?^\o^ V^^\^'^ "O^*^*^/ ^^^^*^\/ %< 4? or c»"** "^b 4!*' r»"* V • %,** - «* » s .y O . •J o ^^-n^. / 'o.'^''J> 'V-t1^\#'^ \.'^-'\°^ %• *' y . The Publication Committee of the Grolier Club certify that this copy is one of an edition of three hundred and sixty copies on Italian hand-made paper, and three copies on vellum, all of which were printed in the month of November, 1892. BARONS OF THE POTOMACK AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK LORD THOMAS FAIRFAX. BARONS OF THE POTOMACK AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK I BY MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY NEW YORK THE GROLIER CLUB 1892 3 3ir/3 K r^ ^-7^^ V Copyright, 1892, By the Grolier Club. PREFACE Among the pretty legends of Spotswood that lingered on the Rappahannock, one related that he had sailed up the river on a ship made musical with English skylarks. He released these feathered colonists in the meadows, just below the Falls, in Spottsylvania, the county bear- ing his name. In childhood, daily passing those mea- dows on my way to school in Fredericksburg, how often did I hear those larks singing in the morning sunshine ! But our elders used to smile incredulously at such tales, and the skylarks were heard more rarely in boyhood. When youth was reached they had all changed to mere meadow-larks. But no doubt other children continued to hear them until they were scared away by the hurt- ling shot and shell which left their happy homes desolate monuments of civil war. The legendary larks still sing, however, in their viii PREFACE mystical heaven, for those who can revive and realize in imagination the colonial childhood that first heard their song. They are winged symbols of the happier ways of English life, which the good governor and his cavaliers tried to import, but could not acclimate amid the prosaic necessities and puritanical customs that gradually turned their melodies into killdee screams. But now and then from some old colonial letter I see the English lark soaring up again, and hear his requiem of a generation of Virginia gentlemen and gentlewomen, long past and buried, whose successors can only know in moldering parchment the brave life they lived on mountain, field, and stream, in their ancient regime, forever extinct. Such letters, however, with the heart of English Virginia in them, are rarely found, and it is like coming on a whole choir of the old governor's songsters to read those for the first time printed in this volume. Or perhaps I should say orchestra rather than choir ; for in these manuscripts, which have found their way into the collection of Mr. William F. Havemeyer of New York, we surprise an undress rehearsal of the prologue to our Revolutionary drama. On a stage beyond the misleading lights of patriotic prejudice, and hitherto but dimly lit by any lights at all, the unconscious dramatis personce appear, — light-hearted youths, loyal and happy PREFACE ix in their imported English habitat, little dreaming that it is passing away and their manhood pledged to America Some of the writers of these letters have hitherto been little more than imposing names in genealogical tables, others conventionalized into unreal figures of our na- tional wall-paper. My reader sh^ll see some living forms descending from that historic upholstery, and names climbing down from family trees to tell how they got there. These letters and manuscripts tell, indeed, no con- tinuous story ; they are unconnected, fragmentary, full of references to a variety of persons and affairs in a re- mote colonial period hitherto interesting mainly to the genealogist and the antiquary. The papers make some new paths for the historian and the biographer, but such multiplicity of persons, places, and events admits of no integral literary treatment. The interest is essentially, and not by mere metaphor, dramatic ; but the scenes that succeed one another belong to separate plots, each requiring the recovery of some situation to explain its motive, action, and references. They are connected only by the political and social regime which included the various aims and enterprises of the time, like a station- ary scenery. Of this some account and description must be given. I bring, too, some footlights from family history, glimpses into the old homes of these X PREFACE early Virginians, and what local lore I can gather for realistic presentation ; but the mounting must mainly be on each reader's own historic imagination. That imagination I endeavor to assist by some preliminary studies of the events which gave our Barons of the Potomack and the Rappahannock their political and so- cial environment, and the issues with which they were concerned. For the rest, although the main object of this work is not historical, I have availed myself of this opportunity to utilize some unpublished discoveries con- cerning the Washington and Lewis families especially, and to surround the epistolary portraits with appropriate frames. If personal sentiment becomes too apparent in any of these pages, let the reader be indulgent. The ram- ble into colonial times has involved a ramble amid the scenes and associations of my boyhood. A hundred years after the decade chiefly revived in these manu- scripts ( 1 740-1 750) the descendants of those famous Virginians were my schoolmates; in the old play- grounds were still young Washingtons, Lewises, Wil- lises, Bassetts, Fitzhughs, Masons, Maryes ; we sported in the same streams, and gathered cherries with deep conviction that Washington never harmed any such tree; we were greeted by venerable gentlemen and ladies, — Mrs. Dunbar, Judge Lomax, Byrd Willis, Basil PREFACE XI Gordon, — who in childhood had been greeted by Mary Washington and her illustrious son. Colonial manners and ideas had largely survived, and this masquerade of earlier Shades in vestments of memory is too real not to awaken emotion in those who feel themselves the last witnesses of a Virginia forever irrecoverable. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PACE TOBACCONALIA 1 CHAPTER II Spotswood and the Cavaliers i6 CHAPTER III "Arms, and the Man" 32 CHAPTER IV Augustine Washington and his Family ... 44 CHAPTER V After Cartagena 98 chapter vi The Virginians 114 chapter vii Warner Hall 144 xiii xiv CONTENTS chapter viii Word-fossils and Folk-lore 172 PAGE CHAPTER IX The Fitzhughs 197 CHAPTER X A Lord and a Lad at Belvoir . . . . . . 211 CHAPTER XI The Fairfax Stone 2j,^ chapter xii Mount Vernon, and Young Virginia .... 255 ILLUSTRATIONS Facsimile of Fairfax Coat of Arms . Device on Cover From the original map, "Survey of Northern Neck of Virginia, 1736-1737"; in possession of Mr. W. F. Havemeyer. Lord Thomas Fairfax Frontispiece Photograph from original oil-painting in Alex- andria Washington Lodge, No. 22, A, F. and A. M. Engraved by R. G. Tietze. FACIKG PAGE View of Old Bruton Parish Church, Williams- burg, Va 18 Drawn by Harry Fenn, from photograph lent by Mrs. Cynthia B. T. Coleman. Engraved by C. Schwarzburger. Washington Arms on Church at Warton (show- ing shield) 35 Drawn by Harry Fenn, from photograph. Facsimile of George Washington Letter, dated May 5, 1749, TO Major Lawrence Wash- ington, at Williamsburg, Va. ... 96 Original in possession of Mr. W. F. Havemeyer. Facsimile of Superscription on Letter from George Washington to Major Lawrence Wash- ington . . . , 97 Original in possession of Mr. W. F. Havemeyer. xvi ILLUSTRATIONS FACIVG PAGE Sabine Hall, Warsaw, Richmond County, Va. .138 Drawn by Harry Fenn, from photograph lent by Mr. Robert C. Wellford. Mary Howell . 158 From replica owned by Mr. Coleman G. Williams. Original in possession of Miss Susan Douthat of Buchanan, Botetourt Co., Va. Engraved by R. G. Tietze. Deborah Clarke, Second Wife of Hon. William Fairfax 214 From the original oil-painting in the Essex Insti- tute, Salem, Mass. Engraved by R. G. Tietze. Facsimile of Fairfax Letter, dated November 10, 1773 247 Original in possession of Mr. W. F. Havemeyer, Lawrence Washington (with signature) . . .255 From original oil-painting owned by Lawrence Washington, of Alexandria, Va. Engraved by R. G. Tietze. HEAD AND TAIL PIECES DESIGNED AND DRAWN BY HARRY FENN CHAPTER I. ToBACcoNALiA. Pipes, tobacco leaves and flowers. Tail-piece, tobacco plant and pipes. CHAPTER II. Spotswood and the Cavaliers. Horseshoe and oak branches. Tail-piece, bird and Virginia creeper. CHAPTER III. "Arms, AND THE Man." (Heraldic, anent the Washing- tons.) Fourteenth-century shield and wreath, showing cin- quefoils; seal of Augustine Washington; impression of George Washington's private wax seal. Tail-piece, arms of Barons Washington, from design sent by the present Baron Wash- ington of Munich; painted by his nephew, Stefan Wash- ington, LL. D. CHAPTER IV. Augustine Washington and his Family. A single ship. Tail-piece, seal of Augustine Washington on letter to Major Lawrence Washington ; drawn by Otto Bacher, from original in possession of Mr. W. F. Havemeyer. CHAPTER V. After Cartagena. Four ships. CHAPTER VI. The Virginians. Virginiacreeper and mocking-bird. CHAPTER VII. Warner Hall. Crabs, fish, and flowers. Tail-piece, Lewis arms, from an engraving owned by Captain Henry Howell Lewis, Baltimore, Md. CHAPTER VIII. WoRD-FossiLS and Folk-lore. Sea-horses and sea- weed. Tail-piece, shell and seaweed. CHAPTER IX. The Fitzhughs. Old letters. Tail-piece, Fitzhugh seal. CHAPTER X. A Lord and a Lad at Bel voir. Heraldic design. Tail-piece, shield. CHAPTER XL The Fairfax Stone. Roses, etc. Tail-piece, the Fairfax Stone. CHAPTER XII. Mount Vernon, and Young Virginia. Ornamental design from Greek jug. Tail-piece, andirons from Mount Vernon. BARONS OF THE POTOMACK AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK Tobacconalia FEW years ago, when Ameri- cans were sending to the press their sentimental suffrages for a national floral emblem, the true one found no favor — To- bacco. Its rosy flower is not unlovely; but had it been proposed an army of pious men and a host of ladies would have risen in wrath. Yet religion and tobacco are ancient allies. 1 asked an eminent Southern 2 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Methodist why it was that, after the Union was politically restored, the sectional division in his church could not terminate. He fenced with my question for a time, but at last con- fessed that the wall of partition is built of tobacco. ''Those Northern Methodists for- bid their preachers to smoke, and are engaged in a general crusade against tobacco. That is our Southern staple, and our churches are largely supported by it." As for our ladies, they may cry for equal political power, but even the franchise, did they obtain it, could not give it to them so long as the insur- mountable cigar bars their way to the clubs and conclaves in which candidatures are de- termined and party treaties made by the cal- umet, as they were made by aboriginal tribes in the days of the good chief Tammany, who is among ''the undying ones." A true history of tobacco would be the history of English and American liberty. When Columbus reached the West Indies he found the gentle natives smoking their primitive cigars, — rolls of tobacco wrapped in leaves of the maize, — and when he asked for the golden treasures he was seeking, they answered, "We have a plant that destroys care." But it was just that care-destroying AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 3 plant which two centuries later enthroned Care beside the British monarch. James I. was termed by Sully ''the wisest fool in Christendom." His wisdom was to recog- nize Tobacco as a rival potentate, his folly to try and make it minister to Prerogative. There was a republic of letters in London, and its president, William Shakespeare, whose pipe is still preserved at Stratford-upon-Avon, enjoyed it with his circle all the more for reading in the King's " Counterblaste to To- bacco " that its fumes resembled "the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." But into that pit James pitched his preroga- tive when he endeavored to draw a revenue for the Crown from the ''pernicious weed." He was checked by a resolution of the House of Commons. The long contest which ulti- mately transferred purse and sword from Crown to Commons began with the tobacco question. Had the English commoners been as care- ful of constitutional rights in their colonies as at home, the American Revolution had never occurred. That revolution really began with resistance to irritating duties and regulations imposed on the cultivation of tobacco in Virginia. After some tobacco riots, followed 4 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK by executions for treason, loyalty in the col- ony diminished. And presently the wonder- ful plant involved religion also. Those who mainly kept loyalty alive in Virginia were the clergy of the Established Church, and they were entirely supported by tobacco. ''The Establishment indeed is Tobacco." Such were the pregnant words of the Rev. Hugh Jones, A. M., in his pamphlet on ''The Pres- ent State of Virginia. " That was in 1 724. The noble lords in London, who controlled the plantations in Virginia, could hardly compre- hend the clergyman's singular sentence. Lords before them had been told that Vir- ginian souls were neglected, and had given the memorable reply : "Damn their souls, let them make Tobacco." And they did make tobacco, but it was found that this staple steadily grew strong enough to damn their lordships. Early in the eighteenth century tobacco had become the currency of the colony. By a law of 1696 the salary of every clergyman had been fixed at sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco per annum. But the value of such salary was variable, by reason of changes in the market-price, consequent on the quantity shipped to Europe, and also on account of AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 5 the quality of the tobacco. In some parishes only "Orinoco" could be raised, which was inferior to "sweet-scented." Many a poor clergyman's household was filled with joy at tidings of his promotion from an "Orinoco parish" to a "sweet-scented parish," as they are described in the old books. But there were many parishes where no tobacco could be cultivated at all, and these were left en- tirely without ministrations of the Established Church. But in these tobaccoless wilder- nesses voices were heard of the Baptists, Qiiakers, or less definable dissenters, who were directing the pioneer's axe to the root of the established Tree that protected the throne. In some of these neglected parishes stood old church edifices, and these were freely utilized by any peripatetic ranter or rabid separatist who might come along. Even the wandering "parsons" connected with the establishment were often illiterate, there being no American episcopate, and theological education and ordination remain- ing transatlantic luxuries. Historians of the American Episcopal Church have been somewhat severe upon the Eng- lish Church for not earlier appointing an epis- copate in the colonies, especially in Virginia. 6 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K This was indeed inconvenient, as ministers had to repair to England personally for ordi- nation. But the failure was not altogether, perhaps not mainly, due to the English Church. The Virginians, loyal churchmen as they generally were, even when unortho- dox, dreaded the establishment among them of bishops' courts, looking upon them as a sort of Inquisition. And indeed, if a bishop in Virginia had magnified his office in the same way as the governor, the dread of him was not unfounded. However that may be, there appears no doubt that, in the absence of any near authoritative superintendence, the clerical administration showed some cu- rious developments. The clerk, chosen by the vestry, became an important personage. When the clergyman was ill the clerk of- ficiated, and sometimes introduced strange doctrines, as well as language not ''sweet- scented," into the pulpit. If the clergyman died, the clerk became de facto parson, and might long remain such. He often appears as the rival rather than the assistant of the clergyman, this giving rise to sharp divisions such as that in Truro parish, mentioned in a letter of William Fairfax (August 15, 1749) printed on a farther page. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 7 It should be stated, however, that many churches, perhaps a majority, did a good deal of missionary work, sending out "readers" far and near to conduct services and read sermons. In studying the vestry-book of St. George's parish, whose centre was Fred- ericksburg, I have found it amusing to note the care with which the vestryrnen made their reports of counting the tobacco-plants. Every plant in the county of Spottsylvania was counted as if each were a pound sterling in a bank. The services done by these plants are shown in the following parish account for one year : Dt. Lbs. of Tobacco. To Rev. James Marye, his salary per year • . 16,000 To George Carter, Reader at Mattapony . . . 1,000 To R. Stuart, Reader at Rappahannock . . . 1,000 To Readers at Germanna and the Chapel . . 2,000 To Zachary Lewis, for prosecuting all suits for the parish, per annum 500 To Mary Day, a poor woman 350 To Mrs. Livingston, for salivating a poor woman, promising to cure her again if she should be sick again in twelve month 1,000 To James Atkins, a poor man 550 To M. Bolton, for keeping a bastard child a year 800 To John Taliaferro, for three surplices . . . 5,000 8 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK To Wm. Philips, Reader at the Mountain . ^2^ To John Gordon, sexton at Germanna . . 5,000 To John Taliaferro, for keeping a poor girl six months i ,000 To Edmund Herndon, for maintaining Thomas Moor 800 Cr. 1500 tythables, at 22 lbs. of tobacco per poll 33,000 175 tythables employed in Spottswood's Iron Works, exempted by law from pay- ing tythes. There was something in the life of a planter that tended to foster a spirit of independence. He lived at the centre of a large estate, not under the eye of his peers, patriarchally su- preme in his family, surrounded by his white serfs and negro slaves. His word was law. He and his family were fed from the many- breasted earth; the little they needed from England being easily and surely brought them in exchange for tobacco. They had their proud family traditions, their coats of arms, and were not liable to any snobbish deference toward the officials sent to Williamsburg, whom they rarely saw. For the rest, the swarms of British captains and seamen who sailed between the Potomack or the Rappa- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 9 hannock and England were not such as could inspire any great esteem for the mother country. The Rappahannock was especially the highroad of the tobacco country, and trading-hamlets grew on its banks. They were generally inhabited by the younger sons of the planters, who rapidly accumulated money by attending to the shipping business. The town of Fredericksburg, at the head of navigation, was founded in 1727, and in it were represented the great families of the Rappahannock. The first vestry-meeting of St. George's parish (formed 1721) of which there is an entry, occurred on Monday, January 16, 1726, at the Lower Church on the Rappahannock, — the year before Fredericksburg was laid out. At that meeting it was ' ' Ordered, that Ben- jamin Cave and Richard Cheek do examine and enquire of the names and number of persons allowed to Tend Tobacco, accord- ing to a late Act of Assembly made for the Better and more Effectual Improving the Staple of Tobacco, and the crops of the several planters, and the number of plants growing on any and every plantation " — within a certain precinct. The bounds be- tween precincts were laid off every four iV 10 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK years. This supervision of the plantations was called ''processioning." In St. George's parish, June 27, 1727, Robert Green and Isaac Normin "processioned the land between the river and mountains." These mountains were far away, near the headsprings of the Rappahannock. Soon after Fredericksburg began to fill up a little, a Scotch-Irish clergyman named Pat- ^nu^nJ rick Henry settled there. His story, in con- '^, ]/] nection with his famous nephew of the same ^DeX.a^^^j" name, is told in Mr. Wirt Henry's recent biog- raphy of the great orator. The Rev. Patrick Henry came to Fredericksburg in 1733, and remained little over a year, and it is a striking fact that under his brief ministry St. George's Church began a sort of rebellion against State control. They had engaged the chief founder of the town. Col. Henry Willis (whose wife was George Washington's aunt), to build them a church for seventy-five thousand pounds of tobacco. On the petition of some remote parishioners, the governor (Gooch) made an attempt to interfere, in accordance with his prerogative, with the location ; but he had to be satisfied with their explanations ; the chief one being that the edifice was nearly completed. It was the right of the governor AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK II to appoint every minister, and when the Rev. Patrick Henry resigned the Hon. William Gooch sent to Fredericksburg one Rev. Mr. Smith. After hearing him twice, the congre- gation dismissed Smith and chose for them- selves the Rev. James Marye. This admir- able man, who was rector from 1735 until his death, in 1767, was succeeded by his son, who was chosen by a vote of the people of the parish, the governor wisely submitting. It was a time when people were punished for non-attendance at church, and they were resolved to have a voice in the provision of their compulsory spiritual diet. The Act of 1696, fixing the clergyman's salary at sixteen thousand pounds of tobacco, had been subjected to a good deal of oppo- sition from time to time,— that is, in years when tobacco rose in price, — and in 1748 it was reenacted only after a considerable strug- gle. The value of tobacco was then \6s. 8d. per hundred pounds. This, with the free use of glebes, gave the ''sweet-scented" parson a snug little income, and he was very careful to see that his vestrymen counted the plants, and "tended seconds" (/. e., guarded the plants from being gleaned too closely, or thin second growths gathered). They showed a 12 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK pious anxiety to prevent deterioration of the tobacco crop, or of its price, to the injury of Christ's kingdom in Virginia. But in the year 1755 a drought so injured the tobacco crop that the people could not pay their to- bacco debts in kind, and the Burgesses passed an act, limited to ten months, enabling debt- ors to pay such dues and taxes in money, at the rate of 165. Sd. per hundred pounds of tobacco. Tobacco, of course, rose in value, but the only creditors who still demanded payment in kind were some of the clergy. They appealed to the Bishop of London for his aid in having the new act annulled by the King. But the agitation showed that a ma- jority of the clergy were satisfied with the act. In 1758 another short crop caused a similar act (for one year), and this the clergy resolved in Convention to resist. The Rev. John Camm was sent to England to petition for a royal veto, and obtained an order of Council (August 10, 1759) which, the Lords of Trade and Privy Council declared, would render the act void ab initio. With this Camm returned and brought suit to test the validity of the law. The result was an issue between the House of Burgesses and the clergy. The law point involved was reduced AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 13 to a question of the force of an act, signed by the governor, between its date and the King's disapproval. The great test case became that of the Rev. James Maury, of Louisa County, a popular rector who had not opposed the act in 1755, but now brought suit in the county of Hanover — Patrick Henry's county. The case went on until (November 5, 1763) a decision was given favorable to the clergy. But the question was left to the jury as to the damages,— that is, the difference between the money paid Maury, as his salary for one year, and the value of the tobacco he had claimed. This difference was £2^^. The jury awarded the Rev. James Maury one penny. Other defeats of the clergy fol- lowed, — the final one being on Camm's ap- peal to England, in 1767. The General Court dismissed it on some technical point, without going into its merits, — no doubt, as Mr. Wirt Henry thinks, ''a pretext to get rid of a troublesome question, for the discussion of which the times were not then suited." But troublesome questions had been raised by these tobacco cases, which were destined to be settled by the sword. The '' Parsons' Case," as it was called, was first heard before Col. John Henry as magistrate, — Patrick 14 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Henry's father, — the orator's uncle, Rev. Patrick Henry, after whom he was named, being one of the petitioners against the act. Despite these ties to the throne, and to the church of which he was always a member. Lawyer Patrick Henry flamed out with such an arraignment of the clergy, for seeking to grind the suffering people, that he broke their authority, and became the darling of the Presbyterians and other dissenters. Even more momentous was his arraignment of the King. He declared that his disapproval of a necessary colonial act was an instance of oppression by the King; that by it he had degenerated from a father of his people to their tyrant, and forfeited all right to their obedience in regard to a law which could not be annulled without violation of the compact between the throne and the people. The opposing counsel (Lyons) cried out at this point, ''The gentleman has spoken treason, and I am astonished that your Wor- ships can hear it without emotion, or any mark of dissatisfaction." There were mur- murs in the room of ''Treason ! " But the bench and the jury sat spellbound by Henry's eloquence, and sanctioned the treason by their nominal damages. The case of the AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 15 colonies against the King was really settled that day. When the Stamp Act agitation pres- ently came, Patrick Henry held the people of Virginia in his hand. Tobacco had built him a throne before which King George had to bend, and by which his sceptre was finally broken. All of which would be more satis- factory had it not come by Virginia's first step in repudiation of her debts. II Spotswood and the Cavaliers iRGiNiA, in its three centuries, possesses the unique interest of presenting an epitome of both English and American history. There was a period when the British monarchy existed only in Virginia. When the fugitive Charles 11. was a pretender everywhere else, decrees still issued in his name in the ''Old Dominion," as it was thenceforth called. Virginia sent Col. Richard Lee to Holland to invite Charles to set up his throne personally in the colony. Some writers think his re- i6 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK 17 fusal was a lucky escape for America, but that may be doubted. He would probably have been rather more liberal than his father, Charles I., who, after he was beheaded in England, continued to be governor of Vir- ginia under one name or another. A colonial governor of Virginia was the prince of plu- ralists. As representative of the King he appointed all officers, and prorogued at pleasure the Burgesses ; as Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer he dictated to the Council ; as Lieutenant-General he directed forces and fortifications on land; as Admiral he disposed of prizes; as Lord Chancellor he decreed causes ; as Lord Keeper issued land grants ; as the only colonial Bishop he licensed mar- riages, controlled benefices, appointed or deprived incumbents, settled ecclesiastical causes. One governor and another had made the Virginians realize that these guber- natorial powers were by no means theoreti- cal, though none sprung the whole engine of despotism on the colony. However, the golden age of every race has for its centre some benevolent or glorious despot, and the Old Dominion is no excep- tion. Probably no monarch in Christendom possessed more absolute powers than Alex- 1 8 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK ander Spotswood, who, in 1 710, at the age of thirty-four, became governor of Virginia. Born in an English colony in Africa, familiar with the slave-trade, bred in the camp, he had courage, enterprise, enthusiasm; but he also had high principle, a sense of honor, and fine intelligence. The Spotswood legend has lasted longer in Virginia than any other. The great sea-fight with Blackbeard the pi- rate, whose diabolical head was brought up James River as figurehead of an English ship, survives to this day in the folklore of the Virginia coast. The Germans he imported had a curious story, yet to be told, and the town Germanna which he founded on the upper Rappahannock is the haunt of romance. Spotswood was called the ''Tubal Cain of Virginia," for he set workmen to mine its iron ores; and his iron age was transmuted into a golden age by his instituting the order of "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe." Or so it passed into the legend of Spotswood's reign, which in actual duration lasted twelve years, in romance never ended. The earliest mention of the Golden Horse- shoe was by the Rev. Hugh Jones, who by Spotswood's appointment preached in pretty Bruton Church at Williamsburg, which the AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 19 governor transformed from a small structure into what it now is — a monument of his good taste. The clergyman wrote: " Governor Spots wood, when he under- took the great discovery of a passage over the mountains, attended with a sufficient guard of pioneers and gentlemen, with a supply of provisions, passed these moun- tains and cut his Majesty's name upon a rock upon the highest of them, naming it Mount George, and in complaisance to him [Alexander Spotswood], the gentle- men called the next mountain to it Mount Alexander. For this expedition, they were obliged to provide a great quantity of horse- shoes, things seldom used in the eastern part of Virginia, where there are no stones. Upon which account, the Governor upon his return presented each of his companions with a golden horse-shoe, some of which I have seen, covered with valuable stones, re- sembling heads of nails, with the inscription 'Sic juvat transcendere montes.' This he instituted to encourage gentlemen to venture backward and make discoveries and settle- ments, any gentleman being entitled to wear this golden shoe who could prove that he 20 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK had drank his Majesty's health on Mount George." So unimpressive was the incident at the time that no hint of it is found in any of Spotswood's letters, though he repeatedly alludes to the expedition; and although there were fifty persons in the exploration, and must have been a considerable number of golden horseshoes, not one has rewarded the long search of antiquarians for a specimen. Nothing was heard in Spotswood's time of any "Order" or '' Knights"; possibly he and those whom he decorated feared to awaken royal jealousy in England by any such ap- pearance of a gubernatorial fountain of honor. This part of the legend was evolved and decorated by later generations. The exploration of the Blue Ridge, which touched the imagination of young Virginia, had among its romantic episodes the return with the governor of an Indian maiden, Ka- tena. There are variants of the story: some said that she begged to be carried to the region of the pale-faces; others that she was taken as a voluntary hostage from her father, a chief, for his friendship. At any rate, I have been told by the descendants of Fraii(cis) Thornton that Katena is not at all mythical. