26-Patrick Henry and Sarah Shelton

In October of 1754, eighteen year old Patrick Henry wrapped up the nearly two year long task of closing the shop he and his brother had run. He could now put this failed shop keeping experience behind him as he prepared to move forward in his new role as the husband of Sarah Shelton. A twentieth century Shelton descendant shared the fact that young couples would often meet and courtships would develop at local house parties and family social events.[1] Sixteen year old “Sallie” was the beautiful daughter of John and Eleanor Shelton, a respected Hanover couple who lived just a few miles from Studley Plantation, Patrick’s boyhood home. Sarah’s maternal grandfather was William Parks of Williamsburg, the first publisher of the famed Virginia Gazette. In coming years, the Gazette would be a publication which chronicled much of Patrick Henry’s political activity.

Shelton family tradition tells of the marriage taking place in the front parlor of the Shelton home, “Rural Plains”. The two story red brick house still stands today, and is interpreted by The National Park Service as a central part of the Battle of Totopotomoy Creek, which occurred towards the end of May in 1864. Until about 2001, the house was continuously owned for well over two and a half centuries by Sheltons, making it one of the oldest, if not the oldest home in the United States continuously owned by a single family.

Perhaps on one of his many visits to the house, before saying goodnight, as the sun disappeared, Patrick held Sarah in his arms in the open front yard of Rural Plains. Together they may have soaked up the quiet beauty of the moment, looking skywards as the stars slowly appeared over the house. The marriage was likely officiated by the groom’s uncle, the Reverend Patrick Henry, as well as Reverend Barrett from neighboring St. Martin’s Parish.[2]  

Sarah’s father helped the couple get started on their own by providing, “six negroes, a half tract of poor land, containing three hundred acres, called Pine Slash, and adjoining her father’s place.”[3] Patrick was now an owner and manager of his own farm. On this parcel, he worked the land, sharing the burden of labor with his own work force. William Wirt paints a picture for us regarding young Patrick and his place in life. “It is curious to contemplate this giant genius, destined in a few years to guide the councils of a mighty nation, but unconscious of the intellectual treasures which he possessed, encumbered, at the early age of eighteen, with the cares of a family; obscure, unknown, and almost unpitied; digging, with wearied limbs and with an aching heart, a small spot of barren earth, for bread, and blessing the hour of night which relieved him from toil. Little could the wealthy and great of the land, as they rolled along the highway in splendor, and beheld the young rustic at work in the course garb of a laborer, covered with dust and melting in the sun, have suspected that this was the man who was destined not only to humble their pride, but to make the prince himself tremble on his distant throne, and to shake the brightest jewels from the British crown.”[4]

Whatever had been concluded about the child Patrick Henry and his ambition, or lack thereof, was put to rest at Pine Slash. Patrick was a hard working young man, willing to do what needed to be done to provide for his family. In 1755, seventeen year old Sarah gave birth to Martha, the first of the couple’s six children. Historian Hugh Blair Grigsby, in his work, History Of The Virginia Federal Convention of 1788, said of Henry, “the cradle began to rock in his house in his eighteenth year, and was rocking at his death in his sixty-third.”[5]

The previous few years in Patrick’s life had been quite a challenge for the teenager. He worked with his brother at the country store, and after its failure, the responsibility fell on him to sell off the inventory and closed the books. He then entered marriage and worked the land on the farm he was given. Growing up on two farms, Patrick was familiar with the manual labor involved, as perhaps he was getting a sense of the business of farming. At this point, he may have begun to accept his place in life as a farmer, but as we shall see, 1757 brought with it another twist which changed the course of Patrick Henry’s life.

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[1] Robert Douthat Meade, Patrick Henry: Patriot In The Making, p 80

[2] Ibid, pp 80-81

[3] W.W. Henry, Life, Correspondence, and Speeches, pp 16-17

[4] William Wirt, Sketches, pp 29-30

[5] Hugh Blair Grigsby, History Of The Virginia Federal Convention of 1788, (1890, Richmond, Virginia Historical Society), p 42