William Byrd III (6 September 1728 – 1 January 1777) was a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses and the first landholder on Gambles Hill in Richmond.
Biography[]
William Byrd III was born in Charles City, Virginia in 1728 to a prominent family of planters, and he inherited his family's 179,000 acres of land and became a member of the House of Burgesses. He served as colonel of the Second Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War, and he went on to become a notorious gambler. He had to sell land and slaves in an attempt to pay off his creditors, but he was unsuccessful, and the despondent and nearly broke Byrd committed suicide in 1777.