James Wood (28 January 1741–16 June 1813), member of the Convention of 1776, Continental army officer, member of the Council of State, and governor of Virginia, was born in Frederick County, Virginia, and was the son of James Wood (d. 1759) and Mary Rutherford Wood. His father founded Winchester and was an associate of George Washington. The elder Wood had attended Oxford University and ensured that his son was well educated. Sometimes confused with each other, the younger Wood became deputy clerk of the Frederick County court in 1760 and clerk of the Frederick Parish vestry in 1764. That same year he was named a justice of the peace on the county court and in 1772 was made a member of the court’s quorum, a select group of justices of whom one had to be present in order for the court to proceed to business. Wood traveled down the Mississippi River in 1773 to the British colony of West Florida in an attempt to obtain land for himself and others, including George Washington.
From 1766 to 1775, Wood represented Frederick County in the House of Burgesses, although he was not always present during the sessions. At different times during his five terms, he served on the Committees for Courts of Justice, of Propositions and Grievances, and for Religion. As a member of the Committee of Public Claims, he examined petitions for compensation and redress. In 1766, Wood was one of four men named to direct the marking of a road from the north branch of the Potomac River to Fort Pitt, which Virginia and Pennsylvania both claimed. In 1769 and 1770 he joined the other burgesses in supporting a nonimportation resolution to protest British taxation policies. When the royal governor dissolved the General Assembly in May 1774, Wood was among a group of burgesses who met in Raleigh Tavern in Williamsburg and issued the first call for a Continental Congress.
In the summer of 1774, conflict between colonists and Indigenous tribes on the frontier led to Dunmore’s War. Wood raised a militia company, of which he was made captain, and outfitted it at his own expense. He was present at the Battle of Point Pleasant in October, when the colonists defeated the Shawnee and other tribes. The following year Wood was part of a commission that sought to ratify the peace treaty that had been negotiated after the battle. He invited leaders of several tribes to Fort Pitt, where they met in October 1775 at the same time that representatives of the Second Continental Congress were negotiating a treaty of neutrality with Ohio tribes after the start of the Revolutionary War.
Wood represented Frederick County in two of Virginia’s five revolutionary conventions that met to address the colony's issues with the British. The first convention convened in August 1774 and chose delegates to the First Continental Congress. At the fifth convention, which met between 6 May and 5 July 1776, Wood was present for thirty-seven days of the fifty-two-day gathering. He voted to approve the Declaration of Rights, which spelled out such fundamental liberties as freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and the right to a jury trial. On 29 June the convention unanimously adopted Virginia's first written constitution, which created a republic, or commonwealth—a form of government in which ultimate authority is exercised by a sovereign people united for the common good, or common weal.
In June 1776, Wood was named to the Frederick County Court of Commissioners to examine suspected Loyalists. By virtue of his election to the fifth Revolutionary Convention, he was eligible for a seat in the House of Delegates when it began meeting in October 1776. He served on the Committee of Privileges and Elections and was named to a special committee to handle unsettled claims left from Dunmore's War.
The Continental Congress appointed Wood colonel of the Twelfth Virginia Battalion on 12 November 1776. He and his men endured some of the heaviest fighting at the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and Fort Mifflin, which earned Wood a commendation from Washington. His regiment was also at Valley Forge during the harsh winter of 1777–1778. When the Continental army was reorganized in 1778, Wood was appointed colonel of the Eighth Virginia Regiment in September. Believing that the Carlisle Peace Commission might bring an end to the war, he applied to resign his commission, but Washington denied his request. In December 1779, Wood was named commandant of the Albemarle Barracks, where he was responsible for the British and Hessian prisoners from the Battle of Saratoga. He tightened security while also working to ensure that the prisoners were adequately fed. Late in 1780 Wood oversaw the transfer of the British prisoners to Fort Frederick, Maryland, and in March 1781 he moved the German prisoners to Winchester as the American forces were retreating toward Virginia from British General Cornwallis in the south. Wood remained in charge of the Winchester prison, which held British soldiers taken prisoner at Yorktown, until 1783. That year an act of the Continental Congress granted Wood and other eligible officers honorary promotions, making him a brevet brigadier general.
Wood's postwar contributions extended to political and social spheres. In 1783 he helped organize the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of Virginia. The national society, named for a Roman hero who represented civic virtue, had been founded that year by officers of the Continental Line to preserve the memory of America’s war for independence and to promote the ideals of liberty. Elected the Virginia chapter’s president in 1802, Wood served until his death.
