General Notes

1. Nathaniel settled near the center of the County (Prince Edward, formed from Amelia County. 1753) and owned the lands on which the old Court House and its surrounding village, now Worsham, stands. Something ove a mile in a southwesterly direction from Whorsham is the ancient family seat of "Slate Hill" where Nathaniel Venable lived, reared his family, and died.

2. SURN Venable GIVN Nathaniel _UID 95B128ABEDDFBA48A84A6B52A4E6811DBECE Nathaniel Venable "of Slate Hill," was member of House ofBurgesses, and VA House of Delegates, 1766-1769-1776 and StateSenator, 1780-1785, Pr. Edw. Co., VA. In 1783 Va tax list, 10 whites, 43 blacks, making Nathaniel thethird largest slave owner in Pr. Edw. Co.; in 1785, 5 shites,one dwelling, 9 other bldgs (tax list). Rev. War service: Member of Comm. of Safety; DAR #649174 &28306. Journal, VA House of Burgesses Venables of VA, pp. 25, 25, 28 Genealogies of VA Families, Vol. 1, p. 658 History of Prince Edw. Co., VA, H. C. Bradshaw, pp. 832, andplastes #1 and 28; also pp. 844-845. Photo of Slate Hill. William and Mary Quarterly, Series 1, Vol. 15, pp. 245-8 Papers of Harriet V. Miller: Nathaniel owned 20-30 thousandacres and 100 slaves; was vestryman of St. Patrick's Pariesh andorganized the first Presbyterian Church in Pr. Edw. Co.; wasfirst Episcopalian (which was the state church of Va before Rev.War) and later Presbyterian. Founder of Hamden-Sidney College. REPO @@REPO2@@ TITL Ancestry.com file 14810.ged AUTH slassen@@InfoAve.Net DATE 20 May 2001 TIME 11:05:33 2. He first settled in Buckingham County, Virginia.

3. Nathaniel Venable was born 21 Oct 1733 in Hanover County, VA. His father was Abraham Venable II and his mother Martha Davis. He married Elizabeth Woodson on 29 March 1755 in VA. He was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Justice of Prince Edward County, officer in the militia, member of the House of Burgesses, one of the foundrs and member of the Board of Trustees of Hampden-Sidney College, and a vestryman at St. Patricks Episcopal Church. Nathaniel died 27 dec 1804 in Prince Edward County and is buried in the Slate Hill Family Cemetery, VA. 4. Nathaniel Venable "of Slate Hill," was member of House ofBurgesses, and VA House of Delegates, 1766-1769-1776 and StateSenator, 1780-1785, Pr. Edw. Co., VA. In 1783 Va tax list, 10 whites, 43 blacks, making Nathaniel thethird largest slave owner in Pr. Edw. Co.; in 1785, 5 shites,one dwelling, 9 other bldgs (tax list). Rev. War service: Member of Comm. of Safety; DAR #649174 &28306.

4. From "The Venables of Virginia," by Elizabeth Marshall Venable, at pages 25-28:

"The 'Slate Hill' plantation was an extensive estate of twenty or thirty thousand acres, served by something like a hundred slaves. The house was a simple story and a half affair, the unostentatious dwelling of a pioneer in a new country -- for that is what Prince Edward County was when Nathaniel Venable came to live there -- though the spacious rooms, lofty ceilings, massive fireplaces, and extensive bookcases gave it an unmistakable charm.
"Nathaniel Venable seems to have taken a more active part in public affairs than any of his brothers. In the 'Life of Rev. Archibald Alexander, D.D.' by Dr. J. W. Alexander, p.128, we find the following reference to him:

" 'Three brothers were among the first settlers in Prince Edward. Nathaniel owned the place on which the Court House was built, and for a long time was an Elder in the church and represented the County in the Legislature. He was also an active trustee of Hampden-Sidney College.'

