University of Virginia Library

NICHOLAS.

The first patentee of land on James River within the
present county was George Nicholas, of Williamsburg. He
made the entry—the third in the county—of twenty-six hundred
acres in 1729. This was Dr. George Nicholas, the
immigrant, as the same land descended to his eldest son,
Robert Carter Nicholas, Treasurer of the colony. Robert
Carter never lived in Albemarle. John, Dr. George's second
son, became its Clerk in 1750, and continued to hold the
office till 1792. In that year he resigned, and spent the
remainder of his life in the southern part of the county, or
in Buckingham. His wife was Martha, daughter of Colonel
Joshua Fry, and his children John, Robert, George, Joshua,
Elizabeth, and another daughter, the wife of a Scott. John

succeeded his father as Clerk. He was an extensive dealer
in the real estate of the county. He purchased a large plantation
near Ivy Depot, on which he lived for some years,
and which he sold to Dabney and Thomas Gooch. He
became the owner of all the land surrounding Charlottesville
on the south and west, extending from the Scottsville Road
to Meadow Creek. His last residence was at Hor de Ville,
where James D. Goodman now lives. In 1815 he resigned
his office, and removed to Buckingham. His wife was
Louisa Howe Carter, of Williamsburg. His brother Joshua,
who was for a time his deputy, married Sarah, daughter of
Peter Marks, and removed to Charlotte County.

Three of Robert Carter Nicholas's sons, George, Wilson
Cary and Lewis, were residents of Albemarle. George was
Captain, Major and Colonel in the Revolutionary army.
After the war he practised law in Charlottesville, and in 1788
was a member of the House of Delegates, and of the Convention
to ratify the United States Constitution. He owned the
square on which Lipscomb's Stable stands, and built as his
residence the stone house, which was long known as the
Stone Tavern. He purchased about two thousand acres of
land in the county, part of it that on which the University
stands, part on Moore's Creek, and part in the western section
on Ivy Creek and Lickinghole. He married Mary, sister
of General Samuel Smith, of Baltimore. In 1790 he
removed to Kentucky, was active in its formation as a State,
and was its first Attorney General. At the time of his
removal, he sold most of his lands to Samuel Beale, of James
City, but died in 1799 before they were transferred; and this
act was not accomplished till 1818, when James Morrison,
his executor, conveyed them to Beale's heirs.

Wilson Cary was also a soldier of the Revolution, the
commander of Washington's Life Guards. He filled the
offices of magistrate of the county, member of the Legislature,
United States Senator, and Governor of Virginia. His
home was on his plantation on James River, including Warren,
which he laid out as a town in 1794. His desire for
acquiring the broad acres amounted to a passion. Besides

his possessions in the southern part of the county, he owned
about two thousand acres at the Barracks, more than a thousand
on both sides of the Rivanna, including Carrsbrook,
and tens of thousands of acres in Bedford and Botetourt,
and on the Ohio River. He was in consequence greatly
oppressed with burdensome debts, which no doubt contributed
to the shortening of his days. Being advised to
travel on account of ill health, he set out for the North; but
unable to continue his journey, he returned on his way home
as far as Tufton, then the residence of his son-in-law, Colonel
T. J. Randolph, where he died in 1820. His wife was
Margaret, sister of his brother George's wife, and his children
Mary, the wife of John Patterson, Cary Ann, the wife
of John Smith, and mother of Margaret, Robert Hill Carter's
wife, Robert C., Wilson C., Margaret, Jane, the wife of T.
J. Randolph, John S., Sarah, and Sidney, the wife of Dabney
Carr, Minister to Constantinople.

Lewis had his home at Alta Vista, a fine plantation west
of Green Mountain. He became involved in his brother
Wilson's embarrassments, and was thereby seriously broken
in fortune. He married Frances, daughter of William Harris,
and his children were John S., Wilson C., Robert, Cary Ann,
the wife of Rev. Charles Wingfield, and Sarah, the wife of
John H. Coleman. John S. and Wilson C. were appointed
magistrates of the county in 1838.