In the spring of 1784, Wood won election to the House of Delegates, representing Frederick County, but he resigned his seat after the General Assembly elected him on 22 June to the Council of State. As one of its members, he advised the governor on policy decisions, legislative initiatives, and administrative actions. Wood was diligent in undertaking his public duties and regularly attended Council meetings. On a number of occasions between 1788 and 1796 he sat as president of Council and in this capacity served as the lieutenant governor. During the absences of the Virginia's governors, most notably during the tenure of Henry Lee, Wood served as the state's top government official. His service on the Council also involved supervising various state offices, participating in deliberations on appeals, pardons, and dispute resolutions, and promoting fiscal responsibility. Because of his military background, Wood influenced state militia organization, training, and defense strategies.
From 1796 to 1799, Wood served as Virginia's governor, elected three times by the General Assembly to separate one-year terms. His tenure was marked by significant developments in infrastructure, including the building of the state penitentiary, the Virginia Manufactory of Arms, and repairs and renovations to the State Capitol. Wood addressed the complexities of federal-state relations, ensuring Virginia's interests were well represented while navigating the challenges posed by the new national government. He worked to maintain the state's military readiness and supported building projects aimed at improving transportation, such as the construction and maintenance of roads and canals, which were vital for economic growth and connectivity within the state.
His leadership was frequently tested by internal conflicts and political divisions within the state. Wood worked diligently to mediate disputes and maintain stability in Virginia despite differing political opinions and regional interests. His tenure as governor coincided with national events, including the threat of war with France in 1798 and 1799, that required balancing national security concerns with the protection of Virginia's sovereignty and interests. After leaving the governor's office on 6 December 1799, he was elected to the Council again on 11 December, although he didn't take his seat until 31 May 1800. Wood was one of two members removed on 10 December 1802 as required by the state constitution, but his replacement did not immediately take his seat so Wood continued to attend Council meetings until 31 May 1803.
Wood grew up in a family of enslavers and he paid taxes on seven enslaved people in 1784. He joined the Virginia Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery after it was organized in 1790. He informed George Washington in 1796 that he had emancipated his enslaved laborers after the Revolution, although at the time of his death he paid taxes on two enslaved laborers. In 1801, Wood was elected president of the Virginia Society, but it ceased operating by 1804.
Wood married Jean Moncure, the daughter of a Scottish clergyman in Stafford County, in 1775. They had one daughter who suffered from poor health and died young. After the Revolutionary War, the family moved to Henrico County. In 1808, Jean Wood joined several other prominent women in founding the Female Humane Association of the City of Richmond to aid white female orphans. James Wood was elected to the Council of State again in January 1812 and attended regularly until two weeks before his death on 16 June 1813 at his Henrico County home. He was honored with a military tribute at Capitol Square before his funeral at Saint John's Church and burial at the cemetery there. Wood County, in that part of the state that became West Virginia, was named for him.
Sources Consulted:
Biography in Garland R. Quarles, Some Worthy Lives: Mini-Biographies, Winchester and Frederick County (1988), 253–254 (portrait); biographical information and transcriptions of letters and other documents in Katherine Glass Greene, Winchester Virginia and Its Beginnings, 1743–1814 (1926; repr. 2002); James Wood Papers, 1735–1780, Accession 29579, and 1777–1783, Accession 28960, Library of Virginia (LVA); James Wood Executive Papers, Accession 40844, Record Group 3, LVA; references to and correspondence with Wood in W. W. Abbot et al., eds., The Papers of George Washington: Colonial Series (1983–1995), esp. vol. 9, and Philander D. Chase, W. W. Abbot, et al., eds., The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series (1985– ); William J. Van Schreeven, Robert L. Scribner, and Brent Tarter, eds., Revolutionary Virginia, the Road to Independence: A Documentary Record (1973–1983), including his journal while traveling near Fort Pitt in 1775 in vol. 3; Henry R. McIlwaine et al., eds., Journals of the Council of the State of Virginia, 1776–1791 (1931–1982); Council Journals, 1784–1813, Records of the Council of State, Accession 35356, Record Group 75, LVA; election as governor in Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1796–1797 sess., 59, 1797–1798 sess., 7, 1798–1799 sess., 11–12; death notice in Norfolk Gazette and Publick Ledger, 23 June 1813; obituary and account of funeral in Richmond Enquirer, 29 June 1813.
Written for the Dictionary of Virginia Biography by Christian Graydon Campbell.
How to cite this page:
Christian Graydon Campbell, "James Wood (1741–1813)," Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Library of Virginia (1998– ), published 2025 (http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.asp?b=Wood_James_1741-1813, accessed [today's date]).
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