Francis Corbin

The youngest son of Richard Corbin and his wife Elizabeth (Betty) Tayloe, was born to the First Families of Virginia. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors had emigrated from England and become gentry in the Virginia colony (many serving in the House of Burgesses and some including his father since his childhood on the Governor's Advisory Council and others only holding local office) as they also operated plantations using enslaved labor. He received a private education appropriate to his class. In 1773 his family sent him to England to complete his studies, and he probably attended schools at Canterbury and Cambridge. He was admitted to study law at the Inner Temple on January 23, 1777, but found himself unable to return home during the American Revolution. He petitioned the King in 1779 for financial assistance because his Loyalist father could no longer do so.[2]

After returning to Virginia in 1783, Corbin continued the families's planter and political traditions.

In December 1795 Corbin married Ann Munford Beverley, daughter of Essex county planter (and single term delegate) Robert Beverley (1740-1800). They had two daughters and seven sons.[13][14] Their eldest son, Robert Beverley Corbin (c. 1797 – 1868), inherited the Reeds plantation and would become the last of the paternal line to sit in the Virginia General Assembly, in his case representing Caroline County in the Virginia House of Delegates as well as serving as colonel of the county militia. The second eldest brother, Francis Porteus Corbin (1801-1876) married a Philadelphia heiress and died in Paris, France, although their son (this man's grandson), Richard Washington Corbin after education in England, returned to Virginia to serve on the staff of CSA General Fields. John Sawbridge Corbin (d. 1883) married Mary Blackwell and lived at "The Glimpse" in Hanover County. Their sister Anna Page Corbin (1803-1885) married Benjamin Franklin Randolph (1803-1889) of Culpepper, Virginia. The youngest daughter, Jane Virginia Corbin (1815-1904), and brothers William Lygon Corbin (d. 1883) and Washington Shirley Corbin (d. 1877) likewise never married.[15]

Corbin suffered health problems for many years, including gout. He died suddenly at his Caroline County plantation on May 23, 1821, and was probably buried there.[16] While most of his children continued to own slaves and operate plantations, his youngest son, Thomas G. Corbin began a naval career that included interdicting slave ships as well as fought with distinction for the Union during the American Civil War. Notwithstanding, CSA General Stonewall Jackson and the 2nd Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, at the invitation of his grandson James Parke Corbin, overwintered during 1862-1863 on the grounds of Moss Neck Manor, thus now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.