Francis Corbin was a Virginia lawyer, planter and politician, who represented Middlesex County in the Virginia House of Delegates and the Virginia Ratifying Convention and later moved to Caroline County.
11 Facts About Francis Corbin
1.
2.
The youngest son of Richard Corbin and his wife Elizabeth Tayloe, was born to the First Families of Virginia.
3.
Francis Corbin received a private education appropriate to his class.
4.
Francis Corbin petitioned the King in 1779 for financial assistance because his Loyalist father could no longer do so.
5.
Nonetheless, in the Virginia tax census of 1787, Francis Corbin paid taxes on 11 enslaved adults and 12 teenage slaves, as well as four horses and 26 cattle in Middlesex County.
6.
Francis Corbin moved to Caroline County about 1795, and focused on managing "The Reeds", his plantation that by 1811 expanded to more than 3700 acres.
7.
Francis Corbin died the following year, and his estate included 70 slaves aged 12 or older.
8.
Francis Corbin served on the House of Delegates's Committee of Propositions and Grievances in several years, as well as several times on the Committees of Commerce, for Courts of Justice, for Religion, Privileges and Elections, and of Claims.
9.
Francis Corbin was named to the five member committee to prepare a form of ratification, although he was in the minority in voting to prevent states from limiting the Congress's taxing power.
10.
Nonetheless, in 1791, Francis Corbin worked to ensure the House of Delegate ratified the first ten amendments to the federal Constitution as suggested by anti-Federalist George Mason in that Convention, and later proposed by James Madison.
11.
Francis Corbin died suddenly at his Caroline County plantation on May 23,1821, and was probably buried there.