Henry "Harry" Heth (1764-1822) was a Virginia officer and businessman. After settling in Chesterfield County, Virginia near Richmond circa 1759, he established and ran the Black Heath coal mines following the American Revolutionary War. During that conflict, Heth and his brothers served officers in the Continental Army and would become founding members of the Society of the Cincinnati. Heth became involved in many commercial activities in Richmond and Norfolk from the late 1790s to his death.
Family and early life
Although one source discussed below names him as likely born in the British Colony of Virginia around 1759 to 1772, Heth first appears age 18 years old on a Virginia state census conducted in Richmond in 1782. A 1764 birthdate is also consistent with his age being given as 23 years old on his marriage certificate in 1787.
According to Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Henry Heth came to Virginia from England in 1759 along with his brothers, William and John, and after the American Revolutionary War all three became charter members of the Society of the Cincinnati. According to Tyler, this Harry Heth (Sr.) served in the American Revolutionary War and had a son, Henry, who served in the War of 1812. This subsequent Henry had a son named John. Another reference states "that John Heth emigrated from the North of Ireland in the earlier half of the eighteenth century" and "settled first in Pennsylvania not far from Pittsburgh".
According to a family history published in 1934, Harry Heth was the son of a man named Henry Heth who was born in Ireland on November 16, 1718. That Henry Heth "came to the colonies from Newgate Prison as an indentured servant". That Henry Heth Sr. married Agnes McMachan around 1749 in Frederick County, Virginia. According to various records, Heth Sr. acquired land near Fort Pitt (modern day Pittsburgh) and when the Revolutionary War broke out, he was a captain of an independent company stationed near Fort Pitt.
In his will dated March 30, 1793, Henry Heth Sr. named his six sons: William, Andrew, John, Henry, Hervy, and Richard. While none of his daughters is explicitly mentioned, Gabriel Peterson (his son-in-law) was a witness and executor. Henry also indicates that some of his children are minors, so at least two children were born in or after 1772. A 1797 land document gives the birth order of Henry's sons living at that time: William, John, Harvey, Henry, and Richard. It appears that Andrew has died. Henry is also listed as having six daughters, among them Mary (wife of Capt. Robert Porterfield) and Anne or Nancy (wife of Lieut., later Col. Josiah Tannehill). Henry Heth Sr. and his sons served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and received numerous land grants for their service.
Military service
Henry "Harry" Heth served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Several points obscure his service. First, his father was named Henry and also served in the army. This senior Heth was the captain of an independent company stationed near Fort Pitt in western Pennsylvania. Another Henry Heth served as a quartermaster for a Virginia regiment during the war. Lastly, Harry may not have been old enough to be a soldier during the Revolutionary War, which technically required recruits to be 16 years old. In a 1782 census of the city of Richmond, he is listed as 18 years old.
Later, beginning in February 1814, during the War of 1812, Captain Henry Heth led a cavalry troop from Chesterfield County, which in August 1814 (as British troops in Chesapeake Bay burned the new national capital and plantations in Virginia and Maryland, this Henry Reth was promoted to Major and his troop attached to General Richard Porterfield's Brigade which remained in the Richmond area to defend the state capital.
Business career
Regardless of whether he served in the Revolutionary War, sometime in the 1780s Heth came to live in the Richmond, Virginia area. In 1795, along with John Stewart, Heth bought a 99.5-acre piece of land upon which the Black Heath coal pits were situated (near modern Midlothian. This was to be the beginning of a 55-year association between the Black Heath pits and the Heth family. Heth began to improve the pits, which until recently had only consisted of shallow pits in the ground, until they were the largest coal pits in the United States. Such was the quality of the coal from Black Heath that President Thomas Jefferson ordered some to be used in heating the White House.