Abner Nash was born on August 8, 1740 at "Templeton Manor, " his father's plantation in Amelia County, later Prince Edward County, Virginia. He was the third son of Ann (Owen) Nash, the daughter of Hugh Owen of Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales, and John Nash who had emigrated from Wales to Virginia about 1730, and was the brother of Francis Nash and the father of Frederick Nash.
In 1761 and 1762 he represented Prince Edward County in the Virginia House of Burgesses. Removing to North Carolina in 1762, he settled at Halifax, where he rose quickly to prominence in local politics and in the practice of law, as he did also at New Bern to which he removed in the early 1770's.
His representation of Halifax town in 1764 and 1765 and Halifax County from 1770 to 1771 in the House of Commons, his connection with the Dobbs land suit, and his role in the Regulator and Revolutionary movements brought him considerable reputation.
From the beginning of the contest with the mother country he was a zealous and active patriot. He was a leader in the local events that induced Gov. Josiah Martin to flee from New Bern in May 1775, was the choice of the borough of New Bern as delegate to each of the five Revolutionary provincial congresses from 1774 to 1776, was a member of several prominent committees in the congresses, notably those that drafted the Halifax resolution of April 12, 1776, and the constitution of 1776, was a member of the Provincial Council in 1775 and 1776, and was an agent of the Council in 1776 to confer with the South Carolina authorities at Charleston in regard to defense.
His conspicuous revolutionary activity led Governor Martin, who admitted he was "an eminent lawyer, " to brand him as "a most unprincipled character, " one of four persons in the province "foremost among the patrons of revolt and anarchy" whose "unremitted labours to promote sedition and rebellion" had marked them as proper objects of proscription.
Under the new government he was speaker of the first House of Commons and was the second governor. He represented New Bern for 1777 and Craven County for 1778 in the House of Commons, and Jones County in the Senate for 1779, when he was also chosen speaker.
He requested the General Assembly to create a board of war to share responsibility while the Assembly was not in session. The board of war, as created by the radical Assembly in the fall of 1780, was given and exercised the constitutional powers of the governor and was independent in its attitude toward him. Already piqued in the spring by the Assembly's unconstitutional action of selecting Richard Caswell to command the militia, he resented the usurpation of the board of war, refused to fill a vacancy, and wrote that the executive power was so divided that "men not knowing who to obey, obey nobody". He expressed to the Assembly in January 1781 his determination to resign the "useless and contemptible" office unless it was restored to a condition of respectablility. The board of war was merely replaced by the council extraordinary which likewise was given unconstitutional powers. On June 24, 1781, learning that he had been nominated for reelection, he requested the withdrawal of his name on account of "excessive Fatigues of late and want of Health". However, he soon reentered public life as representative from Jones County in 1782, 1784, and 1785, and was an unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1784.
In the House he was a leader in opposition to the restoration to the Loyalists of such of their confiscated property as had not been sold and to the repeal of all laws inconsistent with the treaty of 1783.
He declined election to the Continental Congress in 1778, but accepted election in 1782, 1783, and 1785. In Congress he soon recognized the necessity of a stronger federal government. He was appointed delegate to the Annapolis Convention in 1786 but did not attend.
He died while in New York to attend Congress and was buried with elaborate ceremony in St. Paul's Churchyard. Later his remains were removed to "Pembroke, " his home near New Bern.
In the Regulator disturbance he supported the conservative eastern interests and the established government under Governor William Tryon, who appointed him a major of brigade in 1768.
In his personal life he was genial, suave, luxurious in habit and taste, improvident, convivial, and gracious in hospitality.
Twice he was married advantageously: first, to Justina (Davis) Dobbs, the widow of Gov. Arthur Dobbs, through whom he was involved in the famous Dobbs land suit, and, second, in 1774 to Mary Whiting Jones.
