. Lewis Burwell III built Kingsmill Plantation's manor house beginning in the 1730s. A few years later, Carter Burwell built Carter's Grove immediately to the east in what became the modern-day Grove Community. Nathaniel Burwell built Carter Hall circa 1795 in eastern Frederick County, Virginia on the approach to the Shenandoah Valley. In Granville County, North Carolina, Armistead Ravenscroft Burwell,, built Locust Lawn circa 1855. Place names deriving from the Tidewater aristocrats include Burwell's Bay in Isle of Wight County, Virginia.
While patriot Burwells served in the American Revolutionary War and War of 1812, and many Burwells served in the Virginia House of Delegates until the constitutional revision of 1850, the only politically significant Burwell of the post-Civil War period was Armistead Burwell, a former Confederate officer who became a North Carolina state senator and associate justice of that state's Supreme Court. The most militarily significant member of the family served in the 20th century: Lewis Burwell Puller, from West Point, Virginia became a war hero and Lieutenant General of the U.S. Marine Corps.
English ancestry
The Burwell family of Virginia originally came from Bedfordshire in England. Their early history is not completely known, but by 1607, they were living in Harlington, Bedfordshire at Harlington House — now known as Harlington Manor.Lewis Burwell I (1621–1653)
Maj. Lewis Burwell, was baptized on 5 March 1621/22 at Ampthill, Bedfordshire, England. In 1650, the wealthy planter married Lucy Higginson, whose parents had likewise emigrated to the Virginia colony to escape the English Civil War, but whose father Robert, after leading the Middle Plantation militia and arranging a stockade to protect against raiding Native Americans, had died in 1649, leaving his widow and daughter destitute. Lucy gave birth to one son before her husband died at age 33, when young Lewis Burwell was just an infant. They earliest Burwells lived at Carter's Creek, and after 1648 at Fairfield Plantation. Maj. Lewis Burwell was buried at Abingdon Church in Gloucester County. His widow Lucy remarried twice: first, to Col. William Barnard, son of Francis Bernard and Mary Woolhouse, and later to Col. Philip Ludwell, son of Thomas Ludwell and Jane Cottington.Lewis Burwell II (1652-c.1710)
Hon. Lewis Burwell was born circa 1652, to Maj. Lewis Burwell and his wife, the former Lucy Higginson. In addition to operating several plantations using enslaved labor, he served one term in the House of Burgesses and married twice. His first wife, Abigail Smith, the cousin of the rebel for whom Bacon's Rebellion is named, her parents being Anthony Smith and Martha Bacon. The widower later married Martha Lear, daughter of Col. John Lear.The second Lewis Burwell acquired Kings Creek Plantation, York County, Virginia, in 1693 from the estate of William Tayloe . The property was also indirectly related to Burwell's relative Nathaniel Bacon, who had married Elizabeth Kingsmill, the widow of said Tayloe. He was a governor of the College of William and Mary in 1702, and a member of the Virginia Governor's Council between 1702 and 1711. He resided at Carter's Creek in Gloucester County and died circa 1710. He is the namesake of "Burwell's Bay" in Isle of Wight County. This bay was originally called Warascoyack Bay until Burwell acquired significant land upon its shores.
Known children of Hon. Lewis Burwell and Abigail Smith included:
- Joanna Burwell, b. 1674/75; m. Hon. William Bassett.
- Elizabeth Burwell, b. Jun 1677; m. Hon. Benjamin Harrison III.
- Hon. Nathaniel Burwell, b. 1680; m. Elizabeth Carter, daughter of Robert "King" Carter of Corotoman
- Lewis Burwell; b. 16 Oct 1682 at Gloucester Co., VA; d. Sep 1696 at age 13.
- Lucy Burwell; b. 21 Nov 1683 at Gloucester Co., VA; m. Col. Edmund Berkeley, son of Edmund Berkeley and Mary, 1 Dec 1704; d. 16 Dec 1716 at age 33.
- Martha Burwell, b. 16 Nov 1685; m. Col. Henry Armistead.
- Bacon Burwell; b. 22 Feb 1687 at Gloucester Co., VA; d. before 1692; bur. at 'Carter's Creek', Gloucester Co., VA.
- Jane Burwell; baptized 16 Nov 1688; d. before 15 Mar 1691/92; bur. at 'Carter's Creek', Gloucester Co., VA.
- James Burwell; b. 4 Feb 1689/90 at Gloucester Co., VA; m. Mary Armistead, daughter of William Armistead and Anna Lee; 1st husband; d. 6 Oct 1718 at age 28. He resided at 'King's Creek', York Co., VA. He was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.
- ___ Burwell; b. after Mar 1691/92; m. Harry Seaton; 1st wife.
- John Burwell; b. c. 1695; d. 5 Apr 1763.
- Mary Burwell; b. 1697; d. 20 Jul 1701.
- Lewis Burwell; b. 1698; m. Martha Armistead in 1715, b.1695; later married her younger sister, Elizabeth Armistead born in 1699;.d in 1745. Frances Thacker, daughter of Edwin Thacker; d. 6 Sep 1744. He resided at 'Kings Creek', York Co., VA.
- Jane Burwell; b. c. 1701; died young.
- Martha Burwell, b. 1703; m. Col. John Martin.
- Armistead Burwell; b. 1703; d. 1754. He was a member of the House of Burgesses at Virginia from Williamsburg 1753-1754
Lewis Burwell III (1698–1743)
In the mid-1730s, British Colonel Lewis Burwell III took over from his father the Kingsmill Plantation after the family that first developed it and married into the Burwell family. He built a mansion and outbuildings as well as a garden. He became the colonial customs inspector for the upper James River. Burwell's Landing, site of his inspection station, also featured a tavern, storehouse, warehouse, and ferry house. Quarterpath Road extended between Burwell's Landing and Williamsburg. By 1740, shortly before this Burwell's death, most of the peninsula between the James and York Rivers was owned by Burwell families—this Lewis at Kingsmill, and trustees for sons of his late brothers Nathaniel at Martin's Hundred and James at King's Creek.This Lewis Burwell married Elizabeth Armistead, the sister-in-law of his half-brother James Burwell. They had two sons: another Lewis Burwell and Armistead Burwell. This Lewis' son Lewis Jr. continued his father's civic responsibilities as naval officer for the upper James River after 1752: he lived at Kingsmill, married Frances Thacker and named his first born Lewis. His grandson Nathaniel became the family's highest ranking military officer in the American Revolutionary War, rising to the rank of Major and moved to King William County, which he later represented in Virginia's House of Delegates.
Their second son, Armistead Burwell married Christian Blair and represented Williamsburg in the Virginia House of Burgesses before moving to Mecklenburg County, as did his nephew, Lewis's third son, Thacker Burwell. This Armistead Burwell's firstborn son Lewis served as a colonel during the American Revolutionary War and married twice. Armistead's son John moved to Dinwiddie County. Thacker's second son William A. Burwell discussed below become President Thomas Jefferson's secretary and the only member of the family to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.