Thomas Nelson Jr. was born at Yorktown, Virginia, on December 26, 1738, the eldest of five sons of William Nelson and Elizabeth Burwell Nelson. His father, known as “President” Nelson, was a wealthy merchant-planter and member of the governor’s Council. The family stood near the top of Virginia society, with interests in tobacco, shipping, land, and public office sustained by enslaved labor.

Yorktown was a small but important tobacco port. Nelson’s early surroundings joined plantation agriculture to warehouses, ships, customs, and Atlantic credit. His family expected the eldest son to continue both business and public leadership. Initial instruction probably occurred at home, but his documented formal education began overseas.

At fourteen Nelson sailed to England, as did a number of sons from Virginia’s richest families. He attended the school conducted by the Reverend Michael Newcome at Hackney near London. Living abroad separated him from his family for years while immersing him in British manners, classical study, and the metropolitan institutions that governed Virginia’s trade.

Nelson entered Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1758. His studies provided the classical and gentlemanly education considered appropriate for an heir, while residence in Britain expanded his network among merchants and colonial families. He did not train for a manual profession; his preparation was for estate management, commerce, lawmaking, and leadership within the empire.

In 1761 Nelson returned to Virginia after roughly eight years abroad. He began assisting his father with the family’s plantations and mercantile concerns, applying his education to accounts, correspondence, tobacco exports, and public relationships. In 1762 he married Lucy Grymes, daughter of Philip Grymes, and the couple eventually had eleven children.

He entered the House of Burgesses in 1761, almost immediately joining the political world for which his family had prepared him.