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 21 and that she became the devoted companion of their ancestor. She used to carry the child into the woods, near the mansion now known as Snowden, on the Falls of the Rappahan- nock, and taught him the wild arts of her race. On one occasion she was found exhib- iting to her charge a number of partridges enticed somehow into a wicker cage which she had made. But Katena died in her eigh- teenth year, and Francis Thornton remained through life a melancholy man. Her wild and pretty ways became themes of innumer- able stories. I have before me a poem by Miss Lomax, — a name found in the Have- meyer letters, — by which it would appear that Katena may have taught some fair Vir- ginians to swim. I conclude to rescue from oblivion this early poem written by a lover of the Potomack. 'Totomack, in thy silver stream At silent night I love to lave, Unseen, save by the lunar beam, As light I wanton o'er thy wave. ''Here, in thy waters fair reclin'd, I court illusion's changeful sway, To sweet delirium all resign'd, Reality fades fast away. 22 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK " But what soft voice steals on my ear, As wrapt I lie in languid dream? And see ! a graceful form draws near- It is the Genius of the stream. i( i Mortal ! ' he cries (his liquid voice Sweet as the blue wave's softest sigh), 'Still are my humid haunts thy choice. Still wilt thou to my green banks hie ! " ' When Nature spoke, and this fair flood Rush'd from its dark and secret source. The frowning rock, impervious wood, Alternate bending o'er its course, — '' 'Then rov'd my new-born shores along. The tawny sons of savage life, — Here raised the war-whoop loud and strong. Here desp'rate met in deadly strife. " 'And here full many a warrior rude In tortures drew his parting breath. But still with spirit unsubdued Pour'd fearless forth the song of death. " 'Near yon wild willow is the spot Where oft they formed the mazy ring; And yonder stood the warrior's cot. Who styled himself Potomack's King. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 23 " * There from the sun's meridian ray An oak's broad shadow gave relief, Where oft thy ancestor would stray And woo the daughter of the Chief. " ' And often that same Indian maid (The white man's bride, as records tell) In childhood's lovely season play'd O'er these soft scenes thou lov'st so well. '"At night when Summer's ardent heat O'er all a listless languor leaves, Like thee she sought some cool retreat. And slyly stole amid my waves. " 'And often with her rustic bow, When Autumn's varied beauties smil'd, Then to my greenwood sides would go, And wander there a huntress wild. '' ' I've seen full many a fleeting race Since then arise to bloom and fade, Through time's illimitable space, And sink in dark oblivion's shade. '' ' But none like thee in all that time So oft have sought my lonely shore, So loved my verdant banks to climb. Their mossy beauties to explore. 24 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK '' 'To none than thee more dear the sight, The music of my noble flood; And none have with more warm delight So oft upon my margin stood. " ' For this I bade yon sycamores In clusters o'er my beach to rise, And when thou sought'st thy native shores, To guard thee from intrusive eyes. '' ' For this I bid my waters bright To soothe thy ears with murmurs low, Whene'er by day or silent night Thou com'st to mark their graceful flow. ' " Alexander Spotswood was one of the few heroes who lived to find himself legendary. Having got into a conflict with a powerful party headed by Philip Ludwell, involving the rights of the Crown — that is, of the gov- ernor — to collate clergymen to benefices, to build forts and other things, poor Spots- wood lost his place in 1722, retreated to An- napolis, Maryland, and passed the remaining eighteen years of his life as a prosaic post- master-general. The most noticeable event of his subsequent life was his appointment of Benjamin Franklin as postmaster of Penn- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 25 sylvania. But while he was thus in retreat, so far as Virginia was concerned, the iron- mines and furnaces he had promoted, and which bore his name, occupied universal attention, and his various expeditions were still themes of romance and poetry. One of these expeditions had been to Albany, where he made a treaty with the Indians, whose chief he decorated with a golden horseshoe. The last cavaliers of Virginia— the young Washingtons, Lewises, Fauntleroys, and the rest — were born in Spotswood's time and imbued with his spirit of adventure. When Admiral Vernon was fitting out in England his hostile expedition to South America, the agitation it caused in Virginia was partly due to the chivalrous spirit excited by Spots- wood, and to events that occurred under his administration. The belligerent feeling was especially aroused by tidings that Harry Beverley and other Virginians had been cap- tured by the Spanish, and made to work like slaves. When the Virginians were enlisting under Governor Gooch, and Major Lawrence Washington, in his twenty-third year, was beginning his career, Spotswood's cavalier blood stirred. He was now sixty-five years of age, but obtained the commission of a 26 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK major-general. Just as he was about to em- bark for Carthagena, the old gentleman died. It is said that he was buried near his country- seat at Yorktown, Virginia,— Temple Farm,— the house in which, forty-one years later, Lord Cornwallis met George Washington to sign terms of capitulation. The brief sketch of colonial events here given will enable my reader to appreciate better the general situation amid which the writers of the letters presently quoted found themselves. Let me, in conclusion, relieve the history by a quaint love-story. Spots- wood's family were already persons of in- fluence in Virginia. His son John (father of General Alexander and John Spotswood of the Revolution) and his daughter Dorothea married in the Dandridge family; his daughter Kate was a famous belle, but she was rivaled in beauty by the governor's widow. Lady Spotswood, as she was called {nee Brayne), was of high rank, her godfather being the Duke of Ormond. After her husband's death (1740), her hand was sought by the Rev. John Thompson of Culpeper. Although at- tracted by the handsome and accomplished clergyman, the lady could hardly make up her mind to descend from her rank and be- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 27 come plain Mrs. Thompson. Thereupon the clergyman wrote her a letter, preserved by the Forbes family of Fredericksburg. The letter appeared in Dr. Slaughter's monograph on St. George's parish, but merits wider pres- ervation among the annals of Eros in America. It is dated May, 1742. ''Madam, '* By diligently perusing your letter, I per- ceive there is a material argument, which I ought to have answered; upon wch your strongest objection, against compleating my happiness would seem to depend, viz. That you wou'd incur ye censures of ye world for marrying a person of my station and char- acter. By which I understand that you think it a diminution to your honor and ye Dignity of your Family to marry a person in ye sta- tion of a Clergyman. Now, if I can make it appear that ye ministerial office is an employ- ment, in its nature ye most honorable, and in its effects ye most beneficial to mankind 1 hope your objections will immediately vanish, yt you will keep me no longer in suspense and misery, but consummate my happiness. "1 make no doubt. Madam, but yt you will readily grant yt no man can be em- 28 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK ployed in any work more honorable, than what immediately relates to ye King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and to ye salva- tion of souls, immortal in their nature and redeemed by the Blood of the Son of God. The powers committed to their care can- not be exercised by ye greatest Princes of earth, and it is ye same work i^^ . in kind and is ye same in ye Design of it, wth yt of ye blessed Angels, who are ministering spirits for those who shall be Heirs of Salvation. It is the same Business yt ye Son of God discharged when he condescended to dwell amongst men. Which engages men in ye greatest acts of doing Good, in turning sinners from ye errors of their ways, and by all wise and prudent Means, in gaining Souls unto God. And the faithful and diligent Dis- charge of this holy Function gives a Title to ye highest Degree of Glory in the next world ; for they yt be wise, shall shine as ye brightness of ye Firmament, and ^^^^^^ they yt turn many to Righteous- ness as ye stars for ever and ever. ''All nations, whether learned or ignorant, whether civil or barbarous, have agreed in this as a dictate of natural Reason, to ex- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 29 press their Reverence for ye Deity, and their Affection to Religion, by bestow- ing extraordinary Privileges of Honour upon such as administer in holy things, and by providing liberally for their Maintenance. And yt ye Honor due to the holy Function flows from ye Law of Nature, appears from hence: yt in ye earliest Times ye civil and sacred Authority were united in the same Person. Thus Melchisedeck was King and Priest of Salem; and among ye Egyptians ye Priesthood was ^n.3. joined with ye Crown. The Greeks accounted ye Priesthood of equal Dignity with Kingship; wch is taken notice of by Aristotle in several places of his poli- ticks. And among ye Latins we have a testimony of Virgil, yt at ye same time Anias was both Priest and King. Nay, Moses, himself, who was xxfv'6 Prince of Israel before Aaron was consecrated, officiated as Priest in yt solemn sacrifice by wch ye Covenant with Israel was confirmed. ''And ye primitive Christians always ex- pressed a mighty value and esteem for their Clergy, as plainly appears by Ecclesiastical History. And even in our Days, as bad as 30 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K ye World is, those of ye Clergy who live up to ye Dignity of their profession, are generally reverenced and esteemed by all religious and well disposed Men. " From all which, it evidently appears, yt in all Ages and Nations of ye World, whether Jews, Heathens, or Christians, great Honour and Dignity has been always conferred upon ye Clergy. And therefore. Dear Madam, from hence you may infer how absurd and ridiculous, those Gentlemen's Notions are, who wou'd fain persuade you yt marry- ing with ye Clergy wou'd derogate from ye Honour and Dignity of your Family. Whereas, in strict reasoning the contrary thereof wou'd rather appear, and yt it wou'd very much tend to support ye Hon- our and Dignity of it. Of this you'll be better convinced, when you consider the Titles of Honour and Respect yt are given to those who are invested wth ye Minis- terial Function amply displayed in the Scrip- tures. Those invested wth ye character are called ye Ministers of Christ, Stewards of ye Mysteries of God, to whom they have committed ye Word of Reconciliation, ye Glory of Christ, Ambassadors for Christ, in Christ's stead, co-workers with him, Angels AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK }l of the Churches. And when it is moreover declared yt whosoever despiseth them, de- spiseth not Man but God. All which Titles shew yt upon many accounts they stand called, appropriated and devoted to God himself. And therefore, if a Gentleman of this sacred and honourable character should be married to a Lady, though of ye greatest extraction and most excellent personal quali- ties (which I'm sensible you're endowed with), can be no disgrace to her, nor her family, nor draw ye censures of ye world upon either, for such an action. And there- fore Dr Madam, your argument being re- futed you can no longer consistently refuse to consummate my happiness. ''John Thompson." Cupid has rarely taken Scripture texts for his arrows, and in this case he was not blind. On November 9, 1742, Lady Spotswood be- came Mrs. Thompson. Ill ''Arms, and the Man" RMA VIRUMQUE CANO. So Vir- gil begins the /Eneid, and his metaphor is in felicitous com- bination ; for in his time the weapon was not independent of the warrior. The weak could not then match the strong, nor the coward defeat the hero, with a death-dealing automaton set at the post of peril. Parallel to this change is that which has come over the heraldic significance of arms. It is no longer possible to connect the man and his coat of arms. Some years before the Revo- lution, Thomas Jefferson wrote to his London BARONS OF THE POTOMACK 33 agent to try and find his family arms, and, if unsuccessful, to purchase some heraldic de- vice for him; ''having Sterne's word for it that a coat of arms may be purchased as cheap as any other coat." A peep of the democratic day is in this incident. The American must not be outdone by any bloated aristocrat of the Old World ; he, too, must have his heraldic coat; but whether the coat is his own, or whether it fits him, are unimportant considerations. And to-day how many parade coats of arms which, to the antiquarian eye, are grotesque, as if they were strutting about in dress-coats falling to their heels, enveloping their finger-tips, engulfing their ears ! Of old the arms meant the man. Every coat of arms when originally conferred was a strict record of action done, of service ren- dered ; every modification of such device had historical meaning. There can be no truer illustration of this than the Washington arms. In the thirteenth century there were some Washingtons in County Durham, England, a witness to whose influence remains in the village there bearing their name, but whose personality is traceable only in their arms. These are described in some ancient and 34 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK unpublished manuscripts at Oxford, for the deciphering of which I am indebted to Dr. Nicholson, the Bodleian librarian. The earliest Washington shield holds: ''Gules on a barre argent, 3 Cinquefoiles of ye first." Turning to old books on heraldry, we find that gules, or blood-red, means cour- age ; that argent, or silver, signifies purity, and also that the bearer, though a gentleman, is not of the highest rank. The bar, when single, means the same as a fesse, originally a magisterial belt, later a military sash, mean- ing that the gentleman had been knighted. The cinquefoil has a meaning first as an herb, indicating that the magistrate or knight was an agriculturist ; secondly, as five-leaved, according to Kent's ''Banner Display 'd," in which occurs the following note: "The number of Leaves in this Herb answers to the five senses of Man ; and he that conquers his Affections and Appetites is a worthy Bearer of this Charge, and a greater hero than C^sar or Alexander; for, as the poet says, '"When all are conquered greater Glory's won If by himself the Conqueror 's undone.' " AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 35 We know, then, by a coat of arms that the early Washingtons were agriculturists, hon- ored for purity of character and for courage ; also that one of them was a belted knight. But now we take another step. The shield of this family afterwards bears, according to the old Dodsworth MS. in the Bodleian Library — ''Gules on a fesse sable 3 mullets." The fesse, as we have seen, is a military belt; that it is sable means "wisdom, constancy, and also affliction. " But the significant modi- fication is the change of the three agricultural cinquefoils into three mullets or stars. The star, says Kent, ''signifies Honour, or that the first Bearer had studied Divinity or such things as made him shine in virtue or learn- ing." But it also has another significance. "The star derives its name (saith Vossius) from the Saxon word steoran, to stear a course ; and rightly enough, seeing it is by the Stars that the Ship is guided in her way. Hence it is that the Bearing of them in Heraldry is used to signify some excellency of Gifts in the Owner of the Arms, and par- ticularly to denote great Discoveries in the art of Navigation." The next modification in the Washington arms is the substitution of two bars for the fesse. These "barres," 36 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK says Kent, indicate that their first bearer had built a fortification for his prince. It is in this last form that the Washington arms have remained to this day, — that is, through five hundred years, in that time every symbol on their shield has been justi- fied. The English Washingtons have been preeminent cultivators of land and eminent divines. The last of George Washington's English ancestors — his great-great-grandfa- ther — was a famous university preacher at Oxford. Of the nine chief representatives of the same family and name in England to- day, five are clergymen of the Church of England. As for steering by the stars, the Washingtons were for some centuries navi- gators, and early traces of the family are found in the Barbadoes, Bermudas, East In- dies, and the port of New-York. A John Washington was in the Barbadoes in 1655, and there is little doubt that he was the great-grandfather of the General. He re- turned in that year to England, administered the will of his mother, and four years later is found in Virginia. It may be interesting to give here some account of the Barons Washington of Ger- many. In 1799 a young officer of that family AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 37 applied to General Washington for some position in the United States army, when war with France was imminent. In 1890 I applied, through Sir Lyon Playfair, to Bar- on Karl Washington, of Munich, the present representative of these German Washing- tons, for the correspondence between his father and General Washington, and for some particulars concerning the family. I received from him an interesting reply (in German), with a copy of Washington's letter. *'I enclose a copy of our coat of arms, painted by my nephew Baron Stefan Wash- ington, LL.D., copied with exactness from our patent of nobility, which will completely acquaint you with the same. Concerning our motto, Exitiis acta probat, I can only tell you that it is in the patent, dated December 12, 1829, where it is said that the Coat of Arms remains the same, with the addition only of the Baronial coronet [five-pointed]. So our family must have had the motto be- fore my late father was raised to the Bavarian nobility (created Frei Herr) at the date stated. George Washington's letter was wrapped in a special sheet of paper, the address writ- ten by himself. His seal shows a difference 38 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK from ours in the crest, which my nephew has carefully indicated in his drawing. Be- neath the seal of Washington are written the words Exitus acta prohat, but not by his hand ; it resembles my father's writing, but I cannot be positive that he wrote it. Mr. Henry Horstmann, the United States Con- sul at Munich, formerly had the kindness to write to his government on this matter, and through him I received many interesting par- ticulars of the family of General Washington, but none that would demonstrate our de- scent from the same family. In the old fam- ily Bible, now belonging to Mr. Keurenaer, at The Hague, I find nothing concerning the time when James Washington left England, except a note of my father's writing in which he mentions the year as 1682. My father died in 1848. My half brother, still living, was then a Lieutenant of Cavalry. I was then in my fifteenth year, and my brother nineteen. My brother married a Duchess of Oldenburg in 1855, and is a widower since March 20 of this year [1891]. He has two sons, George and Stefan. The first married in 1883. My brother settled after his marriage in Austria, where he has a country-seat. In my 17th year I entered the Bavarian Cavalry, and commanded a squadron in the war of 1866, AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 39 when I was so severely wounded, in a cav- alry attack, that 1 was forced to leave the service, — with the rank of Lieutenant-Col- onel [Oberstlieutenant]. If there is anything else you would wish to know, I would be very glad to communicate to you whatever may be within my knowledge." The letter of Washington to the late Baron is dated, ''Mount Vernon (in Virginia) 20th of January 1799": ''Sir — " Through the goodness of Mr. Adams, the American Minister at Berlin, I am indebted for the safe conveyance of your letter, dated the 19th of October, in that city; and through the same medium I have the honor to present this acknowledgment of it. "There can be but little doubt, Sir, of our de- scending from the same stock, as the branches of it proceeded from the same country. At what time your ancestors left England is not mentioned. Mine came to America nearly one hundred and fifty years ago. "The regular course of application for mili- tary appointments is to the President of the United States through the Secretary of War. But it would be deceptions not to apprise 40 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK you beforehand that it does not accord with the policy of this Government to bestow offices — civil or military — upon foreigners, to the exclusion of our own citizens. First, because there is an animated zeal in the latter to serve their country ; and secondly, because the former, seldom content with the rank they sustained in the service of their own country, look for higher appointments in this, which, when bestowed, unless there is obvious cause to justify the measure, is pregnant with discontent, and therefore is not often practiced, except in those branches of the military service which relate to engi- neering and gunnery; for in these our mili- tary establishment is defective, and men of known and acknowledged abilities, with am- ple testimonials thereof, would be certainly encouraged. "Deeming it better to give this candid de- tail than to raise hopes that might prove fallacious, is the best apology I can offer for my plaindealing. At the same time, be pleased to accept assurances of my being, Sir, your most obedient and very humble servant, " G. Washington. '' Mr. James Washington." AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 41 The entry in the old family Bible at The Hague is as follows: ''James Washington left England about the middle of the seventeenth century, when the country was disturbed by civil wars ; he came to Holland and settled at Rotterdam. His brother went to the Eng- lish colonies in America, settled there as planter, and was the great-grandfather of the founder of the American Union — George Washington." To this Baron James Wash- ington has added the date 1682. There is little doubt that James Washing- ton, the first Baron, was more nearly correct in fixing the date of his ancestor's departure from England than the Bible at The Hague. For there was one Joseph Washington, Gent., of the Middle Temple, London, who in his will (probate 7th April, 1694) mentions a ''brother James, of Rotterdam, merchant." This Joseph was a son of Robert Washington, of Leeds, England, and was born there ; but his father was born at Adwick-le-Street, York- shire, and Joseph's will disposes of lands in the latter place. The German family tradition is that James escaped to Holland because he was involved in the Monmouth affair. This would assign 1683, the year of the Rye House plot. The discovery of the Washington pedi- 42 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK gree by Mr. Waters, as well as the date of Joseph's birth, proves the tradition that the founder of the German family was a brother of Col. John of Virginia erroneous. Never- theless, there was a migration of Yorkshire Washingtons to Virginia before and after that of Col. John, Washington's great-grandfather; and among them was one named John, who settled in Surrey County, Virginia, where he married Mary Flood, to whom he was be- trothed in 1658, — the year before the Gen- eral's ancestor arrived. It may be noticed that the shield of the German Washingtons is supported by grif- fins; and one of the crests used by the Gen- eral in Virginia was a griffin. It was used by his uncle. Major John Washington, as early as 1736, although his English ancestors used the raven. It is possible that Col . John Wash- ington's first wife was one of the Yorkshire Washingtons, or from some branch of theirs in Cumberland or Westmoreland, England. Let me conclude this heraldic chapter by calling attention to the poetic fact that George Washington, in whom the fame of his race culminated, fulfilled in one way or another every suggestion of the family arms. If there is any exception, it must be found in the in- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 43 terpretation of the shield's stars as indicating the profession of divinity. That he was not knighted was due solely to his espousing the cause of the Revolution. Edmund Randolph, grandson of Sir John, declares that Wash- ington's name had already been enrolled for royal honor. That George Washington did not become a navigator was due to his mother, who canceled his commission. And finally the agricultural cinquefoils of the ear- liest Washington shield, unknown for five centuries, and first made known in these pages, returned in a sense to the shield of George Washington. It was he who modi- fied the shield into a sort of cornucopia, and surrounded it with foliations of wheat and other emblems of the farm, — a final attesta- tion that, whatever coats others might pur- chase or wear, with Washington the Arms still meant the Man. IV oAugmtine JVashington and his Family HE Washington family has passed into a conventionaliza- tion curiously resembling that of the Holy Family : the sav- ior of his country has for his mother a saintly Mary ; his fa- ther is kept in the background like Joseph ; he is born in a mean abode. The actual facts, if less pious, are more picturesque. General Washington himself describes his birthplace as a ''mansion," and we shall see that it was an extensive one ; his mother, with whatever striking qualities, was no saint ; and evidence can now be produced to show, in the Gen- BARONS OF THE POTOMACK 45 eral's historically neglected father, a strong and scholarly man whose life was one of no- table adventures. Augustine Washington was born in West- moreland, Virginia, in 1694. On the death of his father, Lawrence, in March, 1698, his mother {nee Mildred Warner) went with her three children — John, Augustine, and Mil- dred—to England. The Warners and Wash- ingtons had been related to each other in England as early as the sixteenth century, as is shown by a brief will which I copied in Somerset House, London (Cobham, 31, P. C. C): ''Will of Walter Washington, of Radway in the parish of Bishop's Ithington, in the Countie of Warwicke, Gent. Being asked by his uncle, George Warner, to whom he willed his goods, he answered that he gave all he had to his wife and children. Wit- nesses : Richard Hill, George Warner, John Murdon, Catharine Murdon, Dorothea Gaunt, Wodnefrode Browne. April 23, 1597. Ad- mon. issued to his widow Alicie Washington." This Walter Washington was the great- great-granduncle of Augustine Washington. 