Henry Corbin (also Corbyn; 1629–1675/76) was an emigrant from England who became a tobacco planter in the Virginia colony and served in both houses of the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, the first elected legislative assembly in the New World, and was established on July 30, 161 ...

, in the

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been established ...

representing Lancaster County before the creation of Middlesex County on Virginia's Middle Neck, then on the

Governor's Council The governments of the Thirteen Colonies of British America developed in the 17th and 18th centuries under the influence of the Constitution of the United Kingdom, British constitution. After the Thirteen Colonies had become the United States, the e ...

. His Daughter Francis (1666-1713) married Edmund Jennings (1659-1727) son of Edmund Jennings (1626-1691) and Margaret Barkham (1626-1726)

Early life

Corbin was born in 1629 in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, the son of Sir Thomas Corbin and his wife Winifred Grosvenor.

Colonial planter and politician

In 1654, at the age of 25, he immigrated across the Atlantic Ocean, arriving in the

Virginia Colony The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...

aboard the ship Charity. Corbin settled on the Middle Neck and operated tobacco plantations using enslaved labour. In 1668, during the lengthy creation of Middlesex County from the part of Lancaster County south of the

Rappahannock River The Rappahannock River is a river in eastern Virginia, in the United States, approximately in length.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 It traverses the entir ...

, Corbin paid taxes for eighteen tithables, the most on that side. The governor and council made Corbin a justice of the Lancaster County court in 1657. Lancaster County voters in both 1659 and 1660 elected Corbin as one of their representatives in the

, alongside the county's largest plantation owner, John Carter, Sr., who lived and operated plantations on the Rappahannock's northern shore (with 58 tithables in 1668). In 1663, Corbin was appointed to the

Virginia Governor's Council The Governor's Council (also known as the "Council of State" or simply "the Council") was the upper house of the colonial legislature (the House of Burgesses was the other house) in the Colony of Virginia from 1607 until the American Revolution i ...

. He remained on the council until his death in 1676.

Family

He married Alice ( Eltonhead), the widow of Rowland Burnham, before April 5, 1658. They had three sons (Henry, Thomas, and Gawin), and five daughters ( Laetitia, Alice, Winifred, Ann, and Frances). Henry Corbin died on January 8, 1675. His widow married (3rd) Capt. Henry Creyke (or Creeke) Letitia married

Richard Lee II Colonel Richard Lee II ( – ) was an American planter, politician and military officer from Northumberland County, Virginia who served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly and was captured during Bacon's Rebellion. Early life Bor ...

, a Colonel, planter, politician, and Member of the Upper House and of the King's Council of Virginia. Ann married William Tayloe, the nephew of

William Tayloe (the immigrant) Colonel William Tayloe also known as William Teylow, was a British immigrant, colonist, and planter, from Gloucester, England, who emigrated to the British Colony of Virginia and resided in York County. His coat of arms, ''Vert a sword erect Or ...

of King's Creek Plantation and High Sheriff of York Co., Virginia, the father of

John Tayloe I Col. John Tayloe I (February 15, 1688November 15, 1747) was one of the richest plantation owners and businessmen in Virginia for his generation. Considered to be the chief architect of the family fortune, he was known as the "Hon. Colonel of the Ol ...

of The Old House and progenitor of the Tayloe's of

Mount Airy, Richmond County, Virginia Mount Airy, near Warsaw in Richmond County, Virginia, is the first neo-Palladian villa mid-Georgian plantation house built in the United States. It was constructed in 1764 for Colonel John Tayloe II, perhaps the richest Virginia planter of his ...

."The Tayloes of Virginia and Allied Families," by W. Randolph Tayloe (Berryville, VA, 1963) p.1,79. FHL #929.273 T211t. Cites: (a) York Co., VA deeds.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Corbin, Henry People from the Borough of North Warwickshire People of colonial Maryland Virginia colonial people House of Burgesses members 1629 births 1676 deaths People from Lancaster County, Virginia