Notes
The last child of Patrick (1736–1799) and Sarah Shelton Henry (ca. 1738–1775), Edward "Neddy" Henry (1771–1794), was born at Scotchtown in Hanover County, Virginia.
Edward never knew a stable home. Forced to move between family plantations, his father soon sent him to Richard Timberlake's boarding school for the 1785–86 school year. He attended Hampden-Sydney College, where he founded the school's Union Literary Society in 1789. By age 22, Edward also passed the bar exam, after which this license was issued on February 2, 1793.
Plagued with illness throughout his life, Edward suffered a particularly hard bout of illness in May 1792 and recovered at the home of Colonel William Fleming (1727–1795). Patrick Henry wrote Fleming saying, "I beg leave to make you my best acknowledgements for your care and attention to my son." By September, Edward had recovered enough to return to his aunt's home at Tinker Hill.
Edward met his beautiful first cousin, Sally Campbell, in 1791 when she visited Tinker Hill. In a letter to his daughter Betsey, Henry wrote that Edward was "courting Sally Campbell and expects success." However, love was not meant to be. Sally married a wealthier man instead.
Patrick Henry favored his son working "independent by his own industry than ever so rich by the favor of any person he might marry," giving Edward Leatherwood plantation to cultivate after his failed courtship with Sally. However, a year later, disease sadly got the best of Edward. He died unmarried without children on October 28, 1794, just over a year after this license was issued. He was 23 years old.
This license was donated to the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation in 1950 by Patrick Henry Fontaine (1869–1959), a great-grandson of Patrick Henry. Fontaine is descended from Patrick and Sarah Shelton Henry's oldest daughter, Martha Henry Fontaine (1755–1818), whose son is Col. Patrick Henry Fontaine (1775–1852), whose son is Edward Fontaine (1814–1884), whose son is the donor, Patrick Henry Fontaine.