US Congressman. He was born one of eight children (he also had three brothers and four sisters), to Thomas Nelson Jr., a planter, soldier, statesman, and a Signer of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and his wife Lucy Ludwell Grymes Nelson in Yorktown, Virginia, on September 30, 1768. He was educated locally and later attended the distinguished College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he graduated from in 1780. He then entered politics and was elected as a Member of the Virginia State Senate and served a term in that position from 1786 to 1791. He married Eliza Kinloch Nelson in Albemarle County, Virginia, on April 28, 1799, and the couple had nine children together, five boys and four girls. He also served as a Member of the Virginia State House of Delegates from the Albermarle District of the State of Virginia from 1805 to 1809, and as the Thirteenth Speaker of the Virginia State House of Delegates from 1807 to 1809. He then decided to run for a seat in the United States Congress and was elected. A Member of the Democratic-Republican Party, he then served Virginia's 10th District, 21st District, and 22nd District (Twelfth and to the five succeeding Congresses), in the United States House of Representatives from March 4, 1811, until he resigned from office on March 3, 1823, following an appointment to a diplomatic position. After his term in the United States Congress expired for the 21st District he was succeeded in office by United States Representative Thomas Newton Jr. on March 4, 1813. After his term (because of his resignation from office), in the United States Congress expired for the 10th District and 22nd District he was succeeded in office by United States Representative Alexander Smyth on March 4, 1823. During his time in the United States Congress, he had also served as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee representing the Fourteenth Congress, Fifteenth Congress, and Seventeenth Congress from March 4, 1815, to March 3, 1819. He was then personally appointed by then-President of the United States James Monroe to serve in the diplomatic position of United States Minister to Spain. He served in that position from January 15, 1823, to November 23, 1824. He then served another term as a Member of the Virginia State House of Delegates from 1828 to 1829. He was also a Judge of the General Court. He retired from public office shortly thereafter and spent his final years on his family's estate. He passed away at his family home, 'Belvoir Estate,' in Rivanna, Albemarle County, Virginia, on March 18, 1836, at the age of 67, and was buried on the property of the estate in the Belvoir Family Cemetery in Rivanna, Albemarle County, Virginia. His wife Eliza passed away in Cismont, Albemarle County, Virginia, on June 4, 1834, at the age of 52, and is buried in the Belvoir Family Cemetery in Rivanna, Albemarle County, Virginia, with her husband.