Henry Heth (businessman)

Henry "Harry" Heth (died 1821) was a Virginia businessman who was active in the late 1700s and early 1800s. He is most known for his famous Black Heath coal mines in Chesterfield County, Virginia. He was involved in this business from the late 1790s to his death.

Henry "Harry" Heth
Died1821
NationalityAmerican
OccupationBusinessman
Known forBlack Heath coal mines
Spouse(s)Agnes McMachan
Children12

Family and Early Life

The early years of Henry (more commonly Harry, the name he was known by and how he signed his correspondence) Heth are shrouded in mystery.

He was most likely born in the British Colony of Virginia around 1759 to 1772. There are many tales of how Harry Heth's early life, and by combining all of them one can arrive at a fairly accurate report.

One source says that Henry Heth came to Virginia from England in 1759 along with his brothers, William and John, and all three became charter members of the Society of the Cincinnati.[1] Additionally, it states that Henry served in the American Revolutionary War and had a son, Henry, who served in the War of 1812. This subsequent Henry had a son named John. This source was written one hundred years after these men lived and was from information received from Stockton Heth, son of John Heth and grandson of Harry Heth. Another reference states "that John Heth[2] emigrated from the North of Ireland in the earlier half of the eighteenth century" and "settled first in Pennsylvania not far from Pittsburgh".[3][4] There are bits of truth in both of these documents and yet neither tell the full story.

Most of the story can be found in a history of the Heth family published in 1934.[5] According to this history, Harry Heth was the son of a man named Henry Heth who was born in Ireland on November 16, 1718.[6] Furthermore, Henry apparently "came to the colonies from Newgate Prison as an indentured servant".[7] How he ended up in Newgate Prison in London from Ireland is uncertain.

Later, after he had immigrated to the New World, Henry Heth married Agnes McMachan around 1749 in Frederick County, Virginia. Agnes[8] was from a family living in Frederick County. According to various record, he seems to have acquired land near Fort Pitt (modern day Pittsburgh) and when the Revolutionary War broke out, he was a captain of an independent company stationed near Fort Pitt.

In his will, dated March 30, 1793, Henry names his six sons: William, Andrew, John, Henry, Hervy, and Richard.[9] He names none of his daughters, but he does name Gabriel Peterson (his son-in-law) as a witness and executor. Henry also indicates that some of his children are minors, so at least two children were born in or after 1772. A 1797 land document gives the birth order of Henry's sons living at that time: William, John, Harvey, Henry, and Richard.[10] It appears that Andrew has died. Henry is also listed as having six daughters, among them Mary (wife of Capt. Robert Porterfield) and Anne or Nancy (wife of Lieut., later Col. Josiah Tannehill).[11] Henry and his sons served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and received numerous land grants for their service.

American Revolutionary War

Henry "Harry" Heth may have served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. His service is obscured by several points. First, his father was named Henry and also served in the army. This senior Heth was the captain of an independent company stationed near Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania. Second, there was another Henry Heth who served as a quartermaster for a Virginia regiment during the war. Lastly, Harry may not have been old enough to be a soldier during the Revolutionary War. In a 1782 census of the city of Richmond, he is listed as being 18 years old.[12] Heth married Nancy Hare in 1787 at age 23.

Business career
Harry Heth's house, Black Heath

Regardless of whether he served in the Revolutionary War, it is certain that sometime in the 1780s Heth came to live in the Richmond, Virginia area. In 1795, along with John Stewart, Heth bought a 99.5-acre piece of land upon which the Black Heath coal pits were situated. This was to be the beginning of a 55-year association between the Black Heath pits and the Heth family. Heth began to improve the pits, which until recently had only consisted of shallow pits in the ground, until they were the largest coal pits in the United States. Such was the quality of the coal from Black Heath that President Thomas Jefferson ordered some to be used in heating the White House.