46 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK His descendants, and probably some of the Warners, continued long in Warwickshire, and the widow of Lawrence may have taken her children there. We first find her, how- ever, in Whitehaven, Cumberland County, England, married to a second husband, George Gale, in that town there was a family of Washingtons, though their con- nection with the Virginians has not yet been made out. In the parish register of St. Nicholas Church, Whitehaven, appears the baptism, January 25, 1 700-1, of Mildred, daughter of George Gale; the mother was buried January 30, and the infant March 26, of the same year. In the will of Mildred Gale, dated January 24, proved March 18, 1700-1, she says: "By an Indenture of Mar- riage made and executed by and between John Washington one of the executors of my late husband's Will of the one part, and my present husband George Gale with my own consent and approbation thereof of the other part, bearing date 16 May in the present year 1700 I am empowered to demise by Will or other instrument the estate and legacy of my late husband to the use and purposes therein mentioned." She bequeaths to her hus- band ^1000, and divides the residue of her AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 47 property equally between him and her chil- dren. The John Washington mentioned was the son of Lawrence, the younger immigrant, who had a sister in England, and may have been on a visit to her when the marriage settlements were made between the widow and George Gale. Or it may be that the settlements and the marriage took place in Virginia. When George Gale took pro- bate of his wife's will, he gave bond for the education of her children, John, Au- gustine, and Mildred. There was a famous grammar-school at Appleby, in the neigh- borhood of Whitehaven, and to that the boys (John, b. 1690, Augustine, b. 1694) were sent. About the year 17 12 George Gale removed to Maryland, but whether the brothers John and Augustine returned with him does not appear. John married Katharine Whiting, of Glou- cester County, Virginia, where he settled, apparently at a place called ''High Gate," on the Pianketank River, in Petsworth parish, of which he was a vestryman. He bore the title of major, but lived a quiet life. A letter of his exists, dated July 12, 1744, to Gary & Co., London, ordering a tombstone, no doubt that of his wife, still seen at High Gate : 48 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK ''Underneath this stone lyeth interred the body of Mrs. Katharine Washington, wife of Major John Washington, and daughter of Col. Henry Whiting by Elizabeth his wife, born May 22, 1694. She was in her several stations a loving and obedient wife, a tender and indulgent mother, a kind and considerate mistress, and above all an exemplary Chris- tian. She departed this life February 7, 1743, aged 49 years, to the great grief of all that had the happiness of her acquaintance." On this tomb is the design of an urn with four mastiff heads, and surrounded with foli- age. Near it is a tomb with the following inscription : ''In a well grounded certainty of an immor- tal resurrection, here lie the remains of Eliza- beth, the daughter of John and Katharine Washington. She was a maiden virtuous without reservedness, wise without affecta- tion, beautiful without knowing it. She left this life on the 3rd day of February 1736, in the twentieth year other age." The design on this tomb is a foliated urn, with three stars on it, and a griffin's head AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 49 above. This is the first instance I can find of the use of the griffin by any Washington. The crest of the English families was a raven, or sometimes an eagle, and the griffin as a seal first appears unmistakably on letters of George Washington. Mrs. Mary S. Payne of Kentucky, to whom I am indebted for notes concerning her Lewis ancestors, thinks the griffin on this urn probably that of the Lewis crest, the first wife of Colonel Fielding Lewis having been a daughter ( Katharine) of Major Washington ; but in that case the grif- fin would have had the bloody hand in its mouth, the especial characteristic of the Lewis crest. One of Major Washington's sons, Warner, married Hannah, daughter of William Fairfax; another, Henry, married a Thacker. It appears by a letter first printed in this book that Ma- jor Washington died September i, 1746. His sister Mildred (b. 1696) married Roger Greg- ory, of Stafford County, Virginia. She was^ George Washington's godmother. The Greg- orys had three daughters who married the brothers Thornton, of Spottsylvania, becom- ing the ancestors of General Woodford of the Revolution, judge Harry Innes, Senator Beck, and other eminent men. About 1733 Mildred 7 ( 50 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Gregory married, id, Colonel Henry Willis, the founder of Fredericksburg. It is said that Colonel Willis vainly courted three maidens in youth, all of whom he married as widows. His second wife, the widow Brown {nee Washington), was also named Mildred ; she was George Washington's grandaunt. She was, by her first husband, ancestor of some of the Lees and Crittendens of Kentucky ; while from her union with Colonel Willis sprang branches of the Willis and Minor and Taylor families of Virginia, and of the Greens, Bar- bours, and Marshalls of Kentucky. A grand- son of Colonel Henry Willis, namely Colonel Byrd Willis, married a granddaughter of Col- onel Fielding and Betty (Washington) Lewis, and one of his (Colonel Byrd Willis's) daugh- ters married Prince Achille Murat, and figured at court in Paris. We now pass to Augustine, the father of George Washington. On coming of age, he married (April 20, 17 15) Jane, daughter of Caleb Butler, an eminent lawyer of West- moreland, the "trusty and well-beloved friend" to whom Ann (Pope), the widow of ■ Colonel John Washington, had given power of attorney. Augustine purchased of John, his elder brother, the old family mansion, ' ' Wake- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 51 field," — SO called, at what time is not known, probably from some association in the family traditions with the Yorkshire town. By Jane Butler, his first wife, Augustine had four children, — Butler, d. infant; Jane, d. 1735; Major Lawrence of Mount Vernon, b. 17 18; Augustine (called Austin), b. 1720. In 1725 Augustine is mentioned as ''Captain Washington"; he at one time certainly com- manded a ship, and it is probable that it began with his carrying iron to England and return- ing with convict laborers. The Principio Iron Company (English), after some years' success- ful work on the Patapsco, Maryland, had in 1724, if not earlier, negotiated with ''Captain Augustine Washington " for the opening of a furnace at Accokeek, his estate in Stafford County, Virginia. In the Tennsylvania Mag- aiine of History and biography (April, July, and October, 1887), Mr. Henry Whitely has published interesting researches concerning the Principio Company. A letter from John England, a practical iron-master in charge of the works, to the company in England, dated January 5, 1725, has the following concerning the Accokeek furnace and Captain Washing- ton : "As to ye dividing ye shares of ye new founded works in Virginia, have advised with 52 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK a Counselor about it . . . who tells me yt ex- cept some person here is appointed yr lawful! atturney, by a power of atturney from you to signe for you here, yt if your deed or deeds come over for you to signe in England and either of you should dy before, or alter your minds yt you dont sign, then it setts Wash- ington at liberty, and all ye work is at an end ... If you see fitt to make Capt Washington a small present of wine (along ye Virginia Cargo) and to signifie to him yt what I have done with him on yr behalfe you like and approve on, or to that effect, yt 1 leave to your Consideration either to do it or not." This seems to show that Captain Washington had himself conveyed to England the Virginia cargo, probably the first. The practical work at the Accokeek furnace was superintended by a founder of Principio, Captain Washing- ton's contract being to cart the ore from the mines to the furnace, two miles, at the rate of 205. per ton of pig-iron, and, after it was cast, to cart it to a landing on the Potomac, six miles. This was done by the captain's workmen and oxen (''three hundred weight being a load for a cart drawn by eight oxen "). The increasing business was probably one reason for the Captain's going to England AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 53 himself, as he could bring back laborers. England was then anxious to send convicts, especially political offenders, to the colonies, and Virginia was giving grants of land for their importation. Record exists of one such voyage and importation of convicts by Cap- tain Washington, and there is also evidence of his personal intimacy with gentlemen in England. The wife of Captain Augustine Washington died in 1728, — her gravestone is at "Wake- field," — and on March 6, 1730-1, he mar- ried Mary Ball. She was the daughter of Colonel Joseph Ball (whose homestead was "Epping Forest," Lancaster County, near the mouth of the Rappahannock) by his second wife, the widow Johnson. Mrs. Ella Bas- sett Washington {Century, April, 1892) says : "That the bride was blonde and beautiful both history and tradition tell, and of the bridegroom in his fortieth year a description has been transmitted from one generation to another. Mary Washington's description of her husband is confirmed by the testimony of contemporaries — a noble-looking man, of distinguished bearing, tall and athletic, with fair, florid complexion, brown hair, and fine gray eyes." Although the word "history" 54 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK can hardly be used with exactness in such descriptions, — there being no verifiable doc- uments concerning the personal appearance of George Washington's parents, — the family traditions, as reported by one of its members, are of some interest. The Rev. C. C. Colton, an English author, states that Captain Washington first met his bride in England. He was thrown out of a carriage and into the company of a lady who emigrated with him to Virginia. The incident is said to have occurred in Cheshire (Lacon, ii., p. 1 12). The clergyman's story has been discredited because Lossing connected it with the notion that George Washington was born in England, in disregard of the General's own statement and the record of his Virginian godfathers and godmother. It now appears, however, by the facts revealed in this book, that Colton knew what he was writing about. When Col. Joseph Ball died, in 17 11, his widow, who was an Englishwoman, disap- pears with her two children — Eliza Johnson (child of her first husband) and Mary Ball — from the records and registers of Virginia. Forty years later Colonel Ball's son purchased relics of Virginia Balls from a Mrs. Johnson in England. (Hayden.) Mary Ball isfirsttraceable AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 55 in Virginia as Mary Washington, and her letters to her half-brother in London show intimacy with his wife, who seems to have never been in America. Now that we have letters showing Captain Washington's friend- ships in England, along with the other facts, there is no reason for discrediting the cler- gyman's statement that he there first met Mary Ball. Captain Washington brought his young wife to his home on the Potomac, ''Wake- field." In describing that house as a small one, popular writers have followed each other like a flock of sheep ; but even a flock of sheep, grazing over the debris of ''Wake- field," might discover, at least to an observing eye, that it was a large mansion. A little digging reveals massive brick foundations, and all the features of the ground indicate a noble residence. The site of the large flower- garden is traceable by certain outlines, and also by descendants of the flowers once cul- tivated there. There are remains of a large brick-walled dairy, built underground. How- ever, the usual description of "Wakefield "as little more than a hovel, is now proved fic- titious by the recently discovered inventory of its contents. 56 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK This inventory (in the Havemeyer collec- tion) was made on the decease of Austin (1762), to whom his father had bequeathed it. There is furniture for eight bedrooms, and much for other rooms. Here a chorus will cry that the original house had been burned. Has not Lossing given all the details of the fire ? Neverthe- less, the fire did not occur until the Christmas Eve of 1779. But may not Austin have en- larged the house ? Possibly ; but there is no evidence of any alteration. General Wash- ington wrote to Sir Isaac Heard that his brother Austin occupied ''the ancient man- sion seat " until his death. And why should not "Wakefield" have been a grand place? Captain Augustine Washington's father, Law- rence, divided between his three children nearly five thousand acres and much personal property ; and both of the Captain's wives possessed substantial estates. Here, then, Washington was born. There exists a note of Captain Augustine, written in 1733 to Mr. Jeffries, saying that he and his wife will make him (Jeffries) a visit on their way to Moratico, a homestead of the Balls on the lower Rappahannock. He says they will bring with them their ''baby George." The AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 57 substance of this note has been repeated to me by Mr. Lawrence Washington, of Alexan- dria, who had read it. This is probably the earliest allusion to George Washington ; for the entry of his birth and baptism, in the fam- ily Bible, is of such exceptional character as to suggest insertion at a later time. In 1 7 34 the neighborhood in Westmoreland was enlivened by the settlement there of the new agent of Lord Fairfax, namely, William Fairfax, who brought with him an accom- plished wife {nee Deborah Clarke, of Salem, Massachusetts) and family. A warm friend- ship was formed between these families. William Fairfax had an aunt in Yorkshire, England, who had married a Washington. Whether Lawrence Washington met his fu- ture wife, Ann Fairfax, before his departure for school in England is uncertain. Towards the close of 1734, or early in 1735, Captain Washington came to the conclusion that ''Wakefield" did not agree with the health of his children (there were then four with him), and removed to his estate on the upper Potomack, — then known by its In- dian name, Epsewasson, now Mount Vernon. Although the latter name was not given until some years later, the place will be spoken of 58 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK in these pages as Mount Vernon. The estate had been Colonel John Washington's moiety of 5000 acres, given him and Colonel Nicholas Spencer for importing one hundred laborers into the colony. Colonel John's son Lawrence possessed near its boundary a mill and, prob- ably near this, a house, wherein dwelt at the time of his death Mrs. Minton and Mrs. Wil- liams. The estate was bequeathed to the Captain's sister Mildred (Gregory), of whom he had bought it (May, 1 726) for £ 1 80. With Mount Vernon, therefore, were associated the earliest memories of George and Betty Wash- ington, and there the younger children were born. The first to discover the error of biogra- phers in stating that the Washingtons moved from "Wakefield" to the farm near Freder- icksburg was the Rev. Dr. Philip Slaughter, historiographer of the diocese of Virginia ; though the true facts do not appear in any of his works, being found after his days as an author were past. Alas ! how do I mourn that I cannot compensate that venerable friend for the information entrusted to me by hastening to gladden his heart with the reve- lations of these newly discovered letters ! I cannot forbear introducing here some brief AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 59 tribute to our old master in Virginia lore, by whose death (June 12, 1890) all historical students are bereaved indeed. Dr. Slaughter (born October 26, 1808, in Culpeper County) was not only the author of the historical and biographical monographs bearing his name, but contributed something to most of the work of that kind done in Virginia during his time, including the important volumes of his friend, Bishop Meade. A thorough and exact investigator, caring little for his own fame as a discoverer, but much for the truth of history, he was consulted by historical writers long before his appointment (1879) as historiogra- pher, and freely distributed his stores of in- formation, asking neither credit or return. He was honored by his fellow-students in the University of Virginia, where he grad- uated in 1825, and was commissioned by them to invite Lafayette to a reception. He told me of the emotion with which he met that famous man and also three ex-presidents at Monticello, — Jefferson, Madison, and Mon- roe. Dr. Slaughter began his career as a lawyer, but after five years of prosperous practice left the bar for the pulpit. His sym- pathies were deeply stirred for the slave, and he was one of the first to throw himself into 6o BARONS OF THE POTOMACK the cause of African colonization. In 1850 he founded and edited in Richmond the Virginia Coloni^ationist. In 1856 he established him- self in Culpeper County, Cedar Mountain, where he built a church at his own expense, and preached without remuneration, minister- ing with especial care to the negroes. His church was destroyed in the terrible battle of Cedar Mountain, and his invaluable library, containing precious manuscripts accumulated through many years, pillaged, torn, scattered by the contending armies. When he returned to his home, he found bits of his treasured papers strewn about the grounds. He told me that a friend, visiting Philadelphia, re- marked on a centre-table there one of his valuable books, containing his book-mark. He never applied for it, and in narrating these things the great-hearted clergyman uttered no murmur. When I visited him at Cedar Mountain in the year before his death, he ap- peared to me a sort of avatar of the old Vir- ginian race, whose annals he had so largely recovered and preserved. His ancestors and those of his wife (nee Semmes, of Alexandria) had lived in the same region for two hundred and fifty years before them. They had in- herited traditions so vivid that the' scholar AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 6l talked of the Spotswoods, Washingtons, and other worthies as if they were old friends. His mind was clear, his memory exact, his heart full of sunshine, as if he were still in life's morning instead of his eightieth year. With his wife and children around him, in his pretty home, commanding a beautiful landscape, honored by his State, beloved by all who knew him, with a life of long and faithful services to humanity and to literature to look back on, the historiographer remains in my memory as an almost ideal figure. Al- though he had suffered many losses, he had nothing to grieve for except that he was un- able to publish to the world the results of his later investigations ; and these he carefully made known to me, in words and by letters. As I was last parting from him, he said, ''Since the recent discovery of the ancient Truro Vestry-book and Manuscript, con- taining so much of interest concerning the Washingtons and others, I have longed for a i new lease" of strength to edit and publish it. Can you not find in the ^dU some wealthy gentlemen who will provide the means for ^^.- publishing this most important document ? A '. f, page containing autographs of the vestrymen — Washington, George Mason, and others — 62 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK has been carried off and is now in the New- York Historical Society, and some few parts are missing or damaged, but the substantial historical value of the manuscripts is not im- paired. I must leave these things to younger men. 1 feel a great satisfaction in delivering to you all the information I possess. It is a relief to know that if it be of any worth it will not die with me." Dr. Slaughter's later and unpublished re- searches, so far as they bear upon the Wash- ington family, I am happily able to present in his own words. The letter was not intended for publication, but is one of several written for use in connection with investigations of my own. The ''convict story," to which the letter refers, is that of the Rev. Jonathan Boucher, George Washington's early friend (teacher of young Custis, his wife's son), who wrote that he (Washington) ''was taught by a convict servant whom his father bought for a school-master." "July 24, 1889. "Dear Mr. Conway : " I was on the eve of writing to communi- cate an item to your 'convict story,' but was waiting for an answer to some queries put to you some weeks ago about Acquia Church AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 63 — which may have miscarried. The follow- ing facts are authenticated by the Records, and have a bearing upon your inquiry. I set them down as they occur to me, and your analytical mind can reduce them to order and draw the true conclusions, for which 1 have not time just now, being surrounded by com- pany, and under pressure of the Press, calling for copy, etc. "\n 1730 Prince William County was formed from Stafford and King George, and extended from Chapawamsic Creek and Deep Run along the Potomac to the Blue Ridge. In 1732 Truro Parish was instituted, compre- hending all of Prince William above Occo- quan and Bull Run, and north of Ashby's Gap. Augustine and Lawrence Washington, father and son, represented it in the House of Bur- gesses (exact date not remembered). On the 1 8th of November, 1735, Augustine Wash- ington was sworn as vestryman of Truro Parish, and also signed the Minutes in August, 1736. He recommended Charles Green as candidate for orders to the Bishop of London. He went to England, and returned in July, 1737, in a ship from London to Potomac, * with convi^s.' A fellow passenger. Captain Hugh French, died of 'gaol distemper con- 64 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK traded on board ' — Captain Washington was reported in 'good health.' He was present at a Vestry 13th of August, 1737, and Charles Green was elected as Rector of Truro Parish. To be a Vestryman one must be a Parish- ioner. He was present at the Vestry Octo- ber, 1737. There is a gap in the Vestry Book from this date to October, 1739, and his name does not again appear. /'Augustine Washington, in 1740, conveyed to Lawrence [his son] 2500 acres. This deed was recorded in the General Court Office, October 23, 1740 (burned in the late war). The Will of Augustine Washington confirm- ing this deed was recorded in King George County, May 1743. The Will of Lawrence Washington devised [the reversion of] these 2500 acres to George Washington in 1751 (Mount Vernon). The probable inference from these facts is that he [Augustine Wash- ington] lived at Mount Vernon until 1739, and moved to King George where his Will was recorded. Augustine Washington died 12 April 1743. I doubt that the Deep Run residence is probable. Truro Parish and King George answer all requirements. " 1 tried fully to identify the convict Sexton with our ' Hobby,' but the facts refuse to ac- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 65 commodate themselves to the theory, plausi- ble and seductive as it may be. His name was William Grove. He was appointed by the Rector (Green) Clerk [of Truro]. But there was a division of sentiment about it, and Green appointed another man. Where- upon the friends of Grove got a mandamus to compel his acceptance; but Grove mod- estly declined the contest and took the post of Sexton. So our ' Hobby ' will have, like one higher in office if not in morals, to 'go to his own place ' — not meaning any disre- spect to Falmouth or Fredericksburg. "\ shall be pleased to hear the result of Mr. Waters's researches. I have a working hypothesis founded upon the omission of a generation by Sparks, — thus missing the line of descent. " I shall look for your Washingtoniana with much interest, and expect to derive pleasure and profit from it. ''Yours very truly, "?. Slaughter." Dr. Slaughter had a strong impression, which I share, that Washington was sent at first to an infant school near Falmouth, a vil- lage fifty years older than its more important 66 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK neighbor, Fredericksburg. I was not able before his death to do more than suggest the theory to which he refers,— namely, that ''Hobby "was a nickname of the convict de- clared by the Rev. Jonathan Boucher to have been purchased by Captain Washington as a schoolmaster, and to have taught George. Also, that this teacher was that same convict whom the Truro rector, who owed his place to Captain Washington, tried to make clerk and did make sexton. This occurred imme- diately after Captain Washington came in with his ship full of convicts, in 1737. When he removed to the neighborhood of Freder- icksburg, 1739-40, he would naturally take this educated, and probably political, convict with him, and may have got him a place as sexton at Falmouth. Parson McGuire, a con- nection of the family, states that ''Hobby" was "at once a teacher and sexton." Grove was certainly both in Truro, and possibly on the Rappahannock,— this being before the Fredericksburg school to which the Wash- ington children afterward went was fairly opened, and when they were too small to be trusted to the ferry. One of our letters renders it probable that the removal of Captain Washington to the AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 67 neighborhood of Fredericksburg, in 1739-40, was due to the burning of his house at Mount Vernon. No doubt this was the fire which Custis, Lossing, and others have confused with that which destroyed "Wakefield "forty years later. Tradition has hitherto said that Lawrence Washington was educated at Oxford. Had that been true, his name would have been found there ; and now that his attendance at the Appleby School is proved, the tradition may be dismissed until some verification has appeared. The year of his entrance in the school has not yet been discovered, although it will probably be found by the gentlemen at Appleby, whom our new-found letters have interested. Lawrence returned, probably, in 1738, and certainly full of loyal enthusiasm for England and Vernon, and of rage against the cisatlantic Spanish. The governor of Vir- ginia was now William — presently Sir Wil- liam — Gooch, who had won some fame in Queen Anne's wars, and was rather popular in the colony. He was in 1740 brigadier-gen- eral in the British army, and colonel of the Virginia regiment in which Lawrence, aged twenty-two, was given the commission of captain. The disasters which the British 68 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK forces under Admiral Vernon met at Carta- gena are recorded in every history and ency- clopedia, so that the reader need not be detained by them here, though it may be found interesting to compare with the con- ventionalized accounts some passages in the letters to Major Lawrence printed in this vol- ume. For the present chapter I select, how- ever, a letter written to Captain Augustine Washington. This, which is the only letter I have seen written to General Washington's father, is from Richard Yates, master of the Appleby Grammar School, in which his eldest sons had been educated. ''To Augustine Washington, Esq. ''Appleby, Oct. 9, 1741. "Dear Sir, "In the midst of your late calamity wch. you suffer'd by fire, for which I am sincerely concern'd, there's a more sensible pleasure to find room for congratulation : and I do most heartily give you joy of your son's happy escape out of ye midst of a danger yt prov'd fatal to so many about him, and I pray God he may live long to enjoy ye satisfaction and benefit of his advancement in ye army as well as to give a comfort to his father. