Ewell, James

James Ewell was born on 17 November 1746 on his family’s plantation, Bel Air, in Prince William County. James was the son of Charles Ewell and Sarah Ball as well as the brother of Marianne, Jesse, and Charles Ewell. One month after their father’s death on 26 January 1760, the minors James and Jesse declared Thomas Mason, George Johnston, and Allen Macrae as their legal guardians in the Prince William court. James inherited five thousand acres of land in Fauquier County from his grandfather James Ball, which he later sold. In 1774, he built his own wooden farmhouse, called Greenville, near Nokesville in Prince William. By 1784, Ewell owned 1,550 acres of land separated into five different lots in the county, plus fourteen horses, thirty-two cattle, and twenty-six enslaved people. He may at one time have operated an iron works.

Ewell supported American independence and was active in the public life of Prince William County. He served alongside his brother Jesse on the Prince William County Committee of Freeholders and the Committee of Safety starting in December 1774. During the American Revolution, James Ewell served in the Prince William County militia, where he attained the rank of major on 19 September 1777. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 6 November 1787, and finally to colonel on 24 December 1787. From 1785 to 1786, Ewell served as the High Sheriff of Prince William County. He also served as a justice of the peace in Prince William County from 1789 to 1790.

Ewell and his family were members of the Episcopal Church. James Ewell married his first cousin Mary Ewell on 10 December 1762. The couple had seven children before Mary died in 1793. After her death, James married another first cousin, Sarah Ewell. They had one child. Colonel James Ewell died at age sixty-four in October 1809 at his plantation, Greenville.

By Tyler Dicembrino