Captain Thomas Harwood emigrated from Britain and became a soldier, landowner and politician in the Colony of Virginia.
15 Facts About Thomas Harwood
1.
2.
Thomas Harwood founded a family which like him for generations often represented the area now known as Newport News, but which in his day was known as Mulberry Island, and later Warwick River and still later Warwick County.
3.
Thomas Harwood was born in 1600 in Thurby, Lincolnshire, England, the youngest son of George Thomas Harwood and his wife, Dublin-born Catherine Phesant.
4.
Thomas Harwood immigrated to Jamestown in the Virginia colony from England aboard the Margaret and John in 1623, shortly after the Native American massacre of 1622.
5.
Thomas Harwood's uncle Sir Edward Harwood was a stockholder in the Virginia Company and his brother William was captain-governor of the Martin's Hundred settlement, including during that massacre.
6.
Over time Thomas Harwood increased his Mulberry Island acreage with various purchases as well as governmental grants.
7.
Thomas Harwood patented large tracts on both sides of Skiffe's Creek, based on immigrants he had brought to the colony.
8.
Thomas Harwood created a plantation on Skiffe's Creek called Queen Hith or "Queen Hive".
9.
Harvey had Thomas Harwood jailed temporarily in England, but he was quickly released, and returned to Virginia to acclaim.
10.
Thomas Harwood won several later elections for the House of Burgesses, but did not serve in every term during the 1640s.
11.
Thomas Harwood was a tobacco viewer, safeguarding the quality of the colony's main export.
12.
Thomas Harwood was named to the legislature's upper body after the colony recognized Parliament's authority and shortly before his death in 1652.
13.
Thomas Harwood died in 1652, and likely was buried on his plantation.
14.
Thomas Harwood's descendants continued to represent Warwick county in the House of Burgesses for more than a century, the first being Humphrey, then his son William.
15.
Subsequent archeological excavations indicated that Thomas Harwood descendants improved the house and made that plantation their main residence until about 1720, when his grandson William moved the family's headquarters further inland.