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 69 ''Mr. Deane (whose intentions and conduct are and always have been so friendly to you and your sons) will say enough to you about your son Austin's desire to study ye Law, so yt He will spare me ye trouble of saying more than yt, if you think it convenient for him to be educated that way, I believe he will take abundance of pains to shine in a profession on which he has set his heart. Not but that I have that opinion of ye Lad's goodness yt if he thought it were not agreeable to your sen- timents he wd reconcile his thoughts to any other employment you shd think most expe- dient for him. ''I am, with my best respects to Major Washington, " Dear Sir, ''Your most affectionate Friend, and Very Humble Servant, "Ri: Yates." This letter is not addressed to any particu- lar place, probably because the writer did not know just where the captain had settled down. Every ship captain would know how to convey the letter. It is endorsed by a word not easily made out, but which 1 be- lieve meant for "forwarded." The reader 70 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK will observe the indications in this letter that Captain Augustine Washington and his bro- ther John, the ' ' Major Washington " of Yates's letter, were personally acquainted with these gentlemen at Appleby. It has been stated by some writers that Major Lawrence Washington built the man- sion-house at Mount Vernon. But this does not appear to be the fact. After the burning of his house near the mill (if that was the locality), Captain Washington seems to have built another house, and furnished it for his son, perhaps with some hope of a marriage between Lawrence and the daughter of his friend Hon. William Fairfax. Lawrence, as eldest son, would naturally have inherited the family seat in Westmoreland, but preferred Mount Vernon, perhaps because of its prox- imity to Belvoir, the home of the Fairfaxes. In the will of Captain Augustine it is shown that Lawrence was then (April ii, 1743) re- siding in a house given him by his father. The estate is bequeathed, ''and all the slaves. Cattle and Stocks of all kinds whatsoever, and all the household Furniture whatsoever now in and upon or which have been commonly possessed by my said son together with the said Tract of Land and Mill." The captain AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 71 died April 12, 1743. In July of the same year Lawrence was residing in the new man- sion, being certainly there before his marriage on the 19th of that month. As he was in the West Indies from 1740 to the latter part of 1742, we may suppose that the mansion was mainly built in his absence, and no doubt it was erected by his father as a gift. Meanwhile the family was residing on the farm across the river from Fredericksburg, — then in King George, now in Stafford County. It was originally a purchase from the Strother estate of 280 acres, on which stood a house of which A. K. Phillips, a ven- erable citizen of Fredericksburg, writes me that his father remembered it, in 1806, as "a plain wooden structure of moderate size, and painted a dark red color." It long ago dis- appeared, and the picture in Lossing's "Mary and Martha Washington " is not authentic. Toward the close of June, 1742, the cap- tain's son Austin returned home from school in Appleby, England. His plan for adopting the legal profession does not appear to have found favor, or possibly the father's failing strength did not admit of its being fully con- sidered, for we presently find Austin married (to Ann Aylett) and settled at "Wakefield." 72 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Captain Augustine Washington appears to have been the only American who entered very actively into the iron enterprise. The Principio Company was divided into twelve shares, of which he owned one, the rest being owned by Englishmen. His farm on the Rappahannock was not far from the Acco- keek works, and his enterprise was such that they were left at his death the most valuable in the country. ''In 1750," says Whitely, ''it [Accokeek] sent to the company in Eng- land four hundred and ten tons of pig-iron, — about one-fifth the entire quantity exported from Maryland and Virginia for the year." Near the close of the captain's life a ques- tion arose between him and his brother John concerning the boundary between the estates bequeathed them by their father in West- moreland. The brothers agreed to submit the matter to Daniel McCarty and Richard Bernard, entering into bonds of ^^looo each to abide by the decision of the referees. The original papers and drawings are here, but cannot now be comprehended without enter- ing into uninteresting details. The decision, duly signed and sealed by the brothers, was admitted to record in Westmoreland, April 12, 1743,— the day on which Captain Au- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 73 gustine Washington died at his house near Fredericksburg. Captain Washington caught his death in the same way that his son, the general, did at the end of the century. He was over- taken by a storm while riding, caught cold, and died of some acute complications. The Rev. Dr. Edward C. McGuire (who married a granddaughter of Betty [Washington] Lewis, and was forty-five years rector of St. George's Church) published a little book on ''The Re- ligious Opinions and Character of Washing- ton " (1836), in which one occasionally meets with details evidently obtained by personal investigation. Dr. McGuire's work proves that at the time it was written there was no tradition in the family of any fire at Wake- field, removal from which was caused, he says, by its unhealthiness. Concerning the death of Captain Washington, his account may be depended on. " Between him [George Washington] and his father, it would seem that a delightful in- tercourse always subsisted ; it being a matter of regret to the latter that he was obliged to be separated from his child even during the hours of school. Mr. Washington survived 74 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK his removal from Westmoreland [Prince Wil- liam] but a few years. He had time enough allowed him, however, to mark the budding virtues of his son. It was in the Easter holi- days that Mr. Washington was taken sick. George was absent at the time, on a visit to some of his acquaintances at Chotanct, King George [then in Stafford] County. He was sent for after his father's sickness became serious, and reached the paternal abode in time to witness the last struggle and receive the parting benediction of his beloved parent." Captain Washington left more than five thousand acres of land, — the estates being in Prince William, Westmoreland, King George, and Stafford, — also a mill near Mount Ver- non. Twenty-two slaves are bequeathed, besides others, not enumerated, devised to Austin by his mother. The shares in iron- works in Maryland and Virginia are be- queathed to Lawrence. George is left the farm near Fredericksburg, two lots in that town, some land at Deep Run (quantity not specified, probably small), and the reversion of Mount Vernon, in case Lawrence should die without heir. Betty receives two young female slaves, and four hundred pounds ster- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 75 ling, when she is eighteen, to be paid by Lawrence out of the iron-works, — a very substantial bequest at the time. The captain's will is the first of his line that omits a profession of Christian faith. It opens with the words " In the name of God, Amen," this being also the only religious ex- pression in the wills of his sons, so far as they have been made public. Mrs. Throck- morton, daughter of Warner Washington by his wife Hannah (Fairfax), told M. Bayard that Captain Washington was a deist. He reports in his book of travels: " Elle me dit qu'elle le croyait de bonne foi qu'a la mort du pere de Washington, qui etait un deiste, le fils devint tres religieux." Freethinker though he was. Captain Washington was active in parish affairs. Dr. Slaughter once told me that he thought modern critics were making a mistake in entirely discrediting Parson Weems's "Life of Washington" entirely be- cause of some fanciful stories, like that of the cherry-tree. For several of the anecdotes he believed there was some basis, though the parson's passion for embellishment naturally excited distrust. I am inclined to think that there may have been some basis for the fol- lowing anecdote, though the parson, or the 76 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK lady who related it to him, has turned it into a pious allegory, and pointed it with a moral that no deist could believe. " On a fine morning in the fall of 1737 Mr. Washington, having George by the hand, came to the door and asked Cousin Wash- ington [his wife] and myself [the lady who tells Weems the story] to walk with him to the orchard, promising to show us a fine sight. On arriving at the orchard we were presented with a fine sight indeed. The whole earth, as far as we could see, was strewed with fruit ; and yet the trees were bending under the weight of apples. ' Now, George,' said his father, Mook here, my son! Don't you remember, when this good cousin of yours brought you that fine, large apple last spring, how hardly I could prevail on you to divide with your brothers and sister, though I promised that if you would but do it, the Almighty would give you a plenty of apples this fall ? ' Poor George could not say a word ; but, hanging down his head, looked quite confused. 'Now look up, my son,' continued his father, ' and see how richly the Almighty has made good my promise to you! ' George looked, in silence, on the wide wilder- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 77 ness of fruit ; then, lifting his eyes to his fa- ther, he said, with emotion, 'Well, pa, only forgive me this time, and see if I am ever so stingy any more.'" The " venerable lady " who related this has probably, by a familiar fallacy of memory, disguised in her own pietism some casual re- proof of selfishness illustrated by the orchard's generosity ; but this legend of the captain's affectionate care for his son's moral nature is valuable. That he was very careful about the education of his children is proved by his sending Lawrence and Augustine to Appleby Grammar School in England, where he had himself been educated. Concerning this rev- elation of our letters, I have consulted the Rev. Canon Mathews, Vicar of St. Lawrence, Appleby, and have from him the following important communication : ''Since I wrote to you 1 have had the op- portunity of consulting an elderly clergyman, a native of Appleby, whose father was for many years the classical Master at Appleby Grammar School. He informs me that he can recollect when he was a boy a search being made into the connection of the Wash- 78 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK ington family; and his father ascertained beyond a doubt that General Washington's father, and probably his grandfather, cer- tainly several members of the family, were educated at Appleby Grammar School. My informant's father, whose memory went back well into last century, was also a native of the very locality from which the Washingtons sprang. They lived for some generations on the borders of Yorkshire and Westmoreland [England], now in one county, now in the other; — in the valley of Ravenstonedale in Westmoreland, or in the parish of Sedbergh in Yorkshire. Part of the boundary between these parishes — which is here the boun- dary also between the counties — is known by the name of IVashingham in old parish records, and it is believed that the name arose from this. My informant says he believes that, in common with a large pro- [ portion of the inhabitants of that secluded \ district, the ancestors of the Washingtons i were originally Flemings, who were driven out from the Low Countries in the persecu- tions of Alva. They were strongly Protes- tant, and settled in these mountain regions partly for the sake of the water power which was useful in their trade of weaving, which AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 79 they brought with them and followed largely. The Washingtons here were for some time White-smiths." While the present chapter contains, as I believe, the only investigation ever made in- to the character and career of Washington's father, his mother has been a favorite theme, especially, one must add, of fiction. Pious romances concerning her have so long passed for fact, that the publication of some prosaic facts concerning her has caused a reaction, and counter-romances are appearing. As I write one of these is going the rounds of the press, purporting to be the substance of a letter from General Washington to his mother, de- clining to receive her in his house on the ground that she was unfit to meet his guests. The letter out of which this scandalous para- graph is forged may be read in the eleventh volume of Ford's ''Writings of Washington." It was written in 1787, when his mother was eighty-one, much broken by age, and is full of filial devotion. He incloses her money, and tries to persuade her to rent the house (his property), use the money it would bring as her own, and live with one of her three chil- dren. His house, he declares, is at her ser- 8o BARONS OF THE POTOMACK vice, but feels that he must candidly tell her that it is a kind of tavern for distinguished travelers, and that she could hardly stand the fatigue of dressing to meet company, or find there the retirement needed at her ad- vanced age. it is sad to think that even the press sensationalist could invent such a cal- umny on Washington and his mother as is found in this totally baseless paragraph. It is characteristic of neither. Washington was through life a devoted son, and she a fond mother. Her three known letters are badly written and ill spelled. Her mother and the English Johnson family, among whom she was brought up, were probably illiterate. But Mary Ball was a strong and striking char- acter, was looked upon with respect and af- fection by her relatives and neighbors, and brought up her large family to be influential and prosperous citizens, to say nothing of her illustrious son, who often acknowledged his debt to her. Mary Washington's correspondence with her half-brother, Joseph Ball, a lawyer in Lon- don, shows his confidence in her intelligence and judgment. Her notes reveal pleasant relations with the family of Peter Daniel, pre- siding justice of Stafford County, who married AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 8 1 her half-sister's daughter, and with the Ball connection on both sides of the Atlantic. In one letter to Joseph Ball in London (1759) she says, "Thear was no end to my troble while George was in the army, butt now he has given it up." In an undated letter to her son John Augustine Washington (in Bushfield, Westmoreland, Virginia), she complains of poverty. ''I am a going fast, and it, the time, is hard. I am borrowing a little cornn — no cornn in the cornn-house. I never lived so poore in my life. Was it not for Mr. French and your sister Lewis I should be almost starved, but I am like an old almanack out of date. " This note was no doubt written about the year 1781, when in mental decline, her children being much oppressed by the public service. There is ample proof in General Washington's accounts of his constant care for his mother. He heard of her complaints, and wrote to his brother, John Augustine Washington, requesting him to find out whether his mother's troubles were real or imaginary, authorizing him to spend any money to keep his mother comfortable. Her love of gardening and independence were such that she persisted in remaining on the old farm after her children had all founded 82 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK homes of their own. When in 1771 she was at length persuaded to move into Fred- ericksburg, to a house and garden belonging to her son George, her son Charles and son- in-law. Colonel Fielding Lewis, made a valua- tion of her property, which amounted to ^2 1 5 1 15. Sd. The document, which is among the Havemeyer manuscripts, shows that there were, at the ''Home House," ''43 Hoggs, Shoats and Pigs," 16 sheep, 24 head of cattle, 2 horses; at the ''Quarters" (her dower land of 400 acres, some miles down the river), 4 horses, 6 oxen, 8 cows and calves, 39 hogs. On the two farms there were ten slaves. The lower farm was bringing her ^30 per annum. Her house in Fredericksburg, still a comforta- ble residence, has a beautiful flower-garden, which stretches back to that of "Kenmore," her daughter's residence. In her phaeton which, with a bay horse, she bequeathed to her daughter, she drove almost daily to the farm across the river. A covert near her monu- ment is pointed out, where the old lady is said to have retired for meditation, but this is mythical : it is certain that the unusual piety ascribed to her does not tinge any one of her notes, — not even that to her son an- nouncing that she is "going fast." Colonel AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 8} Fielding Lewis was a vestryman, and was buried in the vestibule of St. George's Church; his grandson Robert Lewis, the Mayor, was a leading man in the church, and his daughter married the rector. Their piety was repre- sented in the original design of Mary Wash- ington's monument, which included four an- gels kneeling at the corners. However, Mary Washington's signature is found in Matthew Hale's ''Contemplations," and in Hervey's ''Meditations," — the latter of which was lately purchased by the Mount Vernon As- sociation. Her monument was built by the generosity of Silas Burroughs of New -York, whose bankruptcy caused it to remain un- finished. It is to be hoped that it will be fin- ished, and that the mistaken counsels of those who wish to substitute a new structure for the quaint and historical monument will not prevail. Mary Washington's daughter, Betty, was remembered by Mr. Custis as "a majestic woman." The school in Fredericksburg was for both sexes, and Betty enjoyed its advan- tages longer than did her brother George, who had to leave in order to earn his living. Some of her letters have been preserved, and are written in a neat and clear way. They 84 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK are to her brother George, to whom she was devoted, consulting him through life on every important matter. The following, though not so good an example as some others, is given here because it has not appeared, I believe, in any publication. 1 am indebted for a copy (exact) of it to Captain Henry Howell Lewis of Baltimore. '' Mount Vernon, Sept. 21, 1779. "My Dear Brother, ''Yours of the 27th of June I received, with the enclosed from Mr. Peake, also the miniature likeness, for which I am much indebted. There was no mention made in your letter, or that of Mr. Peake, what the drawing amounted to. I will send the money by any person he may direct to receive the same. " Mr. Lewis, Betty, and myself are just from the Berkeley Springs, to see my sister Wash- ington, on our way home, — and am happy to find her so hearty, and looking so well. And had you been here it would have com- pleted my happiness. ' ' Oh ! when will that day arrive when we will meet again. 1 trust in the Lord it will be soon, — 'till when, you have the prayers and AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 85 kind wishes for your health and happiness of your loving and " Sincerely affectionate sister, *' Betty Lewis. ''P. S. Mr. Lewis, George and Betty join me in love and kind wishes. ''To General Washington, Philadelphia." Betty was, however, a lady of deeds rather than words. The fame of her making car- tridges in the Revolution, of her general lead- ership in the charitable affairs of Fredericks- burg, and her excellence as a mother, remain to this day. Mrs. Lucas, who recently died at the age of ninety-four, told me that in childhood she was taught in a school-room located in the garden of Kenmore (the Lewis residence, though so named afterwards by the Gordon family), which she always understood had been opened there in the time of Betty Lewis. Although there may be some doubt about the extreme devoutness attributed by tradition to Mary Washington, Mrs. Throckmorton's testimony as to the piety of George, after his father's death, is unquestionable. The family always went to church, and George, to the end of life susceptible to eloquence, was 86 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK under the influence of two eminent clergy- men, John Moncure, rector of Overwharton parish, and James Marye , rector of St. George's parish. By the latter was founded and no doubt superintended the school attended by George Washington. His early copy-books bear witness to his religious sentiment. One of them contains a religious poem which may have been composed by one of the clergymen mentioned, as the spelling is not character- istic of the boy in whose careful writing it is found. It is headed — "ON CHRISTMAS DAY. ''Assist me, Muse divine! to Sing the Morn, On which the Saviour of Mankind was born; But oh ! what Numbers to the Theme can rise? Unless kind Angels aid me from the Skies ! Methinks I see the tunefull Host descend, And with officious Joy the Scene attend ! Hark, by their Hymns directed on the Road, The Gladsome Shepherds find the nascent God! And view the Infant conscious of his Birth, Smiling bespeak Salvation to the Earth ! For when th' important /Era first drew near In which the great Messiah Should appear ; AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 87 And to accomplish his redeeming Love Beneath our Form should every Woe sustain, And by triumphant Suffering fix his Reign, Should forlost Man inTorturesyield his Breath Dying to save us from eternal Death ! Oh mystick union ! — Salutary Grace ! Incarnate God our Nature should embrace ! That Deity should stoop to our Disguise ! That man recover'd should regain the Skies! Dejected Adam ! from thy grave ascend, And view the Serpent's Deadly Malice end; Adoring bless th'Almighty's boundless Grace That gave his Son a Ransome for thy Race! Oh never let my Soul this Day forget, But pay in graitfull praise her annual Debt To him, whom 'tis my Trust I shall [iUegible] When Time, and Sin, and Death" [illegible] The best of the poems found in Washing- ton's early copy-books is one which I have endeavored to trace to some volume, without success. If it is of local authorship, I should incline to attribute it to his father. It indi- cates just the kind of culture that the elder Augustine would receive at Appleby, and has a smack of the wholesome freedom of heart and mind which belongs to the seventeenth century, in which he was born. 88 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK (( TRUE HAPPINESS. ''These are the things which once possessed Will make a life that's truly blessed: A good estate on healthy soil, Not got by vice, nor yet by toil ; Round a warm fire a pleasant joke, With chimney ever free from smoke ; A strength entire, a sparkling bowl, A quiet wife, a quiet soul, A mind as well as body whole ; Prudent simplicity, constant friends, A diet which no art commends ; A merry night without much drinking, A happy thought without much thinking ; Each night by quiet sleep made short ; A will to be but what thou art : Possessed of these all else defy. And neither wish nor fear to die." Captain Augustine Washington, in dividing the larger part of his property between his sons by the first ''venter," to use his testamentary expression, no doubt reflected that his wife would bestow her own lands — about 1600 acres — on her children. But that was a long way off. What George needed was an edu- cation such as his half-brothers had received. