Col. John Banister (1734-1788)

John Banister, Revolutionary leader, is buried one mile to the south. A tobacco planter and entrepreneur, Banister operated sawmills and flour mills near Petersburg. He lived at Battersea, an architecturally distinguished house about 10 miles east of here, and served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. During the 1770s Banister attended Virginia's Revolutionary Conventions and sat on the committee that produced the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the state’s first constitution. He was later elected to the House of Delegates and the Continental Congress. Banister signed the Articles of Confederation, served as a militia colonel during the Revolution, and was the first mayor of Petersburg.