Armistead Burwell (planter)


Armistead Burwell in Dinwiddie County, Virginia as a planter. He was a Colonial of the War of 1812.

Early life and education

Armistead Burwell, born on December 13, 1777, was the son of John and Ann Powell Burwell, who were married on December 5, 1771. He was the third of six children: Elizabeth, Anne, Armistead, Frances, Hannah, and Anna.

Family

Marriage and children

On December 13, 1800, Burwell married Mary Cole Turnbull of White Hill, near Petersburg, Virginia. Their children were:
He was a grandfather Armistead Burwell, a North Carolina Supreme Court Justice.

Fathered a child

One of Burwell's slaves, Agnes, was a light-skinned house slave, whose white ancestors were aristocrats. They had some sort of relationship which resulted in the birth of Elizabeth Hobbs in 1818 in Dinwiddie County Court House, Dinwiddie, Virginia, just south of Petersburg. Because her mother was a slave, Elizabeth was born into slavery.
Agnes made clothes for 82 people, 12 members of the Burwell family and 70 slaves. She learned to read and write, which was rare for slaves. Burwell permitted Agnes to marry George Pleasant Hobbs, a literate enslaved man who lived and worked at a neighbor's house during Keckley's early childhood. Keckley learned that her father was Armistead Burwell from her mother just before she died.
She is best known for being the modiste and close friend to Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of Abraham Lincoln.

Career

Burwell owned over fifty slaves.

Death

He died at Mansfield, near Petersburg, in 1841. He is buried in Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia.