Col. Gawin Corbin

Gawin Corbin (1669-1745) was a Virginia planter, militia officer, customs collector and politician who served in the House of Burgesses representing at various times Middlesex and King and Queen County. Two descendants of the same name would also serve in the House of Burgesses, Gawin Corbin Sr. and Gawin Corbin Jr. Early and family life Born to the widowed Alice Eltonhead Burnham and her British emigrant husband Henry Corbin (circa 1628-January 1676/77) who served on the Governor's Council of the Colony of Virginia, the boy was connected to the planter elite of the Mid-Atlantic colonies of Virginia and Maryland. His father had been loyal to the exiled King Charles I, as was his maternal grandfather. That Henry Corbin who sailed to Virginia on the ship "Charity" in 1654 had been the third son born to Thomas and Winifred Corbin of "Hall End" in Warwickshire, England. While his eldest brother (also Thomas) inherited the English estate, the second brother would marry the daughter of an English merchant in Ypres and die in the West Indies. This boy's fourth uncle was a London merchant with the same name Gawin, and who died at Yelverton in Norfolk County, England in 1709. His maternal grandfather Richard Eltonhead of "Eltonhead" estate in Lancashire, England had been a Cavalier, or partisan of the exiled King Charles I. His son (this boy's uncle) William Eltonhead died in 1655 in a skirmish attempting to establish the New Albion colony north of the Maryland colony (in which he had many political connections. Three of his maternal aunts had married members of the Virginia governor's council who lived in Middlesex County, Virginia His parents had married before January 1656 and had sons named Henry (b.1667 but who never reached adulthood) and Thomas (1658-1736, who never married) before this boy's birth. The family also included at least five daughters who married Virginia gentry: Letitia (1657-1706), Alice (1660-1713), Winifred (1661-1711), Ann (1664-1694) and Frances (d. 1713). Letitia married Richard Lee II, whose Westmoreland County estate bordered the Peckatone plantation. Alice married Philip Lightfoot of Charles City County, and their son of the same name would serve on the Virginia Governor's Council. Winifred married Col. LeRoy Griffin of Rappahanock County, and their son Thomas Griffin would serve as a burgess for Richmond County. Ann married Col.