Selden, Dr.
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Born in 1761 in Hampton, Virginia, Dr. Wilson Cary Selden trained in medicine under the celebrated physician Dr. James McClurg, his brother-in-law. Selden joined the Continental Army as a surgeon in 1779 at the age of eighteen. During his service, Selden suffered an unspecified, but apparently serious, illness. An unknown military doctor suggested that the cure would be to spend some time at sea. Several weeks into Selden’s convalescence, the British captured the vessel he was on and he spent most of the remainder of the Revolutionary War on Antigua as a prisoner of war.
Upon his release, Selden returned to Virginia and married his cousin Mary Mason Selden Page. Page, the granddaughter of Ann Thomson Mason, inherited more than 3,000 acres in Loudoun County. The Seldens, however, lived in Elizabeth City in southeastern Virginia, occupying Selden’s boyhood home that he had purchased from his father. Mary Selden died on 17 September 1787.
Wilson Cary Selden served one term in the Virginia state assembly representing Elizabeth City. He ran unsuccessfully for a second term in 1793. Selden wrote bitterly that because of his opponent’s pride, he wanted to “mortify” him and “convince him that he was not calculated for intrigue.” Following Selden’s election loss, he married Eleanor Love and established a plantation he named Exeter on the lands that he obtained from his first wife. Love died in 1816, and Selden married Mary Bowles Armistead Alexander the following year. Selden died on 14 March 1835.
By Anne Champlin
