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James Henderson (17641818)

Role

James Henderson and Bushrod Washington corresponded regarding the Dismal Swamp Company.

Description

James Henderson was born in Scotland in 1764. After immigrating to the United States in 1785, he was ordained an Episcopal minister and served as a rector in southeast Virginia. Henderson was also an adjunct professor of humanity at The College of William and Mary, a director of Williamsburg’s institution for the insane, a shareholder in the Dismal Swamp Company, and president of the Dismal Swamp Land Company. Henderson married twice: to Jane Blair (17601800, m.

Citations

"Enclosure: Thomas Main to James Henderson, [1811]," Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-10-02-0115-0002. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 10, May 1816 to 18 January 1817, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, pp. 197–198.]

Charles Royster, The Fabulous History of the Dismal Swamp Company: A Story of George Washington’s Times (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999), 414, 420–23.

A Guide to the George Washington Estate Papers, 17841870, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville (Archival Resources of the Virginias).

James Henderson to Bushrod Washington, 12 March 1811, Swann Auction Galleries, Printed & Manuscript African Americana: March 28, 2019 (Sale 2503), Lot 20.

Rev James Henderson at Find a Grave.

Rev. James Hamilton Henderson at FamilySearch.