In an 1823 court case, Harry Heth and John Stewart (partners in a firm called Heth and Stewart instituted in 1786) are mentioned as having bought in 1795 a certain 99.5 acre parcel of land on which the Black-heath coal-pits lay. They paid 3,150 pounds for this land, of which 1,486 pounds, 1 shilling, and 4 pence were paid to Samuel Swann (who held the mortgage on the land) and 1,663 pounds, 18 shillings, and 8 pence to William Bentley, the administrator of William Ronald, the deceased owner of the land. The Black Heath house was presumably built in the late 1790s or early 1800s by Henry "Harry" Heth, a Richmond area businessman. It is said that Heth acquired the land in the 1790s, so he most likely built his house soon after he bought the land or a couple years thereafter. Harry Heth operated the Black Heath coal mine located on the property and became very wealthy as a result of the mine's productiveness. The Black Heath mine was among the nation's richest and most productive coal mines in the first quarter of the 19th century.