HARVIE.
John Harvie was a native of Stirlingshire, Scotland, and
at the time Albemarle was organized, was living at Belmont
near Keswick, a place he bought from Matthew Graves.
He was the guardian of Mr. Jefferson, and one of the
earliest efforts of the great statesman's pen, was an inquiry
addressed to Mr. Harvie respecting the method of his education.
He died in 1767. His wife was Martha Gaines, and
his children Richard, John, Daniel, who married Sarah
Taliaferro, William, who married Judith Cosby, Martha,
the wife of John Moore, Margaret, the wife of John Davenport,
Elizabeth, the wife of James Marks, Janet, the wife of
Reuben Jordan, and Mary, the wife of David Meriwether.
Some of these families resided for a time in Amherst, but
all except John emigrated to Wilkes County, Georgia, in
the decade of 1780.
John was a prominent man in his generation. He was
one of the first lawyers in point of time who practiced at the
Albemarle bar. He was a member of the House of Burgesses,
and of the Continental Congress. He owned large
tracts of land in the county, among them Belmont, the Barracks
and Pen Park. By his influence as a Congressman,
he procured the establishment of the Prison Camp at the
Barracks. He made his home for some years at Belmont,
but on receiving from Mr. Jefferson the appointment of
Register of the Land Office he removed to Richmond, and
continued in the discharge of its duties during the remainder
of his life. He died at Belvidere, his country seat near
Richmond, in 1807. He was a public spirited man, and did
much to improve his city property, building among other
houses what was afterwards known as the Gamble mansion,
in the erection of which his death was caused by falling
from a ladder. His wife was Margaret, daughter of Gabriel
Jones, the distinguished Valley lawyer. His son Jacquelin
married Mary, the only daughter of Chief Justice Marshall,
and his daughter Gabrielle, a great beauty and wit, became
the wife of the elder Thomas Mann Randolph in his old age,
a marriage which produced a prodigious sensation at the
time, and which occasioned some prudent advice on the part
of Mr. Jefferson to his daughter, the wife of Mr. Randolph's
son, in accordance with the wonderful practical wisdom that
dwelt in the man. After the death of her husband, Gabrielle
was married to Dr. John W. Brockenbrough, of Richmond
and the Warm Springs.
