Humphrey Harwood

The son and heir of Thomas Harwood was a minor when his father died, so William Whitaker became guardian for him and his two sisters.[3][4]

He inherited about 3644 acres, which he claimed in 1670 after reaching legal age, and cultivated using enslaved labor.[5] In January 1677, following the suppression of Bacon's Rebellion, Harwood confiscated John Lucas's goods and livestock.[1][6] Harwood served as Warwick county's sheriff in 1691 and justice of the peace for Warwick County, and twice won election as one of the burgesses representing the county in the House of Burgesses, but his second election was contested. Although fellow burgesses seated him over William Roscow to serve alongside William Cary in 1693, at the next election, voters elected Roscow.[7][8] His last public acts were as a judge for a trial of pirates at Elizabeth City in May 1700 and taking a list of tithables in upper Mulberry Island Parish that June. He was not mentioned in the quitrent roll of 1704.[9]

Humphrey Harwood married Ann Needler, daughter of John Needler, and in 1687 he and William Cary were executors of John Needler's estate.[10] They had a son Humphrey Jr. who outlived his father and became the Warwick County sheriff in 1710, but died in 1713. His brother William was his executor and served as a burgess for Warwick county several times, and had two sons who became legislators (William Jr. and Edward Harwood) but died in a fall from his horse in 1737. This man's third son Thomas died in 1729, leaving an underage daughter who chose Thomas Lucas as her guardian.[11] Although none of Humphrey Harwood's descendants of the same name again served in the Virginia General Assembly, his great-grandson Col. Humphrey Harwood (d. 1788) was a brick mason in Williamsburg as well as a militia officer, and his son (also Humphrey, born 1770) received an honorary degree from the College of William and Mary.[12]