SUMMARY
Ambrose Madison was a merchant and planter. The grandfather of President James Madison, he was murdered by three enslaved people shortly after moving to the estate that would become Montpelier. Born in King and Queen County, he acquired land and dealt in large sums of money from a young age. His father-in-law, a surveyor, had long been interested in the Piedmont region of Virginia and acquired land in the part of Spotsylvania County that later became Orange County. In 1723 he gave 4,675 acres to his two sons-in-law, including Madison, who sent a team of mostly enslaved people west to clear the land and plant tobacco. In the spring of 1732 Madison and his family moved to the estate, which he called Mount Pleasant. A few months later, however, he fell ill and died. Three enslaved people were convicted of poisoning him and one was executed.
The NCAA Volleyball Tournament Begins Today!
offtackleempire.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from offtackleempire.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Huskers Gear Up for NCAA Tourney in Omaha
newschannelnebraska.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newschannelnebraska.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Husker Gear Up for NCAA Tourney in Omaha
huskerstoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from huskerstoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
SUMMARY
John Baylor III was a wealthy planter and one of the most significant importers and breeders of thoroughbred horses in pre-Revolutionary America. The son of a slave dealer described by Robert “King” Carter as “the greatest merchant in our country,” Baylor was educated in England and, upon his return to Virginia, granted land along the Mattaponi River, where he built his estate, Newmarket. He represented Caroline County in the House of Burgesses (1742–1752; 1756–1765) and on the county court before falling out of political favor in a dispute over how best to oppose the Stamp Act (1765). Baylor’s deepest passion was elite horseflesh and it nearly bankrupted him. By the mid-1750s, he had given up racing and was instead importing, at great expense, a dozen or more of the colony’s best thoroughbreds, which attracted the mares of George Washington, among others, for breeding. In 1764, he purchased the thoroughbred Fearnought for the unprecedented price of a thousan