"Nathaniel Venable had been a member of the House of Burgesses prior to the Revolution and of the Virginia House of Delegates, 1766, 1769, 1776, and as indicated in this extract, was a member of the State Senate, 1780-82, after the change of state government.
"We find from Footes' 'Sketches of Virginia,' that Nathaniel Venable was one of the leading spirits among the founders and early supporters of Hampden-Sidney College. It may be said that the College had its birth in the library of his house. A special session of the Presbytery met at his residence, 'Slate Hill,' on the first day of February, 1775, for the purpose of taking measures to establish at once an Academy of Learning. A Board of Trustees was elected, consisting of twelve gentlemen, of whom Nathaniel Venable was one. At the same meeting he was appointed on a committee to draw plans for the necessary buildings, and to let out their construction. He was also appointed on a committee to survey and mark out the bounds of a hundred acres of land donated by Peter Johnstone (the grandfather of Gen. J. E. Johnstone), for the purposes of the Academy, and to secure title to the same. At the first meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Academy, of which there is any record, an order was passed allowing 'N. Venable and P. Carrington to build cabins for the use of their boys.' A few years after the inauguration of the Academy it encountered great difficulties in consequence of the state of the country resulting from the war, and it was thought for a time that it would have to be discontinued.

" 'The chief difficulty was in procuring provisions for the students and in securing some one to attend to its preparation. Nathaniel Venable and James Allen, Sr., came to the rescue, pledged themselves to furnish twelve months' provisions, and contracted with Mr. Young to act as Steward and furnish board at twenty pounds per student, per annum.'

"In 1783, Prince Edward Academy was chartered as a college by the legislature. Its Board of Trustees comprised of twenty-seven persons. The names of Nathaniel Venable, his brother, James, his eldest son, Samuel Woodson Venable, are found among the number. In the list we find the names of Patrick Henry, James Madison, Paul Carrington, Francis Watkins, John Morton, John Nash and others prominent in state and local history. In speaking of the name adopted for the college, the historian says:

" 'The names of such men as Morton, Venable, Nash, Watkins, Allen, Henry, Carrington, men honored for their patriotism and religion, sound well in conjunction with two patriots of England, Hampden and Sidney, whose names were early and significantly united to indicate the principles that should be taught there and to give it a name. (Footes "Sketches of Virginia" p.399)'

"Nathaniel Venable was an earnest patriot, one who contributed his utmost to the cause of the colonies.

" 'When Tarleton and Arnold invaded Virginia, a detachment passed through Prince Edward on a general plundering expedition. This they could do with impunity as all the able-bodied men were absent in the American Army. They visited 'Slate Hill' with the purpose of capturing Nathaniel Venable; but he escaped them, having received timely warning of their approach. They committed some robberies, destroyed some furniture, and one of their number, with a pistol pointed at the breast of Mrs. Venable, demanded that she reveal her husband's whereabouts, or he would shoot her down. Her calm reply was, 'Fire away! My husband has his country to defend!.' At this instance an officer intervened and ordered away the man who had offered the indignity, severely reprimanding him.'

"As evidence of the public spirit of Nathaniel Venable we quote the following:

" 'When the Government was greatly embarrassed on account of the condition of its finances, and Continental money had depreciated until it was denounced as worthless all over the country, and the people were almost in rebellion on that account, he advertised his faith in the Government by proclaiming his readiness to accept Continental money for all of his dues. Among the early recollections of this writer (Abraham B. Venable of 'Scott-Greene') is the memory of his seeing a large quantity of this money in an old chest in the 'office' in the yard at 'Slate Hill.'

"William M. Thornton, L.L.D., of the University of Virginia, in a Sketch of Charles Scott Venable, published in 1901, makes the following remarks:

" 'Col. Nathaniel Venable of 'Slate Hill', a roistering blade in early youth, but always a man of force and later a pious, strenuous life, was merchant, planter, member of the House of Burgesses, and later of the Legislature of Virginia, and was a Lieutenant of Prince Edward County . . . . Educated at William and Mary College, Williamsburg, he was a mathematician of some local renown, witness the clergyman who preached the sermon at his funeral and began the discourse by saying that 'his late friend had gone to the land where neither calumny nor praise could reach him; but it was simply due to the truth to state that he had been the best mathematician in Prince Edward County.' Always, in all things a strenuous, forceful, eager man, an Episcopalian at first, vestry-man of St. Patrick's Parrish in Prince Edwards County (the vestry book in his own hand writing is now at the Episcopal Seminary at Alexandria Virginia) and bearing on dissenters with a hard and, forbidding the Presbyterian clergymen to preach in the churches and the like, he later became a Republican, and, an even more zealous Presbyterian; tore down the Episcopal church at Kingsville; raised funds and built a Presbyterian church at Farmville; and as we have seen was the mainstay and founder of the college at Hampden-Sidney.' "