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 89 and this the indefatigable captain would no doubt have secured him had he lived. But he left his second family land-poor. He had turned too much actual gold into possible iron. Then the iron crop was bequeathed to Law- rence, who was Eldest Son, Major, prospec- tive Burgess, — the great man of the family, — who must one day support an establishment in Williamsburg as well as Mount Vernon. The half-brothers, who had both married wealthy wives, were disposed to be generous to George. At eleven he was taken to reside in the old mansion, ''Wakefield, "where Aus- tin had settled with his young wife (Ann Ay- lett). There he was sent to Mr. Williams's day-school, which may have been in one of the old houses still standing in the village now known as Oak Grove. At ''Wakefield" George had a home more luxurious than that of his father, though the number of varied wine-bottles found on the site of the house near Fredericksburg testified to the good living of the captain's household. Austin was by far the wealthiest of the Washing- tons. Among these Havemeyer manuscripts is an appraisement of his property made on his decease by order of the Westmoreland Court, and dated November 30, 1762. Apart 90 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK from real estate and from cash, his property amounted to the then large sum of ^^4,617. There were 77 negroes, an amazing list of cat- tle, and 36 horses,— the names and descrip- tions of these proving that Austin kept a racing stud that must have won him many a prize at Fredericksburg and Williamsburg. One of his negroes is named "Appleby," and among the books that recall that old gram- mar-school are Homer, Virgil, and ''sundry Latin books." Shakespeare (6 volumes) is included, but the library is not proportionate in extent to the importance of the rest of the establishment. One fiddle is appraised. There is costly furniture for the eight bedrooms, large quantities of mahogany and walnut for other rooms, several grand mirrors, and enough millinery and kid gloves (white and colored) to show that Mrs. Austin Washing- ton must have been a rather dashing figure at the races. It may be said, in passing, that it was prob- ably, at least in part, on account of the wealth inherited by Austin's son, William Augustine Washington, that the general dis- regarded the terms of his half-brother Law- rence's will, by which, in case of his (the general's) death without issue, the Mount AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 91 Vernon estate was to pass to Austin or his heirs. A law passed during the Revolution terminated entails, and the general bequeathed Mount Vernon to his own nephew Bushrod. At the close of his life the general, being somewhat pressed for money, was at various times assisted by William Augustine Wash- ington, and to him he bequeathed several parcels of land, besides the first choice of his swords. A great-granddaughter of Austin, with whom George Washington found a home at his father's death, and her husband, John E. Wilson, Esq., make Wakefield still the seat of a refinement and hospitality which have sur- vived all its vicissitudes. The Washingtons were precocious lovers, and George was no exception. There are many traditionary claimants to the honor of having been vainly wooed by the great man in his youth. I will not name these fair and fabulous sweethearts, but must affirm that the three principal ones are historically im- possible : one he certainly never saw until she was married; another he tells a corre- spondent he might have been pleased with had he not been already in love ; a third was but a child when he declared his passion for the ''Lowland Beauty." George no doubt 92 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK had his boyish fancies, and one may have been the subject of an acrostic in his journal, certainly his own composition : '' From your bright sparkling Eyes, I was un- done ; Rays, you have ; more transparent than the Sun, Amidst its glory in the rising Day, None can you equal in your bright array ; Constant in your calm and unspotted Mind ; Equal to all, but will to none Prove kind, So knowing, seldom one so Young you'll Find. Ah ! woe 's me, that I should Love and conceal, Long have I wish'd, but never dare reveal. Even though severely Love's Pains I feel : Xerxes that great, was't free from Cupid's Dart, And all the greatest Heroes, felt the smart." The concluding lines are missing. No doubt the acrostic was on ' ' Frances Alexan- der," — perhaps a girl of that name who be- longed to the family after which Alexandria was named. They were descendants of the first Earl of Stirling. Their land extended to Hunting Creek, and it is likely that George AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 93 and Betty played in childhood with this Frances, daughter of Captain Philip Alexan- der, though she was two years older than he who was undone by her bright sparkling eyes, — unless, indeed, we are to suppose the writer at fifteen to be placing his pen at an- other's service. Or it may have been written in answer to some playful challenge of the fair Fanny. There was nothing playful, how- ever, about George's real love-affair, — his passion for the ''Lowland Beauty," as he calls her in one of his letters concerning her, of which there are three existing as drafts p^ (undated) in his journal. The "Lowland Beauty " has been satisfactorily identified by the discovery, by General Fitzhugh Lee, who told me that it was genuine, of a letter from Washington to William Fauntleroy, Sr., May 20, 1752, inclosing a letter to "Miss Betsy," and declaring his purpose to wait on her, "in hopes of a revocation of the former cruel sen- tence, and see if 1 cannot obtain an alteration in my favor." Betsy Fauntleroy was a verit- able " Lowland Beauty," residing at Naylor's Hold on the Rappahannock, about fifteen miles from "Wakefield." Mr. Robert T. Knox, of Fredericksburg, has made out for me the pedigree of the Fauntle- roys. The first of the name in Virginia was 94 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK the famous Moore Fauntleroy, a great-great- grandson of Edward Lord Stourton. He came over in 1643, and the grand Fauntleroy man- sion on the Rappahannock may have been built by him. The ''William Fauntleroy, Sr./' of Washington's letter was grandson of Moore ; he married Apphia Bushrod, and his son William married his cousin Elizabeth Fauntleroy. These had an only daughter, Elizabeth, — the Miss Betsy of Washington's letter. She was born June 26, 1736. As the letter of George Washington was written just after his return from the Barbadoes (March 4, 1752), and speaks of not having been able to visit the Fauntleroys on account of illness, his ''cruel sentence" must have been re- ceived from Miss Betsy before his voyage, September 28, 1751. He was then under twenty, and the young lady under sixteen. She afterward married an Adams, and be- came the mother of the Hon. Thomas Adams. On a recent tour down the Rappahannock 1 found to my dismay that the ancient man- sion of the Fauntleroys had been pulled down by its owner in 1891. Near the site of that superb mansion, whose beautiful park fringed the river with stately trees and flowers, stands now a frame house, plebeian enough to make AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 95 the great cavalier Moore Fauntleroy turn over in his grave. What twilight walks and soft whispers went on beneath the grove of which but two or three trees remain ! What songs on the moonlit waters ! What revels in the great halls ! There were aboriginal lords of the land there before Moore Fauntleroy led in the work of their extermination ; now his proud race and their edifices have also be- come extinct. The young Washington who vainly pleaded for the hand of the Lowland Beauty presently unsheathed his sword, and now the democratic grass waves alike over the wigwam of the Indian and the palace of the Fauntleroys. The river glides on, as it glided past the perished dreamland of young George Wash- ington. It expands into a seaward highway on which the broken-hearted lover would fain travel ; his spirit could find more repose amid the billows than in being tossed from one home to another as ''a poor relation." But above the river moves invisibly the mightier current of events. One may specu- late what might have been the course of his- tory had George Washington then married the heiress, and become the master of Faun- tleroy House. Was Betsy, even in her child- 96 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK hood, to leave her great park and mansion, and her kinsmen, educated in universities, to share the lot of a hollovz-chested youth whose brother was sinking with consump- tion, who had not means to remain even in Fredericksburg school, and whose land did not yield enough corn to cover the ribs of his horse ? The letter of George Washington, printed in facsimile in this book, is sufficient- ly pathetic. His half-brother, Lawrence, to whom it is written, is a Burgess at Williams- burg ; William Fairfax also ; so there is no home for him at Mount Vernon or Belvoir. At Williamsburg, too, the fortunate young -gentry of the colony are studying classics in William and Mary College, and acquiring in its fine social circle such polish as that which will enable young Adams to win the heiress of Fauntleroy. But poor George, at seven- teen, must stay on the farm for lack of corn enough to support his horse, and be burdened with the widow's worries about her negro quarters. The five years' use of the farm at Bridge Creek left her by her husband has come to an end,— probably her main re- source. How far away now appear these troubles under the later splendor^of this man's career 1 Lately I saw on the edge of the Rap- L ^Acutr irA'^ (^tCC&^ ^id"- ^"^ ttT^ !«i^ Sn/tO «<^/*/&_^i.kl (^"Tx^ ' '^i- -^l ■'Sfvitu^ ^> '3 ^a/^f^at\rre^cj0^a»^hi/?^^vi^^ 7- »4^ Ufi^A^ SUPERSCRIPTION OF LETTER, DATED MAY 5, 1 749, FROM GEORGE WASHINGTON TO MAJOR LAWRENCE WASHINGTON AT WILLIAMSBURGH, VA. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 97 pahannock the ruin of that same mill, to which the letter alludes, and on the heights near it uninhabited cabins that may be the very same that stood on the widow's lower farm, threatened by Taliaferro's proposed ferry. These poor things once meant bread or the want of it to the Widow Washington and her five children. They also meant humiliation and disappointment to the lover of the Lowland Beauty. He will roam among the Indians, and survey my lord's lands, and write of ''her that's pityless" verses that amuse the dry historian : *' lie sleep amongst my most inveterate Foes, And with gladness never wish to wake. In deluding sleepings let my eyelids close, That in an enraptured dream I may In a soft lulling sleep and gentle repose Possess those joys denied by day." V After Cartagena HE Journal of the Virginia Coun- cil, August 6, 1740, records the issue of orders to officers in the Cartagena expedition : "Cap- tains, Lawrence Washington, Charles Walker, Richard Bush- Mercer ; Lieutenants, Francis Moss, Bellamy, Lewis Browne; Ensigns, Wil- liam Fitzhugh, Hugh Rose, Young, Pilott. " (Hay den's ' ' Va. Genealogies, " p . 494 In the English House of Commons, Admi- ral Vernon, who had won some glory in the sea-fight against Spain in 1702, boasted that 98 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK 99 Porto Bello could be taken with six ships. England took him at his word, and he made it good. Porto Bello was taken with six men-of-war in November, 1739. But it proved a perilous victory. On March 4, 1741, Admi- ral Vernon appeared before Cartagena, then in the Viceroyalty of New Granada, with 29 ships of the line, 80 smaller vessels, 15,000 sailors, 12,000 land troops, and met with an awful repulse, most of the army being slain, and large numbers scattered to perish on isl- ands of sickness. Among the forces was the Virginia regiment of which Sir William Gooch was chief and Lawrence Washington next in command. Sir William returned soon after the disaster, broken in health, and seems to have left the Virginians in Jamaica under com- mand of Lawrence Washington. The latter returned to Virginia near the close of 1742. This brief preface will enable the reader to understand better the subjoined letters to Lawrence Washington from his friends and comrades in England. Joseph Deane, writer of the first and of another, was clearly a trusty agent in Whitehaven of the Washingtons. His tone is that of intimacy with both Law- rence and his father. Canon Mathews, of Appleby, England, where Augustine (men- 100 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK tioned in the following letter) was at school, informs me that the Deane family belonged to that place (1696). It is near Whitehaven. There is no address on the letter, which was probably inclosed : ''Dear Sir: ''It was a very great satisfaction and plea- sure to me and to all your friends in having the favour of yours from the Harbour of Car- thagena ye 3 1 March last, and tho wee have not had that favour repeated, and great mis- fortunes and mortallity hath attended you, yet I hope to God you are still in being, and that he hath and will protect you at all times ; this is the sincere prayer of your affectionate Friend. "Wee have had dismall accounts; how to judge is very uncertain ; and upon my word I am under the greatest uneasiness for your p'servacion, so that I beg you will let me hear from you. I will not enlarge much, being afraid I am writing to one, not of this world, so that I know not whose hands this may fall into. I hear Conii Gouge hath wrote to England and accuses your Virgin- ians of Cowardice, and that they are all or most of them back. I hope its not true ; but AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK lOI be as it will I beg you will keep up your spirits. Your Brother and all Friends is well and at your service ; and upon my word he is grown a pretty young fellow. Pray also give me directions to proseed. As to state affairs 1 am no judge, but your Fine Admirall hath got great aplause tho' he cu'd not take the Town. And some is blamed for storm- ing the ffort (much) without first a breach. ''All friends hear is well except your once much admired Mrs. Milham who is just a heap of coruption (so uncertain is this world), and must be dead ea'r this comes to hand. All hear join's in our kind love to you, and I am ''Dear Sir, "Your most affect. Humble serv't "Jos. Deane. "WT Haven, July 24, 1741. "Its uncertain this cuming to your hand yet wou'd neglect no opportunity to show my regards for you." It will be seen by the above that Admiral Vernon's popularity was too great to fall by his failure. In fact, he resumed his place in 102 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K Parliament. However, in 1745 he quarreled with the Admiralty, and his name was struck off the naval list. He is now mainly remem- bered as the hero of a failure, whose name was given to the mansion of Washington. The next letter is official, and bears the superscription: ''To Captain Lau. Washing- ton of Col. Gooch's Regimt of Foot. Pr. Cap- tain Fitzhugh. " (This was William Fitzhugh, of Westmoreland, Virginia.) It seems to have \ reached Virginia before Lawrence, and, strange \ to say, was delivered to William Fairfax,— "^ being marked : ' ' Reed Sept. 23, W. Fx. " Pos- sibly, however, it was received at Williams- burg, William Fairfax being in the Council, and confided to him as the particular friend of Lawrence's father, then residing at Freder- icksburg. "Sir, "This comes with your Account of Clear- inge from the date of your Commission to 24 December 1740 Balance whereof is Eighteen Pounds five shillings, and yi, and waits your order. "It was but this day that I could get that money from the Pay Office, and no more Clearings can be received till May or June AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 10} next at soonest for want of Muster Rolls: Such as have been sent home can be of no use, the Docket part which governs the Credit of the Muster Roll being Cancelled by Endorsements ; so We must get these Rolls explained by Warrants from the King, or put into some other Way for Payment. "Your Regiment is not particular herein all the others being in the same Way ; so soon as 1 can obtain the Proper Credits I shall write, before which I pray the favour that the Gen- tlemen will not draw on me; for it will be great Uneasiness to me to send back their Bills. ''This comes to the Northern Provinces where I reckon You will come upon the Re- duction of the Regiment and 1 am present Busy for solliciting for the half Pay. "I am Sir, Your most obedient ''humble servant, "Alexr Wilson. "Queen Street Westmr : "6 Novemr 1742." The seal qn the above letter is armorial : two chevrons between three mullets, the crest being a shell. 104 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK The next letter is from the general of the land forces in the Cartagena expedition. ''Sr, 'M am favour'd with yours of Jan: 17th, which gives me a great deal of pleasure, as it confirms the account of your safe arrivall in Virginia, with the soldiers committed to your charge, and of their being without any diffi- culty dispers'd to their respective colonys. "\ have I do assure you, labour'd to the utmost of my power to serve the reduc'd officers of your Corps, and 1 flatter myself that there will be a provision made for the whole, soon after the Parliament rises; but am still of the same opinion that your coming over hither will answer no end, but the occa- sioning you unnecessary trouble and expence, and that your interest will not in any wise suffer by your absence. ''I am, Sr your very faithful! ''and humble servant, *'Thos. Wentworth. ''London, Ap: the 17th, 1743. "Capt Washington." Captain Lawrence Washington returned from the unfortunate expedition to find a AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 105 happy outlook at home. The house his fa- ther had been building for him in Fairfax — the county was just formed, 1742 — was nearly completed. It is probable that he stayed with the Fairfaxes at Belvoir ; at any rate, he persuaded Ann Fairfax to become mis- tress of the new mansion, which he promptly named Mount Vernon. His father, it will be remembered, died on April 12, 1743, and it is said that the marriage was on that account postponed until July 19. It is rather remark- able, however, that in writing to his friends in England Major Washington seems to have omitted mention of his father's death. This may be gathered from the following congrat- ulatory letters. ''Dear Sir, ''Your's of the 18 July last gives me infinite pleasure one two accts. First that you have escaped many daingers and returned in peace, and 2dly that you are happ'ly fixed to a Young Lady in Whome I sincerely wish you all the cumford and happeness this life can aford. My Wife joins with me in the same good wishess and desires you will make our com- plimts in a politer way then my Pen is masr of to Your Lady. I06 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK ''I writ to you by the Howard since wch wee have had no News however I have sent you and yr Brother all the journals I cu'd pick up. You know what this Country afords. if I can assist my freind in anything I beg You will let me know. I shall write to you by other ships from time to time and I hope you will do the same to me. "I am Dear Sir your very Affect ''Humi Servt, ''Jos: Deane. ''Wt Haven, Nov. loth, 1743. "?. S. You must excuse Bror Robinson's not writting I told him I woud writ when the first Ships was ready to sail but wee have a Surveyr in the [sic] that prevents me." The next letter is from Lawrence Washing- ton's teacher in England, who addresses him as ''Major,"— his title after becoming Adju- tant-General of one of the four military dis- tricts of Virginia, to which place his brother George succeeded (;^i5o per annum). "Appleby, Nov^. 13. 1743. "You tell me. Dear Major Washington, on the 19th of July, that you had then taken your AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 107 residence upon Mount Vernon, and give me to understand that in a few hours after writ- ing you might probably be upon your Mons Veneris. A happy situation, believe me, I think you to be in. If I had not thought so, I should not have come there myself; for be it known to you I was married also on ye 1 2th of May, ye day sacred and solemn to all schoolmasters of Appleby, but particularly so to me, before I made it my wedding day ; be- ing not only ye day upon which ye school was founded (as you may yet remember, if you have not forgot Nansey Huetson) but ye day likewise on which my Presentation to the School bore date just 20 years before. And as it had prov'd a happy day to me, produc- tive of much profit and pleasure too for 20 years together, I ventured to make it an y^ra from which to date so considerable a Revolu- tion in my Life ; and I bless God for it ; thus far I find my satisfaction improved, and have no apprehension of any abatement but hope and prospects of farther improvement still. ''But why all this upon my self, when I am writing a Letter of Ogratulation to my friend ? To let my friend know that my Ogratulation must be ye more sincere, because I feel ye joy that 1 give him upon ye occasion. And to con- I08 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK elude with as hearty and as good a Wish as I can make. I wish you, my Dear, and your Wife as happy as I and mine are. ''The Woman I married is ye daughter of Mr. Hartley of Kirby-steven who had a Bror. Hugh at school when you was here, I be- lieve ; and another whose name was Alderson when Austin was here. She 's just lo years younger than I (pretty much as 'tis with your's). I wanted about 1 5 weeks of 42 upon my wedding day. I hope your Father and his family are all well. I beg my best respects to him and Honest Austin, and am with sin- cere regard for you and your good Lady ''Dear Lawrence, "your most Affectionate Friend "and very Humble Servant Ri: Yates. "This comes down to Honest Joe Deane to whom I leave ye direction of it." Canon Mathews writes me from Appleby Vicarage : "Richard Yates was a well known master of Appleby Grammar School — then one of the best known schools in the North of England, AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 109 in the first part of last century. He was a man of literary tastes and an author. In our Registers, which are alas very imperfect, I find, 'Jane dr. of Mr. Ri. Yates baptized Mar. 5, 1745.' Nancy Huetson, mentioned in Mr. Yates' letter, was for many years a Matron at Appleby Grammar School, and left all her savings to found an annual Treat for the boys on a certain date each year — probably the 12th May alluded to by Mr. Yates. This was held at an inn in Appleby until it was found to lead to abuse and was suppressed." There is another letter of ''honest Joe Deane," as Yates calls him. "Dear Capt Washington, "Yours at all times (if I may own it) gives me great pleasure, so that I hope you will not Neglect renewing that pleasure when every opportunity offers. "I wonder you shud not hear from me. 1 seldom miss embrasing all offers and will continue so long as 1 find my Letters are not troublesome. My Bro^ Robinson hath I fancy received the value of your Bill. I have heard nothing to the Contrary. Poor Wilkin is dead. Dr. Skelbeck is Mayor, and Mr. Yates no BARONS OF THE POTOMACK is marred ; that 's all the Alterations I know there. The warr was expected to be hott in Flanders but its quite otherwise. I am afraid its a trade now. Wee have a company of Blackney's Regement in this Town and the captain's Name is Gordon. 1 find he went out upon the same footing you did and is now in full pay, so that if you was to cume over you woud be the same. He tells me he knows you very well and seems to blame you in not cuming over (but this is not to Advise you for I know nothing about it.) He further tells me he had a dispute about the Seniority but you got it. "This warr 1 am afraid will distress the Planters but its only living within due bounds at first (this advise may be given but not so easily taken.) I cud not learn from Mrs. Smith the reason of her cuming away. ''{ have sent you the last papers and if I can serve you in any thing hear, pray let me know. I had the worst luck with the Wal- / nutt-f^oil] that ever Fellow had, wee lost but two ships and it was both them that had it in. ''Wee have little or no news hear, but I hope to God the King of Prussia will never get out of Boheamia he had the Bull© [? bullion] AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK III and hath still if he woud be honest, but I hope no body will trust him now. "My Wife joins in our very kind love to you and your Lady, and I am with due re- gard ''Dear Sir, your most Obedt "and most Humie Servt. "Jos. Deane. "Wt Haven, Nov. 6, 1744." The following, "To Capt. Washington," is written on paper with water-mark "Culloden. Dettingen"; also a crest seal — a sea-horse and coronet. "Montrose, Nov. 13th, 1749. "Dear Captain, "You'l excuse my not giving you your proper title, as I dare say you are long before this become a Colonel, but you ha' not been so kind as to inform me thereof, tho I have wrote sev'al times to you since I had the plea- sure of hearing from you. Most of our Corps yt are living are now in the Army, very few by the reduction on half pay. I am just become Eldest Captain. None of us yet are ffield Of- ficers but Bollocks Merser, who has beat us all with his Hams of Bacon. Poor Lowry is 15 112 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K lately dead in Ireland and Milburn dyed in EdinS this Spring.— You wou'd find by the papers yt we did not reep many Laurells ye last War in fflanders, no more than in the West Indies. I was in the two Battles of Rasso and La Poll, at the latter of which I reed a wound in my Ancle yt had like to have made me an Invalid for life, which was likewise dispaired off, but by the help of a good Heart and good Constitution 1 have got ye better of it and can still walk tolerably well, but to my great mor- tification I have not yet dared to venture upon a Country Dance. You'l say perhaps ye matter is not very great, as my dancing days ought to be pretty well over, but hold a blow there I am as young as ever I was tho' not yet mar- ried but 1 threaten ye Scotch Lasses very hard. Bob Poins is lately dead, did 1 know where she was 1 would have a stroke at my old flame his Widdow, if she durst venter again after having had so bad a Husband but they will venter and a man might venter too was he sure of having as good luck as you have had, and you can't be angry at me, if I am in love with your Lady, because you yr self are the cause of it. Pray my Complyments to Fitzhue who 1 hear has beat up the Qiiarters of a Wid- dow, to whom I wish all Happiness. 1 have AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 11} been this summer with a Detachmt of our Regiment at Work upon the Roads in ye High- lands, where wee had ye weather much colder than 'tis with you in Winter, and so wet yt we had but 7 fine days in 3 months. I have not been here a week 'tis a most beautiful situa- tion and ye Adjacent Country pleasant enough, so that I seem to be transported out of Pur- gatory into Paradise. I find your Governor [Gooch] is coming over and Colo Legh [Lee] is to be president [of the Ohio Company] to whom you'l please to make my Complyments and to all my old Acquaintance. 1 coud spend a Twelve Month amongst you with a great deal of pleasure ; but 'tis not very likely that that will ever happen. We have Work cut out for us in this Kingdom for 5 or 6 years. Tho' we you know have no certain abiding place, yet wherever I am 1 shall always be "DSr, ''Your assured friend and ''Very hble servt "T. Stafford. "If you have not quite forgot your old ac- quaintance let me hear from you by ye first opportunity, and direct for me in Lieut Gen- eral Pulteney's Regiment in Scotland." VI The yirginians ROM the Chesapeake (''Mother of Waters") extend, like fin- gers from a mighty palm, Vir- ginia's tidal rivers, — Potomack, Rappahannock, York, Matta- poni, James. These and their confluents gathered up the produce of the land. On each of the smaller streams was a fleet of flat-bottomed scows which could meet the wheeled barges of the interior and convey their loads to the sea-vessels at their mouths. The ships were wafted by the breath of prayer. Here is one of the many BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Utci somotiiiios lies hid in his hoat .uul dritts amoiiii tlio ducks, his i^iui throiii^h .1 poit-h(>k\ The tiirko\' hiiiitsinaii iMiiios .1 \\histk\ w'huh iiiiist ho iiiado troin a tuikoN bpiic.with whk'h ho can imilato tho woic Pt a tiiikcN . The iUnk hcing lliislied by a dog, w huh IS then caniod to a distance, tho spc>itsnian sits in ambush and with his tuiko\-bono dohidos tho birds, which aro try- ini; to L!:et tc\uothoi ai^ain. So tho okl sin o( soothiuii" a kid in its niothor's milk wont on. The colcMiial hidios woro ni^t huntrossos. but they genorallN' gathered at a "moot, "and tho huntin^-da\' usuallx cK^sod with a dance. I'Noii chiiich-^omg was a kind o(' picnic. The laniilios. gathered trom uian\- miles round, can led hampers, and between the morning and attornoon services a communal toast was laid in tho gro\o. \oung ladies being the waiters. Such being the scene, it is not wonderful that in ccnmtrx' parishes so tew presentments aro lound tor non-attend- ance at cliiiuli. Thoro woro also expeditions to the couit house, which was cMton crowded b\ ladies listening to the tamous lawNors. with whom tho\' presonth" danced at the invariable ball. Then there were races, the most important being at Williamsburg and AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 121 Fredericksburg. Those of Fredericksburg oc- curred during its great fairs, — spring and autumn, — when there were masquerades, river-festivals, and all manner of gaieties. The town became a bazaar of beauty. Many marriages of the Rappahannock region were arranged at the Fredericksburg Fair. With all these gaieties, the colonial dame in Virginia had to ''come out" pretty early: it was generally when of the age at which Shakespeare's Juliet married — fourteen. There were not enough ladies to go round, so to say, without levying on the school-room. My reader may be interested in the following list of articles, representing part of the outfit of one of these little ladies for perhaps her first season in society. It is copied from the origi- nal invoice, in my possession, of purchases forwarded from London on an order of Col- onel John Lewis for his wards, and received at Corotoman, June 30, 1739: ''For EIi;(abetb Carter, 14 years old. A Cap, Ruffles, and tucker, the lace 55. per yard ; 1 pair white Stays ; 8 pair white kid gloves ; 2 pair coloured ditto ; 2 pair worsted Hose ; 3 pair thread ditto ; i pair silk shoes laced ; i pair morocco ditto ; 4 pair plain Spanish dit- 122 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK to ; 2 pair calf ditto ; i mask ; i Fan ; i Neck- lace ; 1 Girdle and Buckle ; i peice foshionable Calico; 4 yards Ribbon for knots; 1 Hoop Coat ; I Hatt ; 1 yard and half of Cambrick ; a Mantua and Coat of Slite lutestring." 