Greetings everyone,

I am seeking information on a group of men with the surname of HART who
were merchants in Virginia during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I
don't know much about the families of these men or their relationship to
one another. They appear to have originated in Scotland.

Patrick Hart, John Hart, Thomas Hart, Peter Hart, and Robert Hart,
brothers, were involved in mercantile activities in Virginia (Hanover
County, Louisa County, Cumberland County, among other places) from the late
1760s through the mid-1780s. Their mother, Elizabeth, was living in
Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire, Scotland in 1777. This information was gleaned
from letters in the John Norton & Sons papers at the Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation.

Patrick Hart was in Richmond for much of the 1790s and was in Petersburg in
1799. An 1815 newspaper announcement involving the sale of a few warehouses
on Shockoe Bottom in Richmond indicates that he was back in London.

A sixth Hart, William, may be related to the above brothers. He was a
partner in the firm William Hart & Co. and then (perhaps) Hart Brown & Co.
in Lynchburg in the 1790s, although Personal Property Tax records do not
indicate that he lived there (William Brown of Kirkcudbright, Scotland ran
the Lynchburg store). Patrick Hart, rather than William, is named in the
dissolution of Hart Brown & Co. in 1800. William Hart is named in the
dissolution of William Hart & Co. of Manchester (Chesterfield County) in
1800.

A William Hart operated a store “across from the scale house” in Richmond
from 1805 to 1807. William Hart (presumably the same individual) had died
by December of 1808, when his wife, Mary, requested people to settle their
accounts with her deceased husband's estate.

I'm looking for information on how William Hart may have been related to
Patrick, John, Robert, Peter, and Thomas Hart (I suspect that he was a
younger [perhaps] brother or a son), when/where these various individuals
died, and more about their mercantile activities.

The primary focus of my research is William Brown, a merchant from
Kirkcudbright, Scotland (b. 1765), who was killed in the Richmond Theatre
fire in 1811. He operated a store in Lynchburg from 1790 until 1811. He
also had operations in Bedford County, Albemarle County, Amherst (turned)
Nelson County, and Richmond/Manchester. Learning more about the Harts
should help a great deal in filling in the gaps on William Brown.

I can provide additional information if it would be helpful.

Thanks in advance,

W. Scott Smith
Lynchburg, VA

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