The "office" of Nathaniel Venable that stood in the yard at "Slate Hill," which was recalled by Abraham B. Venable in the excerpt quoted above, is now on the grounds of the campus at Hampden-Sydney near Farmville, Virginia. The building, first built in the 1750s, is on numerous historical registers.
Nathaniel Venable was undoubtedly a close acquaintance of John Witherspoon. Venable sent three sons to Princeton at a time when John Witherspon was travelling about Virginia to generate interest in Princeton among the southern states. It is said that Witherspoon suggested that Hampton Sidney be founded. We know for sure that his son-in-law, Samuel Stanhope Smith, was the first president of Hampton Sidney, and it is very likely Witherspoon made a number of trips to Prince Edward Coutny to visit his eldest child. A letter has been preserved fron Nathaniel's brother Abraham to Witherspoon relating details of the mariage of a mutual acquaintance.

* Education: William and Mary College, Williamsburg, Virginia
More About Col. Nathaniel Venable:
Military service: William and Mary College680
Occupation: Planter and Merchant681
Public Service: Member, Virginia House of Burgesses681
Public Service #2: Member, Virginia House of Delegates, 1766, 1769 and 1776681
Public Service #3: Member, Virginia State Senate, 1780-1782681
Public Service #4: 1775, Leading founder of Hampden-Sidney Academy682
Public Service #5: 1783, Among first trustees of Hampden-Sydney College683
Religion: Presbyterian684

HISTORY OF HAMDPEN-SYDNEY COLLEGE

Hampden-Sydney began as the southernmost representative o f the "Log College" form of higher education established b y the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians in America, whose academi c ideal was the University of Edinburgh, seat of the Scotti sh Enlightenment.

The first president, at the suggestion of Dr. Witherspoon , the Scottish president of the College of New Jersey (no w Princeton University), chose the name Hampden-Sydney to s ymbolize devotion to the principles of representative gover nment and full civil and religious freedom which John Hampd en (1594-1643) and Algernon Sydney (1622-1683) had outspoke nly supported, and for which they had given their lives, in

Pokeberries
England's two great constitutional crises of the previous c entury. They were widely invoked as hero-martyrs by America n colonial patriots, and their names immediately associate d the College with the cause of independence championed b y James Madison, Patrick Henry, and other less well-known b ut equally vigorous patriots who composed the College's fir st Board of Trustees. Indeed, the original students eagerl y committed themselves to the revolutionary effort, organiz ed a militia-company, drilled regularly, and went off to th e defenses of Williamsburg, and of Petersburg, in 1777 an d 1778 respectively. Their uniform of hunting-shirts — dye d purple with the juice of pokeberries — and grey trouser s justifies the College's traditional colors, garnet and gr ey.

The College, first proposed in 1771, was formally organize d in February 1775, when the Presbytery of Hanover, meetin g at Nathaniel Venable's Slate Hill plantation (about two m iles south of the present campus), accepted a gift of one h undred acres for the College, elected Trustees (most of who m were Episcopalian), and named as Rector (later President ) the Rev. Samuel Stanhope Smith, valedictorian of the Prin ceton class of 1769, who had been actively promoting the id ea of establishing a college in the heavily Scotch-Irish ar ea of south-central Virginia since he began his ministry th ere in 1774. Within only ten months, Smith secured an adequ ate subscription of funds and an enrollment of 110 students . Intending to model the new college after his own alma mat er, he journeyed to Princeton to secure the founding facult y, which included his younger brother, John Blair Smith. O n that 1775 trip he also visited Philadelphia to enlist sup port and to purchase a library and scientific apparatus. St udents and faculty gathered for the opening of the first wi nter term on 10 November 1775. The College has never suspen ded operations.