| Notes |
- Oldest of 6 children
He served as the legal guardian of Meriwether Lewis after the death of Meriwether's father in 1779.
William Douglas Meriwether was the son of Nicholas and Margaret Douglas Meriwether of "Clover Fields." After his father's death in 1772, William inherited "Clover Fields", a part of the original Meriwether land grant. Like his father, he was a surveyor. When Meriwether Lewis returned to Virginia to obtain an education, he stayed with his cousin William, who likely taught him some rudiments of surveying. In a letter of 1790, Lewis mentioned that his cousin might teach him geography. William married Elizabeth Lewis (b. 1769), the daughter of Nicholas and Mary Walker Lewis in 1788. They had six children but only their youngest daughter, Margaret Douglas Meriwether and her husband Frank Thornton Meriwether had children. (Anderson, p. 153) It was Margaret and her second husband, Francis Kinloch Nelson, who built the current "Clover Fields."
-----------------------------------------------
William Douglass Meriwether (d. 1845) was a miller, land speculator, a director of the Rivanna Navigation Company, a county magistrate for fifty years, and sheriff in 1801 and 1828-1830. His mill produced wool, cotton, flour, and timber. He was cousin to Meriwether Lewis and after Lewis' death in 1809, Meriwether settled his affairs.
He married Elizabeth, a daughter of Nicholas Lewis, and had William H., Charles J., Mary, Margaret D., and Thomas. Through his wife, he inherited part of "The Farm," Lewis' estate near Charlottesville. In 1825, he sold that land to University of Virginia professor John A.G. Davis. Meriwether lived at Cloverfields, just down the road from Edgehill. The Meriwether house no longer exists on the property.
Thomas Jefferson and Meriwether discussed the trading of agricultural items, including peaches, apricots, and pecans. Meriwether also felt able to ask Jefferson for a bottle of port wine in order to treat an ill son, as well as able to recommend Jefferson's art collection to a visiting artist. By 1816, Jefferson turned over all affairs with Meriwether to Thomas Jefferson Randolph and the two friends never wrote again. One possible reason for the animosity is that Meriwether was an opponent to development of Jefferson's mills on the Rivanna river, and subsequently, the lawsuit Jefferson had against the Rivanna Navigation Company was regarding title and responsibility for the canal and locks at his Shadwell mills.
|
1761 - 1845 (84 years)
(Age 55 years)