Harry Heth maintained offices in Norfolk and Manchester (across the James River at Richmond), where he engaged in the coal business. Heth owned several coal mines in the area now known as Midlothian in northwestern Chesterfield County. Colonel Heth participated in working the Railey family's coal pits and became the owner of the Black Heath coal pits.[13] Colonel Heth owned slaves, and prior to the American Civil War (and emancipation), the mines were largely worked with African Americans, mostly slaves. Manchester, at the head of navigation on the James River, was the closest export port for Heth's coal.

Personal life

Harry Heth married Nancy Hare (1772–1846) on November 10, 1787, in Richmond. Nancy was twelve years younger than him. They had the following eight children:

  • Lavinia R. Heth (1791–1815), married Beverley Randolph and had two children
  • Henry Heth (1793–1824), married Eliza Ann Cunliffe (daughter of fellow coal mine owner John Cunliffe)
  • Catherine "Kitty" Heth, married Archibald Morgan Harrison (1794–1842) and had three children
  • John Heth (1798–1842), married Margaret Leach Pickett (1801–1850) and had eleven children
  • Virginia Heth, married Richard E. Cunningham and had no children
  • Caroline Heth, married Temple Gwathmey
  • Beverley Heth (1807–1842), married Virginia Gwathmey
  • Harriet Heth (1810–1848), married Miles Cary Selden (1805–1880) and had eight children

Harry Heth's son, Captain John Heth (1798–1842), who served during the War of 1812, inherited Black Heath, the family house along the (old) Buckingham Road near the Black Heath mines. It was at this house that his grandson, future Confederate Major General Henry Heth was born in 1825, about four years after Colonel Heth's death in Savannah, Georgia in 1821.

References
  1. Tyler, Lyon G. (1907). Men of Mark in Virginia - Ideals of American Life - A Collection of Biographies of the Leading Men of the State, Volume II. Washington, D. C.: Men of Mark Publishing Company. p. 183. Retrieved 6 October 2018.
  2. The writer has made a mistake or their records are incorrect. This should say Henry Heth.
  3. Lee, Ida J. (July 1934). "The Heth Family". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. XLII (42) (3): 273–282. JSTOR 4244602.
  4. Slaughter, Rev. Philip (1892). Brock, R. A. (ed.). "Orderly Book of Major William Heth of the Third Virginia Regiment, May 15-July 1, 1777". Collections of the Virginia Historical Society - New Series. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Historical Society. XI (11): 320. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  5. Lee, Ida J. (July 1934). "The Heth Family". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography. XLII (42) (3): 273–282. JSTOR 4244602.
  6. Bulloch, Joseph Gaston Baillie (J. G. B.) (2016). The Lineage Book of the Order of Washington. Forgotten Books. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-333-66569-2. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  7. This is found in: https://www.ancestry.com/boards/surnames.heth/3.8.9/mb.ashx
  8. There are various spellings of this last name. They include: McMachan, McMahon, Mackey.
  9. This is the numbering of how they appear on the document. It may or may not be related to their ages. A transcribed copy of Henry's will can be found at https://mediasvc.ancestry.com/v2/image/namespaces/60623/media/00000841-1002-0000-0000-000000000000.jpg?client=Boards
  10. The document is found here: https://worldconnect.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=adgedge&id=I71634
  11. Slaughter, Rev. Philip (1892). Brock, R. A. (ed.). "Orderly Book of Major William Heth of the Third Virginia Regiment, May 15-July 1, 1777". Collections of the Virginia Historical Society - New Series. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Historical Society. XI (11): 321. Retrieved 7 October 2018.
  12. Moore, Josiah S (1911). History and By-Laws of Richmond Royal Arch Chapter No. 3, A. F. and A. M. Richmond, VA: Williams Printing Co. p. 115. Retrieved 16 December 2019.
  13. Garner, Thomas F., Jr. "Mid-Lothian Early Coal Pits Chronology - from - Historically Significant Sites on the Mid-Lothian Coal Mining Co. Tract In Chesterfield County, Virginia". Archived from the original on March 14, 2007. Retrieved September 29, 2018.
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