1 add, also, the provision in the same order for "Master Carter." ''For Robert Carter, 12 fears old. One suit of winter cloaths ; 6 pair Shoes and 2 pr. Pumps ; 4 pair worked Hose ; 4 pair Thread ditto; 2 Hatts; 2 pair colourd Gloves and 2 pair white ; 1 5 Ells Holland 6s.; 15 yards brown Holland ; i pair Shoe Buckles ; i pr. blew and white Kentino- Handkfs." '& One now and then meets with items in old letters suggesting a probability that these Vir- ginia ladies, who put on their "war-paint" so early, were not expected to lay it aside alto- gether even after marriage. Custom must not ''stale her infinite variety" who, without daughters to help, must entertain many fine gentlemen tar away in the depth of some lonely estate. The time must not be allowed to drag for want of a little tlirtation. The pretty hostess must gallop with her guest AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 12} about the estate, she must challenge him at graces or archery, and her evening costume must be charming. It must be added, how- ever, that there never w^as a society freer from marital scandals than that of colonial Virginia. Although duels about sweethearts were not infrequent, 1 do not remember to have heard or read of any about wives. Whether this is to be ascribed to the virtue or the freedom and complaisance of the time it is not easy to determine. However this may be, there is no doubt that a survival of the beautifullest went on in the colony. Marriages of convenience were comparatively few; the beauty, how- ever impecunious, however poor her parental cottage, was sure to have her train of admir- ers. And everybody married. The men mar- ried again and again. General Washington's brother Samuel married five times, and was under fifty when he died. To the planter on his vast estate life was not worth living with- out a wife. A Swiss traveler, M. Droz, who passed some time in the Northern Neck before the Revolution, wrote a book {Recit Fidele de Mes Aventures) in which he describes the ladies as "bounteous in size and manners." ''Most of the women are quite pretty, and are insinuating in their manners, if they find 124 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK you SO. When you ask them if they would like to have husbands, they reply with a good grace that it is just what they desire." '' It is not rare to see young girls of fifteen marry an old man." It must be credited to colonial society in old Virginia that the gentlemen and ladies were not much separated in their amusements or occupations. The country was rather too rough for the ladies to join in the fox-hunt, and we may feel pretty certain that they did not attend the cock-fight. This miserable amusement was highly respectable — as much so as the bull-fight in Spain. It may be men- tioned, by the way, that in the old Academy at Appleby, England, where the Washingtons were educated, there was a regulation that a ''cock-penny" should be paid by each boy on Easter Tuesday to the master, to provide them with a cock-fight. We need not won- der that George Washington, whose father and brothers were there educated, records (1752) in his journal, now time-worn: ''A Great Main of . . . cks fought in Yorktown . . tween Glouster and York for 5 pistoles each battle and 100 ye odd I left it with Colo Lewis before it was decided. " The progress of these pre-revolutionary battles at Yorktown, and the final surrender, remain unknown to history. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 125 The chief lady on a plantation held a posi- tion of high responsibility, and, by the number of eminent immigrants who remarried in Vir- ginia, I judge that few English ladies were equal to the burden. She had to govern a number of slaves, in the absence of her hus- band at the county courts or at the House of Burgesses, and she had to oversee the over- seers. Still more important was her office of physician to the negroes and the convict laborers. She had a closet filled with drugs, studied medical books, and did everything except phlebotomy, for which some work- man on the estate was usually trained, — like the blacksmith who, at George Washing- ton's command, reluctantly let out the great man's life-blood. Some of these ladies, on becoming widows, and left with small means, repaired to one or another settlement and be- came regular practitioners. For some years after the foundation of Fredericksburg the only physician there was Mrs. Livingston. She was by no means a quack, or mere herbal- ist. The Vestry of St. George's Church paid her with substantial tobacco-fees for attend- ing the poor invalids of the parish. She is mentioned by Colonel William Byrd, of West- over, who visited Fredericksburg in 1732. In another place, apparently near Germanna, on 126 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K the upper Rappahannock, — where Governor Spotswood had introduced German iron- workers and vintagers, — Colonel William Byrd was delayed by a storm for two days at the house of Mrs. Fleming, a noted "doc- tress. " He gives her treatment for the bloody flux. 'Tor this disease," he says, ''she told me she used very simple remedies, in most cases with very good success. She did the business either with hartshorne, drinks that had ye plantain leaves boiled in them, or with a strong decoction of St. Andrew's Cross [supposed Asoyrum Cnix-Andrece], in new milk instead of water. " Fleming was an early name on the Rappahannock, — the second wife of Lawrence Washington, immigrant, was a widow of that name. The condition of literature and education in colonial Virginia has been erroneously in- ferred from Governor Sir William Berkeley's report of the same under his administration, 1641-1677: "I thank God there are no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have these hundred years : for learning has brought disobedience and heresy and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels on the best governments. God keep us from both ! " Before the seven- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 127 teenth century was out William and Mary Col- lege was flourishing, and elementary schools were springing up; in 1736 a spirited news- paper was founded at Williamsburg, where there was also a good theatre in which Shake- speare's plays were acted ; and in the same year was established the first of the free schools so much dreaded by Sir William. This was the Eaton Free School in Elizabeth County. Twelve years later education was made compulsory in Virginia, The law of 1748 provided that where persons were in- capable of supporting or bringing up their children, or neglected their education, church- wardens should bind out such children as ap- prentices on condition that they should be taught the rudiments of learning and a trade. Every parish had its school, and the only reason why large academies were not gener- ally founded before the Revolution was that the gentry found it easy and more satisfac- tory to send their sons to the great schools of England. Girls were generally taught in their homes by tutors; but in towns the parish schools were attended by both sexes. Such was the case with the admirable school founded at Fredericksburg (about 1740) by the Rev. James Marye and some French peo- •7 128 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK pie : the school in which three of our Presi- dents were taught — Washington, Madison, and Monroe. Major Byrd Willis has left a manuscript, loaned me by his granddaughter (Mrs. Tayloe of Fredericksburg), in which he says : ''My father, Lewis Willis, was a school- mate of General Washington, his cousin, who was two years his senior. He spoke of the General's industry and assiduity at school as very remarkable. Whilst his brother [Samuel] and other boys at playtime were at bandy and other games, he was behind the door cipher- ing. But one youthful ebullition is handed down while at that school, and that was romping with one of the largest girls ; this was so unusual that it excited no little com- ment among the other lads." In most of the homes of Virginia there were fine libraries, which generally included French as well as ancient classics. No one can read the letters of the colonial ladies without recog- nizing that they were well educated. Two of the best historical narratives of the seven- teenth century are by ladies. One is that of Verlinda Stone, wife of the Governor of Mary- land (then in prison), to Lord Baltimore, giv- ing an account of the struggle between the proprietary government and the Puritans ; the AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 129 Other, Mrs. Ann Cotton's history of Bacon's Rebellion. These ladies may, indeed, have been born in England, but they had long re- sided in Virginia, and there is no reason to suppose that the culture shown in their lucid and simple narratives was greater than that of the ladies by whom they were surrounded. In the earlier part of the last century Vir- ginia was, socially, a very happy colony. The Rev. Hugh Jones reported, in 1724, that there were no poor people therein, and for more than a quarter of a century thereafter the same was true of the country places. In settlements like Williamsburg and Fredericks- burg a few free laborers dwelt who, when ill, fell on the parish, and one or two families of the gentry, brought low by misfortune, might require assistance ; but never was colony freer from evils of this kind. There is a mistaken impression that the ''indented" white laborers in Virginia were chiefly English convicts, like those imported by Captain Augustine Wash- ington. Such, however, was not the fact. The captain's grandfather had imported very respectable people, some, indeed, of the minor gentry,— one, for example, of the Gregory family with which his granddaughter inter- married. The earlier importations had been 130 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK men, and it became important that more women should be brought over. But great care was taken to provide wives of respect- able character. Free voyage was offered to such women as could bring good credentials, and they were guaranteed safe return if they should not desire to remain in the colony. But few returned. The husbands they found in Virginia were under service for a term of years only. I have in my possession a letter (undated) written to Robert Carter of Nom- ony, apparently by one of these wives, the handwriting and diction of which are those of an educated lady : ''Honour'd Sir,— When I saw you I was speaking to you concerning my two boys, and your answer was that you would consider about it. I should be glad to have an answer to it, for I want to move this fall nearer my hus- band, and at the same time I shou'd be glad to have my small children with me if your Hon- our pleases. As to my big children I should be glad to have them from your Honour, and to set your price on them — what I am to pay a year ; hoping your Honour will not be too hard on me, as I shall have rent to pay, and then all to find in clothes ; for it will always AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 131 be my study to keep my payments good to you, and a comfort to me to have my chil- dren about me. Please to let me have an ansv/er by the Bearer. '*I remain your Humble servant, ''Mary Harrison." Soon after Bacon's Rebellion (1676) a hun- dred English girls emigrated to Virginia, who seem to have belonged to families of higher social position. One of them married a Fitz- hugh, and probably most of them found suita- ble husbands. On the Rappahannock and Potomack there were but few Africans before the middle of the last century ; indeed there were only three or four thousand in the colony, and they were chiefly on the lower James River and on the York peninsula. The slaves were rarely over- worked ; they were not yet too pious to be merry, and those brought from Africa found Virginia a paradise compared with the savage countries they had left. On the Rappahan- nock their chief occupation was to gather to- bacco and convey it on scows to the river's mouth for the ocean vessels. Every such flat- boat, plenteous with rum, was the scene of perpetual dancing and laughter. Long after 132 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK the dancing and laughter had ceased there remained— perhaps still remains— a supersti- tion that sometimes in the dusk a mysterious scow passes down the Rappahannock, with phantom figures on it, and peals of laughter and song, with patter of the "breakdown" echoing along the shores. Nevertheless, bright as was the horizon of old Virginia, the cloud was there, though no larger than a man's hand ; it is represented by the mixture of race-horses, tobacco, and hu- man chattels in a letter *'to Landon Carter, Esq., at Landsdown in Richmond County. By Gumby " . ''Shirley, July 22d, 1739. ''Dear Sir, "I think there was no occasion for your let- ter by Gumby, after I had said that you might send the Woman and Girl to Totusque and so to Corotoman if you disliked the Choice or price : and as to the long Dissertation about the Race Horse, it might well have been spared, when my Letter had left you at Lib- erty to go half of the Races or let them alone as you thought proper. Trinclo won the second Race near a length with Sam on his Back, and I shall give you Credit for the half AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 133 of fifteen Pistoles and the half of 2 hhds. To- bacco, tho' 1 called no Witnesses to my Inten- tions. On the first race the loss was 20 Pis- toles and 4 hhds. Tobacco, and 5 Pistoles on Chiswell's Mare against Randolph's Mare, half of which I charge to your Account, and this shall be the last of the Sort. My journey to Corotoman being stopt by the sickness of my Wife and Family, I desire the favour of you to send me a set of Bills of Exchange for ^100 steri by Simon Sallard, who has my Di- rection to wait on you for that purpose. I have nothing to do with your Bargains with Colonel Charles, nor do I enter into the Con- scionableness or unconscionableness of his Demands, nor do I suppose that you are obliged to let him have that Girl, which for anything I know, may be worth more than both his horses ; but if you can supply your- self with Slaves on better terms from Capt. Denham's ship, and those 1 sent you have re- ceived no injury from their journey, nor con- tracted any Distemper 1 could not foresee, you have still my free Consent to send ym to To- tusque, from which Mr. Ledford may contrive them down to Corotoman. ''I am, Sir, your most affect, humble Serv't, ''John Carter." 134 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK This John Carter had a pretty long genea- logical road behind him, according to a gentle- man of Fredericksburg, who writes me : ''The Carter family are kin to everybody in Virginia in some way, could you go back far enough. I have a pedigree of Carters of Shirley through the Spotswood tree, going back in a straight line to Adam and Eve— not a missing link." John must, therefore, have inherited a good deal of bad temper as well as pleasant. His note to his scholarly relative, Landon Carter, sounds rather surly, though we do not know the exact situation. It also looks as if in him the Carter tree had borne a sort of domestic slave-trader. Nor is there anything very spor- tive in his allusions to the races. He seems to mean business. But it was out of just this kind of man that the rebel was made who de- fied the Stamp Act. He is the domesticated Virginian whom England may rule nominally, but not really. It may seem wonderful that the leading re- publicans should presently appear in these Barons, with their slaves and serfs ; but they were by no means democrats in the "rights- of-man" sense. They were a sort of planta- tion peers, who had developed a system of self-government of which the landholder was AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 1 35 the unit. The colony was divided early into eight shires, and after these had multiplied the county lieutenant maintained high gu- bernatorial dignity. He was originally called "commander of plantations." He executed the laws, commanded the militia, organized courts martial, and was responsible to the governor at Williamsburg, as the latter was to the Crown. The County Court was of high character. The planters in a county made a sort of Council for their commander or lieutenant. There was thus developed a sort of county sovereignty which was the forerunner of the State sovereignty of a later era. The Virginia idea of equality was not that of individual men, but of representatives; and each planter represented his subjects, black and white. Their alliance with the masses in the Revolution was not due to any fundamental change. Indeed, that was a gen- tlemen's revolution, and the masses went to them as their natural leaders. Moreover, to be exact, it was the Crown that entered on a revolution. A rebellion against the English Constitution would have been impossible in Virginia. The King vio- lated the law, and sought the alliance of In- dians and negroes against their local rulers. 18 136 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK The Barons allied themselves with the peo- ple, who had different grievances against the Crown, — religious, democratic, or other, — but when the war was over they were again a peerage of the plantations. Every one of those planters was a law-abid- ing man. Beside his Bible, if not, indeed, on top of it, he kept John Mercer's "Laws of Virginia." He was always a lawyer, and studied the English books. In customs now lawless he was strictly legal : for instance, in the single combat, now called the duel, pro- vision for which remained in the English Code even within the present century. So, also, with the one or two uncommissioned law courts of the colony. In regions where courts have not been established, English law recognizes, as if regular, courts extemporized in emergencies, where trials are fair: such was the court of Judge James Lynch, as just a man as ever lived, whose name is now taken to shield cowardly ruffians who mur- der the defenceless. Nothing of that kind was known among the gentlemen who built up the power of Virginia. They were author- ized to administer laws to their slaves and serfs, but they must be laws. The great out- break of some of the gentry, a hundred years AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 137 before the Revolution, against the govern- ment in Virginia is finding some defenders, as an honorable revolution. But it was not such; it originated in an effort to mob In- dians, and to maintain the privilege of ex- terminating them, and was justly crushed. From that time there was little trouble be- tween the whites and Indians, who were taught in the time of Spotswood and Gooch pretty much as they are to-day in the In- dian college at Hampton, Virginia. And when, after the middle of the eighteenth century, the colony was invaded by north- ern Indians, those of Virginia did not take their part. The planter on his large estate, in his lux- urious mansion and park, was content, and not anxious to participate in the general gov- ernment of the colony. This was especially the case with the planter on the Rappahan- nock. Landon Carter of Sabine Hall had to be dragged out of his retreat even in the stormy days when the Virginians seemed vir- tually abandoned to invaders from Canada. So it appears by a poetic epistle to him from Colonel Richard Bland (afterwards of the Con- tinental Congress), found among our Have- meyer manuscripts. It is given here less for 138 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK its poetic art than as a suggestive document of the time (1758): ''An Epistle to Landon Carter, Esq., upon hearing that he does not intend to stand a Candidate at the next Election of Burgesses. " You'l envy not, you say, Dear Sir, the great, Their Pomp, their Luxury, their pageant state, But bless'd with all that Heav'n below can give, A mind contented and a taste to live, You'l smile superior on their empty show. Their seeming pleasure but their real woe. At Sabine Hall, retir'd from public praise, You'l spend in learned ease your future days. Yet deign to hear a Muse, whose honest strain Did ne'er commend the vicious nor the vain, But sometimes in the cause of Virtue soars. And scorns less merit for her Lay, than yours. Whilst you, my friend ! with pleasing joy survey Your teeming flocks, as through the meads they stray, AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 1 39 Whilst you, in Sylvian shades and pleasant groves, Hear Philomelas chanting to their Loves ; Whilst you, secure from all domestic strife. Enjoy delightful scenes of rural life ; Permit me to deplore my country's fate, The dire misfortunes of her tot'ring state. When Power's uplifted arm was hurling down, With spurious show of service to the Crown, A mighty weight, to crush our antient Laws, And with our spoils to gorge its greedy Jaws, You then appear'd, your Country's surest Friend, And did her Cause with manly sense de- fend. But now, alas ! you do not deign to hear Your Country's groans, involved in horrid War. Canadian Wolves, a bloody, savage Band, Invade with hostile arms her virgin Land, Forsaken by her Guardian and her Friend, Who used to her the sagest councils lend. But now in fields and meadows spends his days Recluse from public view, and scorns our praise ; 140 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK But now the life of Tully's self is spent Supine at Rome, and carping momers sent With baleful nonsense, in the grandest Cause, T' assist her Senate, and ordain her Laws. Young pageant Elfs do now live pleas'd, and aim By shocking common sense, at public fame. Agelaus self would laugh to hear such Tools, The gewgaws of the vulgar and of fools. With Midas ears,bray out with vain pretence, ' We are the men of weight and men of sense. ' Rise then j udicious Friend ! step boldly forth , And vindicate your merit and your worth ; Strike bold Pretenders, to the highest place, Into oblivion, and a just disgrace. Yes ! all ye sons of Folly and of Vice, From whom our present Evils take their rise. Yes ! all ye slaves of Luxury and Lust Avant ! Begone ! sink into native dust. Do not our annals with your names disgrace, Depart to your own dul and stupid race. The Country's Patriot once again appears To vindicate our Laws, and calm our fears. He'l suffer none, whilst he his Pen can wave. To be with ease and safety Fool or Knave. He'l always foremost be, and boldly rise A Friend to Virtue and a Foe to Vice. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 141 Then stand once more, aloud your country cries, (Nor do her prayers nor her commands de- spise). Stand once again, and save a sinking Land, Which is sincerely wish'd, by Yours D k B d." The date of ''Dick" Bland's effusion is ''June 20, 1758." Those who desire to fol- low its allusions will find an account of the period in Campbell's "History of Virginia." The requisites of government in colonial Virginia were church, court-house, prison, pillory, stocks. The writer remembers dis- used stocks that fifty years ago kept their place in Falmouth just outside the graveyard, where, as I was told by Miss Lucas, in her ninety-fifth year, the old church stood. The vestries had some heresies and impieties to deal with. In Spottsylvania, Larkin Chew, magistrate, and Thomas Chew, churchwar- den, appear to have been especially zealous in maintaining religious order. "Thomas Mosely and John Shelton," says Dr. Slaugh- ter, "were committed by Larkin Chew, upon information of Thomas Chew, church-warden, for taking upon themselves to baptize the 142 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK child of one Ann Alsop. They were required to give bond and security for their good be- havior, and in default of appearing to answer at the next court, were ordered to be com- mitted to jail, and receive thirty-one lashes on their bare backs — sixteen in the evening, and fifteen next morning. At this term of the court [1724] there were thirteen presentments by the grand jury of absentees from public worship. Public opinion, however, seems to have been in advance of the legislation of the times upon the rights of conscience, as it ap- pears from the record that only one of these cases was prosecuted to execution." This case was John Digg, fined 105., or one hun- dred pounds of tobacco, or in lieu thereof cor- poral punishment. Probably the lay baptism was intended medicinally, or as a means of liberating the child from a supposed spell of witchcraft. But the tendency of Virginians was much more towards rationalism than su- perstition. Deistical opinions were widely prevalent in the colony during the eighteenth century. Two professors at William and Mary College, albeit clergymen, were deists, and distributed the works of English deists among the students. Peyton Randolph probably, certainly his brother John, the King's Attorney, AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 143 Chancellor Wythe, and Jefferson were deists, and the first bishop, Madison, was a rational- ist. It was probably on account of the preva- lence of rationalism at William and Mary Col- lege that the father of James Madison sent him to Princeton — an incident that influenced the political future of the State, perhaps of the nation. Yet some of these latitudinarian gen- tlemen were more resolute churchmen than the English at home. Peyton Randolph, while King's Attorney, contended against the dis- senters that the Act of Toleration did not ex- tend to Virginia. ''Then neither does the Act of Uniformity," answered Samuel Davies, the Presbyterian apostle in Virginia, whose posi- tion was sustained in England. The Baptists were mobbed in some parts of the colony, but persecution was of a comparatively mild type in Virginia, and no life was sacrificed to bigotry. Governor Dinwiddie ordered young Colonel George Washington to lash the Qua- kers until they consented to help build forts, but he evaded the order. >9 VII Warner Hall 1849 Mr. Colin Clarke, of Richmond city, was residing in the superb colonial mansion known as Warner Hall. It ante- dated and surpassed all others as a monument of the wealth and culture which enabled transplanted scions of great English houses to produce a more glorious Gloucestershire in Virginia than any known in England. It had twenty-six rooms ; its ample hall and wainscoted drawing-rooms were hung with ancestral portraits ; its library was rich in early English books. It was built BARONS OF THE POTOMACK 145 by the first of the Lewis family, who emigrated to Virginia as early, according to a family tradition, as 1635,— having ^^"^^ ^" ^^^ ^^^P '' Blessing." Sixtyyears ago, or thereabout, the heirs of its founder placed Warner Hall in the market ; and one of the family, Fielding Lewis, being near his end, offered to purchase it as a bequest to his son-in-law, a son of Chief Jus- tice Marshall, or else leave him its value in money. Marshall asked him his wishes. The old gentleman said that of course he had a partiality for the place, which had come down in the family for two hundred years; but, as his advice had been asked, he would answer as a disinterested party : "Never buy an hereditary estate, for many people think they have as much right there as the owner." Marshall took his advice, and the house and homestead passed out of the family. But Mr. Colin Clarke lavished his means on Warner Hall, and kept it in good condition. Time and nature conspired with him. The sun- shine of centuries had so hardened the cement that each great wall was as if built of one vast brick, and bade fair to stand until the last trump should blow it down. Yet all perished in a night by a casual breath of the owner. Mr. Clarke remarked at breakfast 146 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK that, were it not for his love of Warner Hall, he would live all the time at Richmond. This was heard by a negro boy of some fourteen years, communicated to a female comrade of like age, to whom as to himself Richmond shone like the Golden City. Shortly after Warner Hall was a smoking ruin. In the once beautiful park nothing is left of the old buildings but the kitchen, — abode of the piccaninnies, so fatally frantic for their Richmond Jerusalem. With its huge fireplace the kitchen remains to this day, symbol of the stone rejected by the builders of Virginia's ancient greatness, and which ultimately ground it to powder. In early times the clergy of Virginia held that the negroes, being baptized, were servants of Christ, and could not be held as slaves. Some planters contested this, and the dispute was submitted to the ecclesiastical authorities in England. These pronounced in favor of the planters, and to their decision America owes a civil war and Virginia her desolations. It must be said, however, that Nemesis has rarely taken her disguise from the dusky race, left without share in the grandeurs they built up, and with brains too dwarfed to appre- ciate them. Nor can I discover an instance in AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 147 which any old mansion or historic edifice in Virginia was destroyed by the Northern armies, though these soldiers — from the number of old papers whose disappearance is attributed to them — must have been mainly