Signed the Declaration of Independence
After his health and fortune were wrecked by the war, he moved his large family to a small estate in Hanover Co. There he died of asthma on January 4, 1789, a week after he became sixty.

According to family tradition, the Nelson House served as the second headquarters of Gen. Charles Cornwallis during the siege of Yorktown (September-October 1781), and with Nelson's permission American artillery shelled and hit the house. The historical record indicates that both British and French military personnel likely used it, but their identities cannot be definitely ascertained. And the southeast face of the residence does show evidence of damage from cannon fire.

The Marquis de Lafayette, who revisited the United States in 1824-25, was quartered there when in the former year he attended the celebration of the anniversary of the Battle of Yorktown, in which he had played a key role.

The home stands today as part of the Colonial National Historical Park.

THOMAS NELSON, JR. was the grandson of Thomas Nelson, known as "Scotch Tom", a merchant-planter who was the American founder of one of the wealthiest of Virginia families. His father was William Nelson, long a member of the Council and at one time acting Governor of the Province, who was generally known as "President Nelson". At the age of fourteen, young Nelson was sent to Eaton in England for his schooling. He subsequently graduated from Cambridge and returned to America in 1761 at the age of twenty-two. While still at sea on his way home from England, he was elected by York Co to the House of Burgesses. The following year, he married Lucy Grymes, daughter of Philip Grymes, Esq. of Middlesex Co. At the time of his marriage, his father gave him a large landed estate and a large sum of cash that enabled him to maintain an elegant lifestyle. The couple eventually had eleven children.

In May 1777, while attending congress, he was suddenly attacked with a disease of the head, probably of a paralytic nature, which, for a time, greatly impaired his memory. Nelson returned to Virginia and soon after he resigned his seat in congress. His health gradually improved and his services were again demanded by the public, and by the governor and council he was appointed brigadier general and commander in chief of the forces of the commonwealth. In this office he rendered his most important services to his country in general, and to the colony of Virginia in particular. His ample fortune enabled him, in cases of emergency, to advance money to carry the military.