Lewis Burwell

Lewis Burwell (1711/1712–1756) was an American colonist and politician who served as a member of the Virginia Governor's Council and as acting Governor of Virginia. Early life and Education Burwell was born in either 1711 or 1712 at Fairfield, the plantation of his parents, Elizabeth Carter Burwell and her first husband, Nathaniel Burwell. In accordance with his father's will, Burwell's guardian, Robert "King" Carter I, sent him to England to be educated. From 1722 to 1729 he attended Eton College, and upon the age of seventeen he matriculated at Gonville and Caius College of Cambridge University. Burwell would remain there for four years. He did not receive a degree (which was not considered unusual at the time) but he may have perhaps studied law in London at the Inner Temple in February 1733, just a few months before he returned to Virginia after receiving news of the death of King Carter.