collectors. The magnificent mansion near Fredericksburg, ' * Mannsfield, "built by Mann Page, was indeed burned duringthe war, but it was through some North Carolina soldiers who cooked their din- ner on its inlaid floor, perhaps fancying it some kind of stone. The present Nemesis of the old mansions is another rejected power — Steam. ''The Tide Water Virginian," says Dr. Archi- bald Taylor, " was very conservative ; he had an easy way to market, and was opposed to railroads. He said they brought strangers, extravagances, and debt. Once in a while he took a run up to town and got a bad head- ache from the effects of the cordial greetings of his friends, and in a melancholy mood he would say that ' he never would go to one of those damned places again.' He was a man of importance at home, especially if he lived on land he had inherited and owned slaves that had come down by inheritance from his ancestors. In Baltimore or Philadelphia he was nobody." But now the grandson of this old Baron — whose town friends gave him 148 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK too many juleps— vainly calls for the rail- road, which has gone another way. His fine old mansion is crumbling for need of repairs, and the repairers with their materials are at a costly distance. One after another the old houses come into the market ; and the new owners, finding them uninhabitable, some- times pull them down. Only lately the great Fauntleroy House on the Rappahannock was taken down for the value of its bricks, by an owner who probably never heard of the dar- ing Moore Fauntleroy, nor of Betsy the ' ' Low- land Beauty," for whom George Washington sighed in vain. A precisely similar fate — sale of its bricks — has also just overtaken "Elt- ham, " where Washington did not sigh in vain ; for probably the Bassett family tradition is right, that it was there, in the house of her sister, wife of Burwell Bassett, that the widow Custis consoled him for the ''cruel sentence" of Betsy Fauntleroy. The number of old mansions that survived the flames of civil war but were burnt after peace came, is large enough to be suspicious. Berkeley, Shirley, and Brandon on the James, Sabine Hall, Mount Airey, and one or two other places on the Rappahannock, are still kept up by descendants of those who built them ; and AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 149 ''Rosewell" is still the glory of Gloucester, under the care of Judge Fielding Lewis Taylor. But such estates and homes are maintained with difficulty in their hardly accessible re- gions, and the very sentiment that has kept them is in many cases anxious to part with them to wealthy outsiders who would sup- port their ancient dignity. Warner Hall was a picturesque frontispiece of all family history in Virginia. It was asso- ciated with the foundation of families who largely created historic Virginia, and who, dis- tributing themselves first along the Potomack and the Rappahannock, contributed pioneers to every part of the south and west. With War- ner Hall were especially connected the earlier ancestors of George Washington. Twenty- two years before Colonel John Washington is mentioned in the annals of Virginia, appeared the Hon. George Reade, grandfather of Wash- ington's grandmother, from whom probably came his name ''George." George Reade, brother of Robert, an official of the English State Office {temp. Charles I.), came to Vir- ginia on Government business in 1637. He resided with the governor (Harvey) for a time, was made secretary of the colony (1640- 1), was afterwards twice elected Burgess for 150 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK James City, and was a member of the Royal Council (1657-60). His daughter Mildred married the famous Colonel Augustine War- ner, who had inherited from his father, an English officer, 2500 acres at Kiskiack, on the Pianketank River. From this gentleman the name ''Augustine" may have come into the Washington family. Colonel Augustine Warner had a brilliant though brief career. After graduation at Cam- bridge, England, he was at once chosen Bur- gess for Gloucester County, and in 1666, his twenty-fourth year, was made a member of Council, Sir William Berkeley being then gov- ernor. Ten years later he was Speaker of the House of Burgesses, the office next in im- portance to that of the governor. Speaker Warner it was who received the submission of Bacon, the rebel leader, who, when resuming his war with the Government, was careful to fix his headquarters at Warner Hall,— which was not, however, the Speaker's residence. Speaker Warner died in 1681. His portrait at " Rosewell, " residence of Judge Fielding Lewis Taylor, is that of a most noble and refined gentleman. From members of his family are descended various branches of the Nelsons, Peytons, Madisons, and Taliaferros. His sis- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 151 ter Mary married Colonel Townley, and from them were descended 'Tight-Horse Harry" and General Robert E. Lee. His daughter Mildred married Lawrence, the grandfather of George Washington. But the great family with which the War- ners were connected was that of Lewis, — the Washingtons of the seventeenth century being by no means of equal education, rank, or wealth. The story of the Lewis family has never been published, and it is too long to be told here ; but a few facts from it will enhance the interest of the Lewis letters presently given. The first Virginian of the name was General Robert Lewis, son of Sir Edward, of Brecon, Wales,— said to be descended from an Earl of Dorset. The building of the man- sion afterwards called Warner Hall is attrib- uted to this Gen. Robert Lewis, who, in 1650, received a grantof 33,333^ acres in Glouces- ter. His son John married Isabella Warner, a sister of the famous Speaker, and in her honor Warner Hall was named. According to another tradition, however, it was this John Lewis [ist] who built Warner Hall ; and it is added that his wife was the daughter of a rich East Indian merchant, whom he married in England. Their son, John Lewis [2d], mar- 152 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK ried Speaker Warner's youngest daughter, Elizabeth. A son of these, John Lewis [3d] (whose letter is printed in this chapter), mar- ried Frances Fielding (as is supposed); another son, Robert, married Jane Merriwether ; a third son, Charles, married Mary Howell. The fam- ily tradition is that their Fieldings are de- scended from Lord Fielding, Earl of Denbigh. The coat of arms of the Lewis family of Glou- cester is, perhaps, the most extensive and curi- ous in this country . It contains twelve shields. The device of the Lewis family proper is a dragon's head holding in its mouth a red hand. This has the chief place on the shield, and it also surmounts the helmet as crest. ' ' Curious stories," says Millington,'' have been invented by unheraldic writers, to account for the ap- pearance of the 'bloody hand' in a baronet's coat-of-arms. It has even been supposed to be a mark, not of honour, but of infamy, per- petuating the memory of some fearful act of revenge or cruelty by ancestors of such fami- lies as bear it. It was added, that on one condition only might it be expunged from the coat, — that the bearer should consent to pass seven solitary years, unshaven, and without speaking, in a cave ; but the truth is, that the hand formed part of the arms of the province AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 153 of Ulster, and commemorates the daring of a bold adventurer, who had vowed to be the first to touch the shore of Ireland, and, find- ing his boat left behind, cut off his hand, and flung it before him to accomplish, in this lit- eral manner, his vow. James I. conferred this badge on the Order of English Baronets, as being Knights of Ulster, the defence and col- onization of that province being the ostensible reason of their creation. " Next to this on the Lewis shield is a chevron between three spear- heads, or. (golden), engrailed,— arms of Lewis of Van. The ancestors of this family are tra- ditionally said to have been lords in East Glamorgan, and the chief of those who claimed descent from Gwaethored, Prince of Cardi- gan. The Lewis ancestor was the represen- tative of Teon, of the lineage of the Princes of Britain, and the first Bishop of Caerleon. Later heralds have invested him with three Eastern crowns for armorial bearings. The tenth or eleventh in descent was Golydobun, Lord of Caerleon (wife Morfydd), whose em- blem is third on the Lewis shield,— a silver lion rampant, sable ground. It is noticeable that this lion appears on the shield of a branch of the Howell family in Wales,— Howell ap Griffith,— though the arms of Howell, Prince 154 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK of Caerleon, were gules three triple-topped towers. The latter were the arms of Mary Howell, who married Charles Lewis of Vir- ginia, and occupy the fourth place on the Lewis shield. The fifth place is assigned to the arms of Jones, Breconshire, — vert a chev- ron between three wolf-heads erased, or. The sixth device is that of the Bruce family,— ar- gent, three chevronels, gules. Connection with the house of Courtenay is indicated by their three torteaux,— that is, cakes or tarts (Italian tor to). We find, of course, the Washington arms, and in the old manuscript which I am using (lent me by Captain Henry Howell Lewis) it is said: ''Sir Stephen de Wessington at the tournament of Dunstable, 1327, bore for arms argent 2 bars gules, in chief 3 mullets pierced." At the bottom of the shield are the Fielding arms, — argent on a fesse azure three golden mascles or lozenges ; the Warner arms, — vert a cross engrailed, azure ; the Dangerfield cinquefoil, or. within a bordure az. bezantee. In the centre of the shield, concealing one of the Jones wolf-heads, is the shield of pretence, — in chief three heads (that look like boars, but may be the Gooch talbots), and three covered cups, arms of the Bowles family. The wife of Colonel Warner AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 155 Lewis was a Bowles of Maryland, though she had previously married the son of Sir William Gooch. "Where the wife," says Millington, *'is an heiress, even in expectation, her arms are borne upon an escutcheon of pretence, or surtout, but the children bear their parents' arms quarterly." The Bowles arms, surtout — overall — show that Colonel Warner Lewis had married an heiress in the widow of the Honorable William Gooch. It is notable that the three covered cups, with covers more pronounced, are found in Brington Church, near Northampton, Eng- land, combined with the Washington arms, on the tomb of Lawrence Washington, great- great-great-grandfather of the general. The cups there represent the said Lawrence's wife, Margaret Butler. As there was a great But- ler family in Westmoreland, Virginia, one of whom was the first wife of Captain Augustine Washington, it would be interesting to know whether through them the three cups reached the shield of the Bowles family of Maryland and Virginia. The Lewis motto, Omne solum forti patria est (''Every land is a brave man's country"), seems to be a modern condensation of Patria est uhicunque vir fortis sedem elegerit (''A 1^6 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK brave man's country is wherever he chooses his abode"), attributed to Quintus Curtius Rufus. It is the forerunner of Thomas Paine's motto, ''The world is my country." The Lewis pedigree is complicated by the fact that another Lewis came from Wales (1692) and founded a powerful family in King and Queen County, Virginia. In this line, also, the name Howell appears. The name of this immigrant was Zachary Lewis ; his son, of the same name, was the great lawyer at Fredericksburg in its first years, and one of his daughters married Chancellor Wythe . One of his descendants was John Lewis, of "Llan- gollen," Virginia, and afterwards of Kentucky, a celebrated classical teacher and author of several works — among them "Young Kate, or the Rescue : a Tale of the Great Kanawha," which contains graphic descriptions of several parts of Virginia. (It was published by Messrs. Harper in 1845.) Besides these two families founded by immigrants from Wales, there was yet another of the same race who came from the north of Ireland. According to a manu- script of John Lewis of "Llangollen" (Hay- den, p. 379), this immigrant's name was John. He married the daughter of a Scotch laird, set- tled in Ireland, was attacked by an Irish lord, AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 1 57 killed him, fled to Virginia, and was father of the famous settlers of Augusta County, in that State,— Thomas, William, Andrew, and Charles. The descendants of these three Lewis families have intermarried from time to time, and have never been able to settle among themselves their ancestral belongings. With- out entangling my reader in these discussions, I may say that the Lewises of Warner Hall have a fairly traceable lineage— that given in this chapter. There are many instances in Virginia of the immigration of families related to each other in England, but drifting apart amid the exigen- cies of colonial life until their relationship was lost sight of. The marriage of Mary Howell (1717) to Charles Lewis, of 'The Bird," Albe- marle County, seems to have been regarded by the Lewises as the way in which their favorite name, Howell, entered the family. No doubt a good many of Mary (Howell) Lewis's descen- dants have borne the name, but Hay den (''Vir- ginia Genealogies," p. 380) finds in a "List of the Nobility and Gentry of England and Wales, 1673," the name " Howel Lewis of Gwredog, Esq. , Angleseyshire. " In Virginia, John How- ell appears as a patentee of land in Henrico County, in 1639. There are grants, also, to 158 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K Lieutenant John, William, and Rebecca How- ell, found by Mr. Brock, in Henrico, Elizabeth City, Northumberland, New Kent, Nanse- mond, Isle of Wight, Brunswick, and Am- herst counties. I am told that the Hon. How- ell Cobb of Georgia traced his descent from Mary Howell Lewis ; but one Howell Cobb had a patent in Lower Norfolk County in 1638. There are preserved in the Lewis family por- traits of ''Sir John and Lady Howell," who have not been identified with any of the above-named patentees. Unless the ''Sir" be a traditional title, it may be that they were the parents of Mary, and that Charles Lewis married her in Wales; for the Gloucester Lewises were ship-owners, were educated in English universities, and several of them were received at court. The portrait of Mary Howell in her sixteenth year is evidently the work of some European artist, it could not have been painted in any American colony at that time, nor could the portraits of the "Sir John and Lady Howell " mentioned. Twenty -five years after Mary's marriage, or in 1742, John Lewis, as we shall see, mentions a Miss Howell's engagement to William Lightfoot, which sug- gests a Howell family of high position in Vir- ginia; but whether Mary belonged to it is MARY HOWELL. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 1 59 doubtful. The wife of Charles Lewis was held in highest honor by the Lewis family, who impaled her three towers or castles, arms of the princely house of Howell in Wales. She must have been a person of fine character- istics for the traditions concerning her to last, as they do, to this day. Miss Douthat, of Botetourt County, Virginia, has the original portrait of Mary Howell, of which there is an excellent copy in New York, belonging to an- other of her descendants, Mr. Coleman G. Williams. She is a quaint little lady, perhaps in her sixteenth year, and richly dressed in silk, with pearl necklace. Her golden hair is abundant and the eyes expressive. It may be mentioned that Robert Lewis, a brother of Charles, was grandfather of Merriwether Lewis, of the Lewis and Clarke exploring ex- pedition, a sketch of whom was written by Thomas Jefferson. The above John Lewis [3d] inherited Warner Hall. His wife, Frances Fielding, died in 1731, and Col. John, a councilor, devoted himself to public affairs. It was a custom of the time to honor the mother's name in the second son ; in this case Col. Fielding Lewis, with whom the name first appears in the family. The lady's first name was also honored, two of 21 l6o BARONS OF THE POTOMACK her sons having so named their eldest daugh- ters. The eldest son, Warner, who inherited Warner Hall, married the widow Gooch, as we have seen. The portrait of Eleanor (Bowles) Gooch, a fine painting of a beautiful woman, hangs beside that of her husband, Warner Lewis, at " Belle Farm," the only old house left on the great Lewis land grant in Gloucester. (Their great-great-grandson, Judge Fielding Lewis Taylor, resides at ''Rosewell," Mrs. Taylor [nee Deans] being a descendant of the Dandridge family.) The second son of John Lewis [3d] was Colonel Fielding, who mar- ried, first, Katharine Washington, first cousin of the general ; and, secondly, Betty, the gen- eral's sister. The third son of John Lewis [3d] was Charles, who married Mary Randolph, according to a disputed statement, and found a second wife in Lucy Taliaferro. This young- est son, Charles, was a captain under Wash- ington in the expedition against the French, 1755, and his valuable journal of that march has just been published by the Virginia His- torical Society, from the original in possession of his grandson, Thomas Waring Lewis, of ''Mansfield," Caroline County. Hitherto it has been known of John [3d] that he was a member of the Royal Council in Vir- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK i6l ginia, and that he was the owner of Warner Hall until his death (Nov., 1745). But my reader will have the pleasure of meeting him personally in his seventy-third year, in the lively letter here printed. It was written to Major Lawrence Washington, just after the Cartagena troubles, and no doubt made him homesick enough. The letter is addressed: ' ' To Capt. Lawrence Washington, of the Amer- ican Forces. P. Capt. Briggs. At Jamaica." "Virginia, June 28th, 1742. ''Capt. Lawrence Washington. ''Dear Sir, "Having this opportunity by a Vessel of our own, John Briggs Master, consigned to Capt. Robert Turner by the advice of our good Governor [Gooch], 1 could not let it pass with- out letting you know that we are well, and much as you left us. My son Warner is come from England, and 1 have taken him into part- nership by giving him half of all my vessels and cargoes. Your brother Augustine is just now come inn [from Appleby School, England] and is gone up to his father [near Fredericks- burg]. I have not seen him, but I hear he is very desirous of being with you. Mr. Page is married to Miss . Alice Grymes, and Mr. l62 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Willis will soon be so to Miss Betty Carter. Miss Howell I believe partly engaged to Mr. Wm. Lightfoot. Mr. Moore, Mr. Baylor, Mr. Grymes, Mr. Burwell, and all the young gentle- men and ladys of any note are yet single, and like to be so as far as I know. Mr. Thomas Nelson is come in and gone to make his ad- dresses to Miss Lucy Armistead, and generally thought it will be a match. Mr. Wormely and Colo Charles Carter has lost their Ladys. Mr. Wormely is making his addresses to Miss Bowles of Maryland ; how it may fare with him I cannot say. The poor Secretary is near his death with a dropsy. The Governor has not yet recovered his health, or do I think he ever will perfectly. Our Assembly is now broke up, but has done nothing material besides con- tinuing the Tobacco Law for four years longer. All your friends and acquaintances are very well. Miss Randolph is yet single, though many offers has been made her ; it is reported by some that she stays for you, but not be- lieved by many, for the danger of war and a sickly climate no person can depend upon. I pray God give you a safe delivery from them. ''And now I have given you as plain and short a detail of the affairs of this part of the world as possibly I can, time not admiting me AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 163 to be more full, the vessel waiting for my dis- patch. '' If these should meet with you at Jamaica and there is anything in our poor Cargoe that may be acceptable to you 1 have given the Capt orders to let you have it Gratis. I should be very glad of a line from you giving me as short and full account of the affairs with you as I have done here. We have no news that can be depended upon from England a great while. 1 can only say that I hope they will be in earnest now, for I think they have only been at play hitherto with the lives and for- tunes of thousands of poor souls. I cannot see what delight you can take in such a life. I heartily wish you safe here with Honour, that so wished for title, so much desir'd to be gaind in the field of Battle ; but I think may as de- servedly be acquir'd at home in the service of his Country, County, Parish and neighbour- hood, in Peace and Qiiietness. 'M am Dear Sr ''Your most affecte Kindsman ''Jno Lewis." It is rare indeed to get from the olden time so much entertaining and useful gossip as the above letter contains. It may have been writ- 1 64 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K ten from Warner Hall, but more probably from Williamsburg, as it is apparently written just after a consultation with the governor. Au- gustine (Austin) Washington might have landed at either place, on his return from England, and in a social sense they were one neighborhood. The Mr. Page who married Alice Grymes (ist wife) was Mann Page of Rosewell. William Lightfoot did marry Miss Howell, who by him was beaten, so that she left him, Henry Willis, son of Col. Henry, founder of Fredericksburg, by his first wife (General Washington's cousin), is probably the gentleman mentioned as betrothed to Miss Betty Carter. And this young lady is probably the same as the "Elizabeth Carter, 14 years old," whose outfit for her first season (1739) is given on our page 121. She was "King Carter's" granddaughter, and appar- ently ward of John Lewis, who ordered the outfit, and now reports the execution done on the heart of his relative from Fredericks- burg. Lucy Armistead, to whom Thomas Nelson, uncle of the famous general and governor (then four years old), paid his ad- dresses, was one of the great Darmstadt family. They called their mansion, after the country from which they emigrated, "Hesse," AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 1 65 but changed their name to Armistead. Ralph Wormeley, who had 'Most his lady" (Sarah, daughter of Col. Edmund Berkeley), suc- ceeded in his suit for the hand of Miss Bowles (Jane, daughter of Geoffrey Bowles), became a famous member of Council, and stood by his oath of loyalty at cost of his home and happiness. His wife, Jane Bowles, was a near relative of the widow Gooch (nee Bowles), who married Warner Lewis, son of John, whose letter we are considering. The ''poor Secre- tary" alluded to was presumably James Blair, D. D. He had acted as lieutenant-governor during the absence of Sir William Gooch on the Cartagena expedition. The last act per- formed by Blair as governor was on July 25, 1741 ; so we may assume that the "good Governor" returned to his post about that time, but broken in health. It is doubtful whether it was not at Carta- gena that Lawrence Washington's constitution also received its death-blow. "Miss Ran- dolph "—probably Mary Randolph, who some say married Charles Lewis, son of John, who writes the letter— did not stay for the captain, it may be hoped. And, by the way, this letter of John Lewis shows that Captain Lawrence Washington's name was not yet connected in 1 66 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K the family with Ann Fairfax, whom he married a year later. That the health of Lawrence was feeble appears by a letter to him from Warner Lewis, which may suitably follow that of his father. It was written while he was on a visit to his relatives at Fredericksburg, — the Wil- lises of Willis Hill, known to recent history as Marye's Heights. Gloucester County was the original seat of the Willis family in Vir- ginia. (Waters's ''Genealogical Gleanings in England," 111., p. 239.) *' Fredericksburg, April the 26th, 1747. ''Dear Sir, "You remember when I saw you at this place how much distress'd 1 was for Horses, and after continuing near a week in that man- ner was forced to put up with borrowed ones to Pageland ; and after inquiring the true dis- tance between us found it was impossible for our Naggs to hold out so far as your House, where I shou'd most certainly have been, had we not been so unfortunate losing our Horses, but it was impracticable as things have fallen out. If I shou'd not see you before 1 sail (wch will be in June) and there shou'd be anything in England that I can be of servis to you in, I will with pleasure do it. I shou'd be glad AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 167 to see you at Bath, being well convinced within myself that nothing woii'd be more beneficial to your health ; and if you continue in that declining state the sooner you go the better, as probably that must be the conse- quence one time or other, tho' 'twou'd give me great pleasure to hear that you did well without being to so great inconveniency. My compliments to your Lady concludes me, Sir, ''Yours most sincerely, ''Warner Lewis." The superscription on this letter is "To Majr Lawrence Washington, in Fairfax Coty." Beneath it (on the back): "Mrs. Willis desires you will not send for her till after the June Fair." (This fair was the great social event of northern Virginia.) The "Bath" alluded to was the Berkeley Springs, in which the in- valids of the time had such childlike faith that they would sometimes dwell there in tents, catching their death in the endeavor to end their ailments. The name "Pageland" was popularly assigned to 8000 acres owned by the Pages in Frederick County, also to 1000 acres of theirs in Prince William, the latter being on the way from the lower country to Fairfax. l68 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Among our letters there is another from Warner Lewis, which, though of much later date than the others, may be included here. It is addressed to Col. Landon Carter of Sabine Hall, and dated September i8, 1765. "My dear Sir, — This will be delivered to you by my nephew Will. Armistead, who in- forms me that you are acquainted with his errand, which I hope meets with your appro- bation. 1 heartily wish my God Daughter Molly may like him, if she does the sooner they are married the better. The house at Hesse is at present free from inhabitants by the young Codds succeeding with our old acquaintance the w-d-w. It will give me great pleasure to see Miss Molly mistress of it. Armistead is a prudent young man, very good natured, and I am sure will make her happy. You have been young yourself, for God's sake hurry on the match if no objec- tions ; it will be to their mutual advantage to be soon settled, and I hope once in my life I may have a chance to spend a merry hour with you and your niece on the banks of the Pianketank. I am Dr Sir, ''Yrs most sincerely, ''Warner Lewis." AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 169 This letter is endorsed by Col. Carter: ''Col. Warner Lewis." William Armistead was the heir of " Hesse," already alluded to, on the Pianketank, and probably the nephew of Mrs. Warner Lewis (nee Bowles). Dr. Archibald Taylor, a great-grandson of Warner Lewis, says that as the Revolution drew nigh, the old gentleman said ''he saw that the separation from England was irresis- tible, sooner or later, but he hoped the con- nection would have lasted his time ; his boys might do as they pleased, he would remain at his home, Warner Hall, and take sides with neither party; he was too old to change." All of his "boys" espoused independence with ardor, as also did his younger brothers. But the Revolution had an effect on many of the baronial estates much like that of the civil war on those of a century later. A glimpse of the later time is gained in the following let- ter of Warner Lewis [2d] concerning Warner Lewis [3d], dated "Warner Hall, Sunday, Jan- uary 2, 1 79 1." It is sent me by Mrs. Payne, of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. "Warner goes to Williamsburg, my dear Becky, to collect his movables, and to trans- port them to York in the cart you mean to 1 70 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K send for your pork, which will lighten the expense to you and be an accommodation to me. ''He is now come to that time of life when if he is disposed to study he can as well do it here as in Williamsburg ; and if he will not build up on the foundation he has lain, or ought to have lain, the loss will be all his own. To me his stock of knowledge appears to be very slender considering the happy opportuni- ties he has had of acquiring improvement, and the sums that have been paid to tutors for this purpose. 