Thomas Nelson Jr.'s Birth Card: The 5 of Hearts

In the record

Thomas Nelson Jr. (December 26, 1738 – January 4, 1789) was a Founding Father of the United States, general in the Revolutionary War, member of the Continental Congress, and a Virginia planter. The birth-card coordinate for December 26 is the 5 of Hearts — a calendar position, not a forecast.

The 5 of Hearts coordinate

Thomas Nelson Jr.'s birthday maps to the 5 of Hearts (The Restless Heart). Card Blueprints treats that as a 365-day coordinate: solar value = 55 − (2 × month + day), and the year is unused. It is not a prediction about the Declaration and not a verdict on Thomas Nelson Jr.. The card's own language, quoted as system copy rather than biography: You let love change shape without using motion as a way out of being seen.

Live 5 of Hearts meaning page

Thomas Nelson Jr. in the public record

In addition to serving many terms in the Virginia General Assembly, he twice represented Virginia in the Congress, where he signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Fellow Virginia legislators elected him to serve as the commonwealth's governor in 1781, the same year he fought as a brigadier general in the siege of Yorktown, the final major battle of the war. Nelson was the grandson of Thomas "Scotch Tom" Nelson, an immigrant son of a cloth merchant from Penrith in Cumberland, England, who after three voyages to the Virginia colony settled at and developed Yorktown, where the York River drained into Mobjack Bay. During the following three decades, Scotch Tom not only increased his wealth, but parlayed it into influence so that his children (and grandchildren) married into the First Families of Virginia. Complicating matters, each generation would have at least one boy named to honor the immigrant father, who had accumulated over 6500 acres of land (including choice lots in Yorktown and Williamsburg) by the time of this boy's birth. This boy was born at Yorktown in 1738, the firstborn child of Scotch Tom's firstborn son, William Nelson, who assisted and expanded the family's mercantile business and became a prominent colonial leader, even becoming the President of the Governor's Council (the highest office to which a Virginia born man could aspire) and briefly served as the colony's interim governor. His mother was Elizabeth Carter Burwell (daughter of Robert "King" Carter, the wealthiest man in Virginia in that era), the sister of Lewis Burwell who became President of the Virginia Governor's Council, and widow of burgess Nathaniel Burwell. Complicating matters, his father's younger brother was also named Thomas Nelson (1716-1782), and he was prominent as the Virginia colony's deputy secretary as well as for his service on the Virginia Governor's Council (on which he served with his brother for decades, then succeeded as that body's last president) and operation of plantations.

Summarised from the lead section of the Wikipedia article Thomas Nelson Jr. (CC BY-SA 4.0). No biographical facts were written for this page beyond that article.

Where the record meets the 5 of Hearts

A card is a calendar coordinate, not a cause. What follows sets one line of the card's own published language beside one sentence of the sourced record, paired by a documented rule. It is a resemblance offered for the reader to weigh — not a claim about Thomas Nelson Jr., and not a forecast of the Revolution.

Adaptability through emotional change and transition

Thomas Nelson Jr. (December 26, 1738 – January 4, 1789) was a Founding Father of the United States, general in the Revolutionary War, member of the Continental Congress, and a Virginia planter.

Paired on relationship and feeling — the domain ♥ governs in this system. Markers in the record: father.

Also on the record

1. That man's sons (another William, Thomas and Wilson Cary Nelson) moved to Hanover County (where this man would die years later) as well as several other areas including Caroline, Prince William and Mecklenburg Counties and some of that Thomas' descendants married Nelson cousins. [Custom of the colonial/independence time could use "Jr" to designate a younger relative of an important individual, hence the "Jr." here.] Through his paternal great-great-grandfather, George Reade, Nelson was a third cousin of first U.S.
2. President and fellow Founding Father George Washington, though it is unknown if either of them knew they were related.
3. Like many Virginians of the highest level of the planter class, Nelson was sent to England for his education.
4. He attended Newcome's School before entering Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1758.

Other verified signers with this card

• John Adams — 5 of Hearts

FAQ

What is Thomas Nelson Jr.'s birth card?

The 5 of Hearts. December 26 maps to that card through the public Card Blueprints formula. The year of birth is not used.

Does a birth card predict a signer or a revolution?

No. These pages are coordinates, not fortune-telling. A birth card names a calendar day in a 52-card year. It does not forecast character, politics, or fate.

Where do Thomas Nelson Jr.'s dates come from?

Birth date 1738-12-26 is the NARA Signers Factsheet day. Wikipedia's infobox records 1738-12-26. The month and day match Wikipedia. Bioguide is a corroborating congressional biography. Wikidata P569 is a precision=11 QA check only — it is not the public date.

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