Betsy Ambler: The Fairfield Connection

By Sara Lewis, Fairfield Foundation Grants Manager and Researcher

A few weeks before Ken Burns’ American Revolution series premiered on PBS, I listened to an interview with co-director Sarah Botstein on a favorite podcast, The History Chicks. Botstein explained that she wanted a child’s perspective woven into the documentary. Co-producer David Schmidt, a Williamsburg native, suggested she explore the letters of Betsy Ambler of Yorktown (1765–1847).

I perked up at the name. Betsy was the granddaughter of Lewis Burwell I of Fairfield (1711–1756), niece of Lewis Burwell II (1737–1779), and first cousin of Lewis Burwell III (1764–1833). Lewis Burwell III is connected to my own family through his marriage to my third cousin, six-times removed, Judith Kennon — so I can claim a loose family tie. I listened carefully as pieces of Betsy’s correspondence were woven throughout the 5-day, 12-hour PBS series, though it’s no surprise her Burwell ancestry was left unmentioned.

The ancestral home of the Burwell family, Fairfield, burned in 1897, shortly after this photograph was taken.

Betsy Ambler was the eldest daughter of Rebecca Burwell (1746-1806), sister of Lewis Burwell II. She is often remembered for jilting young Thomas Jefferson, who was smitten by her. She married Jacquelin Ambler instead. 

After the series aired, I felt compelled to visit the Eliza Jacquelin Ambler Papers, 1780–1832, at Colonial Williamsburg’s Rockefeller Library to see what else her correspondence might reveal. I wanted to confirm her Revolutionary-era experiences — and see whether she made any mention of her Burwell heritage.

The first letter I opened was one catalogued as containing family history. As my family’s genealogist, I was delighted to read her thoughts on the value of keeping such records:

“… when Years encrease, we love to trace our Genealogy, and are eager to gratify the Young enquirer; what Grand pa, and Grand Ma said; where they lived; and from whence they came; I have often thought if in every family, one, who had leisure, would employ a portion of it, in handing down remarkable and interesting circumstances; and characters amongst themselves; a door, of improvement would be opened that might prove advantageous …”

But Betsy’s own genealogical interest focused much more on the Ambler side of her family, and on the parents and siblings among whom she grew up. Her knowledge of the Burwells appears limited — likely because her mother, Rebecca Burwell (1746–1806), had little knowledge of Fairfield or of earlier Burwell generations.

Rebecca Burwell had been orphaned as a child. Her mother, Mary Willis Burwell, died soon after Rebecca was born and her father, Lewis Burwell I (1711-1756), died when she was ten. The youngest sibling, Rebecca was raised by her Aunt Betty Burwell, who lived in Yorktown with her husband William Nelson. Her older siblings went to Rosewell to be brought up by Uncle John Page and Aunt Francis Burwell Page.

Aunt Betty Burwell Nelson of Yorktown.

Like Rebecca and her siblings, Aunt Betty Burwell Nelson was born at Fairfield and orphaned young. Aunt Betty and the earlier generation of orphaned Burwells were all raised at Rosewell, in this case by Grandmother Judith Carter Page.

Perhaps because of their parents’ shortened lives, neither Niece Rebecca nor Aunt Betty spent much time at Fairfield manor- apparently too little to develop an affection for the Burwell ancestral home. Fairfield was small by comparison to Rosewell, full of siblings and cousins, and was built in an old-fashioned Jacobean-Georgian style in 1694.

Betsy explained her mother’s suffering with deep compassion:

“A nervouse malady begun in early life laid the foundation as years encreased for sufferings and sorrows beyond the power of description, but the natural sprightleness of her mind, and great bodily exertions prevented her ever sinking entirely under them.”

Family history from Betsy’s 1807 letter to her sister.

In an 1807 letter to her younger sister, Ann Fisher, Betsy described her father’s lineage, education, and career. Near the end she wrote,

“… at 24 he married Rebecca Burwell youngest daughter of Lewis Burwell of Carters creek Gloster. Our Mother was left an orphan at the age of ten and was taken into the Family of William Nelson of York President of the Kings Council who had married her fathers only sister; having no daughter of her own she took great delight in having the charge of our Mother. Our Grand-Father Lewis Burwell as well as his wife Mary Willis were the Grand children of the first Carter that settled in Virginia from them descended Lewis Burwell who married Judith Page eldest daughter of Mann Page of Rosewell, Elizabeth, who married Peter B. Whiting, Ann who married first Armstead Lightfoot of York; and afterwards one Charles Grymes. Our Mother married Jaquelin Ambler May 24. 1764 – thus have I brought you to our own immediate family …”

While Betsy was growing up in Yorktown and later Richmond, her uncle Lewis Burwell II faced mounting debts that forced him to sell land and enslaved people. Despite these difficulties, he remained active in Revolutionary-era politics, representing Gloucester at the Virginia Convention and supplying militia at Gloucester Point. At the age of 41, his name was crossed out from a list of Light Dragoons under Thomas Nelson Jr., likely due to illness; he died soon after. His wife, Judith Page Burwell, had died the year before. Their eldest son Lewis Burwell III was a fifteen-year-old orphan.

During Lewis III’s minority, Fairfield plantation was lightly managed by John Page as executor. When Lewis came of age in 1785, Fairfield was advertised for sale. Around this time, a newspaper notice recorded that a runaway enslaved girl had been harbored by “Mr. Burwell’s slaves.” [i] She may have crossed the York River to Fairfield with other runaway enslaved people who were abandoned by Lord Cornwallis following his 1781 surrender to Continental troops under the command of George Washington.

Lewis III later married Judith Kennon and settled in Richmond. Betsy, too, made her home in Richmond near her cousin, where she maintained a lively correspondence with friends and family. Notes accompanying her letters indicate that her husband, Edward Carrington, was a friend of George Washington. Additional clues from correspondence — perhaps letters in the Mount Vernon collections — may yet shed more light on Betsy’s life and circle.

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[i] This appears in an entry for Ephraim Hearn on freeafricanamericans.com. But the 15 January 1785 ad in the Virginia Gazette or American Advertiser (Hayes) referenced is not in any online database; perhaps the issue does not survive.