1 was anxious to give him a profession that might aid the small inheri- tance he will have, and I confess I had it very much at heart that he should acquire some fame as well as profit from the exercise of that profession ; but I fear my aims and expecta- tions will be mortifyingly disappointed unless there should be a greater change in him than I can flatter myself with. ''Give my love to Betsy if you please, and tell her that both my head and hand are so much affected as to render writing very pain- ful, which must be my apology for not an- swering her letter. I am, my dear Becky, most affectionately yours, "Warner Lewis." AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 171 The writer of the above letter had been educated at Oxford, and presented at court before returning to America, where he did valiant service in the Revolution and earned the friendship of Washington. It was written to his sister Rebecca, who married Dr. Robert Innes, brother of the attorney-general. Al- though the third Warner does not appear to have been up to the high standard of culture in Warner Hall, the family reared in that place has to-day many eminent representatives in the West and South. A family tree is known by its fruits ; and, so judged, there are few in America more sturdy or more worthy than that whose root was planted in Warner Hall. VIII IVord-fossils and Folk-lore iFTY years ago the early oyster- boat was an institution of the Rappahannock. About sunrise in every town and village on the river, black servants with tin buckets and white lads with capacious mouths flocked to the moorings where the negro oystermen dispensed the breakfast supplies and gave casual morsels on the half-shell to the watering palates around. They were called Carter Creek oysters. The name may be inexact ; but they came from the lower Rappahannock, and chiefly, I believe, from beds cultivated by old ''King Carter" of BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K 1 73 Corotoman. His name added an aristocratic and historical flavor to the delicious bivalve, which in turn preserved in pleasant associa- tions the memory of much-abused Robin. For the man who exacted rents for Lord Fairfax and for his own hundred thousand acres could not be popular. On his tomb in Corotoman Church, which he built, was chalked : ''Here lies Robin, but not Robin Hood, Here lies Robin that never was good. Here lies Robin that God has forsaken, Here lies Robin the Devil has taken." But the memory of Robert Carter, who took his place as successor to the Rappahannock kings, survived all lampoons. Every Virginia family is proud to impale his cart-wheels vert, which should have quartered three Carter oysters argent,— the oldest family being par- venu beside these natives. Even from the gastronomic point of view, it is a fair earthly immortality for any name to be connected with the finest of oysters ; but the Rappahan- nock bivalve has larger claims to respect. It may be justly associated with tobacco as a factor of American history. It was the great oyster-beds that determined both the aborigi- 174 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K nal and English settlements of the Rappahan- nock. They caused the sojourn there of Capt. John Smith; he and his men carried these oysters in bottles, and were supported by them in making their explorations, which resulted in friendly treaties with the natives. To the feast of oysters and tobacco the Englishmen added rum, and the civilities began which ended in civilization. The '' eightie who lived upon Oysters in June and July," as the chron- icle relates, were pioneers of the multitudes whom that prolific fishery attracted, as well as the opportunities of trade with the Indians previously attracted by the same. There was thus built up gradually a Rappahannock com- monwealth which steadily developed a cer- tain independence of the authority established on the James. In the Revolution there was not one Tory known on the Rappahannock. Its ancient and proud Barons all threw them- selves into the cause of independence. George Fitzhugh, of Port Royal, writing in De Bow's "Review" (April, 1859), says : ''A few miles below [Port Royal] a silver medal, appearing by the inscription to have been pre- sented by Captain Smith to Powhatan, was picked up some twenty years since. At Port Tobago, once the property ot Sir Thomas AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 175 Lunsford, there was also an Indian village. Many Indian relics have been disinterred or found lying on the ground there. We pre- sume these Indians belonged to the tribe of Mattapoisi. Descendants of that tribe, mixed with the negro, still dwell in our neighbor- hood. We do not believe any Indian tribe ever resided permanently above Port Royal [/. e., on the Rappahannock]. There was no good fishing above, no oysters, and the stiff and stony lands twenty miles above could not be cultivated by their wooden or stone implements." In the neighborhood of Falmouth and Fred- ericksburg Captain Smith encountered some stony-hearted tribes of the stony lands, but on the lower river oysters and pipes had made the Indians comfortable and conciliatory, as the same luxuries were said in after time to soften the backbone of many a Washington politician. On the lower river the early friend- liness is preserved in the larger retention of Indian names, not only for villages but resi- dences — as Corotoman and Moratico. The / latter name is a corruption of Moraughticund, a king mentioned by Smith, between whom and '' Rapahanock" there was a quarrel about abducted squaws, which the English captain 23 176 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK terminated. ' ' The three women were brought our Captaine; to each he gave a chayne of Beads; and then causing Moraughticund, Mosco, and Rapahanock stand before him, bid Rapahanock take her he loved best, and Moraughticund chuse next, and to.Mosco he gave the third. Upon this away went their Canowes over the water to fetch their veni- son, and all the provision they could, and they that wanted Boats swam over the river : the darke commanded us then to rest. The next day there was of men, women, and children, as we conjectured, six or seven hundred, dauncing and singing, and not a Bow or Ar- row seene amongst them. Mosco changed his name to Uttasantasough, which we inter- pret Stranger, for so they call us. All promis- ing ever to be our friends, and to plant Corne purposely for us ; and we to provide hatchets, beads, and copper for them, we departed, giv- ing them a volley of shot, and they us as loud shouts and cryes as their strengths could utter." So did the seventeenth century open on the Rappahannock. We may compare this earliest festival of whites and Indians with one that took place eighty years later, or in 1688 — easily imagined from the following AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 1 77 entry, for a copy of which I am indebted to the clerk of Essex County, — Rappahannock County lying then on both sides of the river: "At a Court held for Rappahannock County, the 2 day of January Ano Dom: 1688. Pres- ent : Colnii jno. Stone, Capt. Geo. Taylor, Capt. Samii Blomfield, — Justices. " It having pleased Almighty God to bless his Royall Majesty with the birth of a son and his subjects with a Prince of Wales, and for as much as his Excellency hath sett apart the 1 6th day of this inst. Janry. for solemniz- ing the same, To the end therefore that it may be don with all the expression of Joy this county is capable of. This Court have ordered that Capt. Geo. Taylor do provide and bring to the North side Court House for this County as much Rum or other strong Liquor with sugar proportionable as shall amount to six thousand five hundred pounds of Tobacco to be distributed amongst the Troops of horse, compa of foot, and other persons that shall be present at the solemni- tie. And that the said sum be allowed him at the next laying of the levy, as also that Capt. Samii Blomfield provide and bring to the South side Court House for this County as much 178 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Rum or other strong Liquor with sugar pro- portionable as shall amount to three thousand five hundred pounds of Tobacco, to be dis- tributed as above at the South side Court House, and the said sum to be allowed him at the next laying of the levy." The reason why the ''solemnitie" required nearly double as much rum on the north side of the river was because of the larger number of Indians there. In Smith's map there are thirty-four Indian settlements on the north side of the Rappahannock, and only nine on the south side. While the Indians were thus made royally drunk, royalty was in sore straits. Before the year was out the baby prince, welcomed in Virginia with rum ''solemnities," had become a Pretender. William and Mary advanced to try and give the poor Indians something bet- ter than rum, but the colony did not distrib- ute any strong liquors on their account. It had suffered much under the Stuarts, yet so obstinate was its loyalty to them that only in April, 1689, and after repeated commands from the Privy Council, were William and Mary proclaimed Lord and Lady of Virginia. In all the history of Virginia there is visible AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 179 this loyal enthusiasm, clinging at every crisis to the old order, while New World necessities were steadily undermining it. Throughout the country the colonists generally named their homes with affectionate recollection of ancestral associations, — as Epping Forest, Stratford, Bedford, Tusculum, Epsom, Wind- sor, Snowden, Llangollen, Ellerslie, Carmora, Salvington, Gunston, Iselham, Inglewood, Glencairn, Boscobel, Landsdown, Chatham, Marlborough. They had begun by founding cities in honor of their kings and princes, — James City, Elizabeth City, Charles City, City of Henricus (Henricopolis). Hardly a vestige of any one of them remained in the second generation, and some were never built. Ban- croft was so lost in searching after them that he supposed Henricopolis to have occupied the site of the present city of Richmond, whereas it was near the Appomattox, on Farrar's Island, as the peninsula (afterwards Cox's) was then called. Tobacco issued a ''Counterblaste" more potent than that of King James against itself, and before it fell James City. Even so fell Henricopolis. Sir Thomas Dale built forts there with names both loyal and pious — Elizabeth, Charity, Pa- tience, and Mount Malady for the sick. The l8o BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K plantation he called ''Hope in Faith." But not all this combination of piety and powder could resist the siege of Tobacco, which com- manded that there should be no city life in Virginia for a time, but plantation life. So the "city" had to survive in county names. The City of Henricus preserves, not its polis, but only an abutment of it in the terminal ''o" of Henrico County. In the early days of the American Revolu- tion a perfervid member of the Virginia As- sembly proposed to change all county names that savored of monarchy, — such as King George, King and Qiieen, Prince William. So fiercely did this patriotic purist anathema- tize royal names that he was challenged to mortal combat by a fellow-member named King. The duel did not come off, and the motion to abolish royal nomenclature re- treated under ridicule. Fortunately most of the old names, in whose succession the an- nals of Virginia are largely recorded, remain. Many of the local names have indeed been overlaid, and some survive only in frag- ments. ' ' Hampton " inadequately honors the Earl of Southampton, — Shakespeare's friend, Virginia's friend, — whose name was given to the river. The Indian School at Hampton AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK l8l might well set up some memorial of the fact that the place was named after a nobleman under whose presidency the Virginia Com- pany, in 1 62 1, set apart a thousand acres for the foundation of a 'Tree School " in Virginia. The old Indian names have suffered more corruption. The venerable Kiskiack Church near Yorktown is now ''Cheesecake," and on the James River Monacan has turned to Mana- kin. But some of these modifications are not mere corruptions, and indeed have instructive significance. Two of the most famous names — Potomack and Aquia — seem to have been modified by Europeans who had some memory of the Greek T:oza\i6Q, river, and the Latin aqua, water. The latter seems to have been formed from "Qiiiyough," a king or tribe near the creek. In Captain Smith's map we find 'Tata- womeck." The Indian name of the upper Potomack was Cohongoruton, and it is so named in the Act of 1738 defining Frederick County. The south branch of the river was called Wappatomaka. In his early land grants Lord Fairfax used the names Potowmack and Wappatomack, and Cohongoruton disap- peared. In the last century a wayfarer appeared in some of the Virginia villages and was hospi- 1 82 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K tably received, on the strength of a note he bore in the following words : "The historian and philosopher Volney needs no recommendation from — G.Wash- ington." Could Volney return, he might find in Vir- ginia materials for a new volume of "Ruins," and they would consist largely of the brand- new houses and modern military names under which the Past is largely buried. Such, how- ever, is the inevitable process of historic strati- fication. The earlier names become fossils, and have to be dug out by the antiquarian. The old mansion opposite Fredericksburg belonged to Mr. Lacy when the Civil War broke out, and the Army of the Potomack christened it "Lacy's"; but its real name, "Chatham," had previously replaced some earlier name now lost. The "Washington Farm" near by had overlaid "Ferry Farm," which tells where the ferry plied before the Rappahannock was bridged ; and the latter name had replaced "Pine Grove," which at- tested the forest that once grew on fields now bare. "Marye's Heights," so memorable in the Civil War, replaced its previous name AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 183 ''Brompton," as that had overlaid ''Willis's Hill," which long preserved the memory of Colonel Henry Willis, founder of Fredericks- burg, in the name of which town, and its streets,— Princess Ann, Charles, etc.,— an- cient loyalties have their monuments. There are many homestead names that pique antiquarian curiosity. Did ''Bromp- ton " remember the London residence of the Rev. James Marye, or ''Wakefield" transmit some association of the Washingtons with the Yorkshire town ? Does Sabine Hall owe its name to the classical Landon Carter's in- terest in the squaws carried off by the Mo- raughticunds, like the Sabine women of antiquity ? There are, however, still a good many names which do not leave us to con- jecture. Mannsfield was the seat of Mann Page, Edmundsbury of Edmund Pendleton, and Tazewell HalloftheTazewells. "Crow's Nest" was given to Travers Daniel's place on the Potomack because he had a swift vessel called ' ' The Crow. " The farm on the Accokeek where Captain Augustine Washington had his iron-works is still called "The Furnace," and that part of it which yielded its forest for the furnace is called "The Woodcutting." Among the footprints of the Revolution is a 24 1 84 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK farm called ''The Forge, "just above Falmouth (Stafford side), where one may pick up bits of iron left from the time when cannon were made there under superintendence of Colonel Fielding Lewis and Major Charles Dick. ' ' The gentlemen of this town," wrote Major Dick to the governor (Fredericksburg, January 4, 1 781), ''and even the Ladys have very spir- itedly attended at the Gunnery and assisted to make up already 20,000 cartridges with bullets from which the Spottsylvania Militia, and also from Caroline, have been supplied, as also above 100 guns from the Factory." This "factory" is now "The Forge," and the place where the guns were delivered in Fred- ericksburg is still called "The Gunnery." About the same time, we may feel sure, the house of General Weedon in Fredericksburg received the name it still bears— "The Sen- try Box." Our Folklore Society would be repaid by a month's ramble in Tidewater Virginia. A great many strange events went to make the peculiar character of that region, and some of them occurred in such remote places that, in the absence of newspapers, they may be described as prehistoric. But here and there they are recorded in local names and tradi- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 185 tions. These traditions are, indeed, sometimes slovenly, as where "Mock Jack" is turned into ^^Mob Jack Bay." ^'Blackbeard's Point," near Hampton, was so named, it is said, because the pirate's head was displayed there in terrorem. The death of Teach ex- cited attention in all of the colonies ; and it was probably the ballad on that event writ- ten by the young printer, Benjamin Franklin, which brought him the friendship and pa- tronage of Governor Spotswood. Probably the pirate's head was exposed at that point, and possibly neighboring ' ' Wolf's Trap " was associated with Teach. For it is noticeable that the names of this kind that last longest are those derived from some tragical or terri- ble event. It is now the fashion to write of Nathaniel Bacon as a patriotic revolutionist, but the spot which has not been washed from his hand is visible in the name "Bloody Run," near Richmond, which ran with more Indian blood than it had water. To hang up Blackbeard's head would be in accordance with the custom of the times. The Rev. Frank Stringfellow, an Episcopalian cler- gyman of Virginia, tells me of a remarkable series of names recording the similar fate of some negro offender. In traveling from the l86 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Appomattox, Chesterfield County, one passes " Skinquarter Creek," where the criminal was hung and flayed, his skin being displayed. Journeying on the high-road, one finds in Powhatan County ''Negro Arm Road"; in Hanover County is reached ''Negro Foot P. O."; and finally, in Orange County, "Ne- gro Head Run." The long and furious struggle between the Indians and the white settlers for the valley of Virginia is recorded in many names and traditions. A great battle was fought on the Wappatomaka (great south branch of the Po- tomack), whose only record is the "Painted Rock." Kercheval, writing in 1833, says: "On this rock is exhibited the shape of a man with a huge blotch, intended, probably, to represent a man bleeding to death. The stain, it appeared to the author, was made with human blood. The top of the rock pro- jects over the painted part, so as to protect it from the washings of the rains, and is on the east side of the rock. How long the stain of human blood would remain visible in a posi- tion like this, the author cannot pretend to ex- press an opinion ; but he well recollects the late Gen. Isaac Zane informed him that the Indians beat out the brains of an infant (near AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 1 87 his old iron-works) against a rock, and the stain of the blood was plainly to be seen about forty years afterwards. In this battle, it is said, but one Delaware escaped, and he did so by leaping into the river, diving under the water, and continuing to swim until he crossed the Cohongoruton [Potomack]." 1 have seen in India red stains on a rock said to be the blood of St. Thomas, shed there eighteen cen- turies ago ; and here is a superstition of the same kind in Virginia. Human blood does not last so long, but ''bad blood" does; and it is to be feared that the Painted Rock, in the absence of geological knowledge, long called down vengeance upon the poor red men. A pleasanter set of legends are found along the Rappahannock, and particularly about the old town of Falmouth, which "before the war" was distinguished for its wealth and aristocratic homes. Most of the great fami- lies of the Northern Neck had representatives there. It organized an association against the Stamp Act, and in the Revolution was an im- portant resource. From Falmouth provisions were sent to beleaguered Boston. Its cotton- factories, flour-mills, warehouses, are now ruins ; its once elegant homes are mainly oc- cupied by negroes. Some historic notes con- L- l88 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK cerning this old town may be interesting. Its hills are natural fortifications, and were used as such by the Indians, who there fought Captain John Smith in 1608. In 1675 it was for- tified, and Major Lawrence Smith there estab- lished a little principality. With two com- missioners from the non-military inhabitants, and six chosen by a majority of the two hun- dred and fifty soldiers assigned to the fort, Major Smith held a court as if Falmouth were a county. The soldiers were free from taxes, and from arrest or suit by any outside power save Majesty. The garrison regulations were severe, and it is remarkable how many of them were pious. A blasphemer, "drunk or sober," or one who derided the Bible or the sacraments, must run the gauntlet of one hundred men, and, if wilfully persistent, be bored through the tongue with a hot iron. After a third conviction for swearing, the of- fender must ''ride the wooden horse with a musket tyed to each foot, and ask forgiveness at the next meeting for prayer or preaching." This was also the punishment for drunken- ness, and for laziness in any military service. Attendance at daily prayer-meeting or preach- ing, morning and evening, was compulsory. The hand lifted against an officer, ''whether AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 189 he hitt or misse," was cut off; the talker while on march was 'Maid neck and heels" for an hour ; and nine offences were punishable with death. Major Smith's military princedom, ap- parently contrived to protect the Deity rather than the frontier settlers, lasted only a year or two, but its effects were felt long after. Falmouth became noted for prayer and pro- fanity, for drunkenness also, and a passion for military parades. The old English Church — the " Cedar Church" — was abandoned, its materials being used for a grain-warehouse on the river-side, where it was swept away by a freshet. In its place was built a communal church, which still stands, where all sects worshipped. The drunkenness and profanity of Falmouth prevailed among its large number of "poor whites" and mulattos, descendants probably of Major Smith's two hundred and fifty. Such vices were so vulgarized that the gentry were comparatively free from them ; and the same may be said of Fredericksburg and other places. I always listen with skepti- cism to anecdotes representing George Wash- ington as occasionally indulging in profanity, as well as to those that ascribe to him great piety. In his early life profanity was regarded as a symptom of familiarity with poor whites 190 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK and negroes; it was ungentlemanly among Virginians, though the habit was sometimes caught from English officers. Falmouth was long a nest of old legends, which haunt both sides of the river. On the Spottsylvania side Francis Thornton had dwelt before the foundation of Fredericksburg, al- most a hermit in his loneliness. His ''Punch Bowl " is shown, hollowed in the top of a rock ; and a hundred years after his time a huge liv- ing tortoise was said to have been found bear- ing on its shell the carved initials ''F. T." Above the town, on the Stafford side, is an island where it is said Governor Spotswood proposed to realize a Utopia ; until lately the dream was represented in a solitary ruin. Two brothers of the poet Campbell were merchants in Falmouth, and tradition said that ''Lord Ul- lin's Daughter" was written beside the falls of the Rappahannock. But Thomas Camp- bell never visited Virginia, though he longed to do so, except in imagination. His brother Robert (Mr. Wirt Henry says William) mar- ried a daughter of Patrick Henry. Besides the Campbells, there was a large number of Scotch families who settled in Vir- ginia as tobacco-traders, but were ultimately the means of doing away with the culture of AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 191 that staple both on the Potomac and the Rappa- hannock. They discovered that more wealth could be made by exporting grain. In Fal- mouth there is a small house of two rooms, called ''Gordon's Corner," associated with a ''survival" of the canny settlers. Basil Gor- don came to the village a penniless lad, and bequeathed more than a million to his family. He was not miserly, but after he had gained wealth, and resided in a fine house, still kept up the tiny "store" in which he earned his first pennies. It was a joke of some of his fashionable neighbors to enter the store, call for Mr. Gordon, and ask for a half-pound of brown sugar, which the millionaire would scrupulously weigh out. This went on to the day of his death. Although the inhabitants of Falmouth were chiefly of Scotch extraction, there were some English, Irish, Dutch, and French. There was a good deal of superstition among poor whites and negroes. The great Hindu myth of Ahi, the drought-dragon slain by Indra that the waters might be unloosed, migrated to that region, where it was well understood by the credulous that a snake hung up would bring rain. It was also said that however much a snake might be bruised, "its tail will not die 25 192 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK till sunset"; a variant being that the tail would live until it thundered. Among the negroes, stories were told of vast conflagrations seen by some traveler only half a mile away, to which he would hasten only to find a small coal of fire. There were various legends of mothers coming out of the graveyard to walk with their sons, when these were returning from some midnight revelry, and admonish them. Some distinguished ''conversions" were attributed to these maternal revenantes. The haunted house was apt to be the sup- posed scene of nocturnal orgies, with loud laughter and quaffing of bumpers. Unusual diseases were sometimes attributed to witch- craft. The present writer remembers, less than fifty years ago, the last of the ''witches" — a poor woman (white) at Falmouth, who was so shunned as a witch that she resolved to subject herself to the ordeal of water. She drowned herself in the Rappahannock, and was afterwards remembered as a good-hearted creature who had performed many acts of kindness to those around her. Ortolans were supposed to spring out of frogs at a certain time, and all at once to turn into frogs again. Iron rings were worn for fits — a sequel in Protestant regions to the saintly image worn AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 193 by peasants in Catholic countries for such disorders. In Protestant England a silver coin bearing the royal image was used, and possi- bly that was sometime the usage in Virginia. Such superstitions were generally confined to the poor and ignorant ; but an iron ring was used at Mount Vernon on Patsy Custis, being mentioned in Washington's journal without comment. Warts, it was believed, could be cured by making them bleed, and then apply- ing one or another herb which the herbalist might prescribe, such herb to be afterwards buried. 1 avail myself of the miscellaneous charac- ter of this chapter to append two curious old letters. One is from the famous Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, to Landon Car- ter, of Sabine Hall, which has, I suspect, some hidden meaning — perhaps of a satirical kind. "Sir "The letter you was so good as to send me this morning 1 read with some surprise, believing that the Feaver which was lately so strong upon you was not quite gone off. Nor was I altogether mistaken, it seems, be- cause I perceive the Distemper continues, only you apply to a new Physician. Now 194 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K Sir I think it a great Pity, that an honest Gen- tleman of so much worth and honour shoud be sufferd to languish under this Disorder any longer, and therefore 1 shall agree to contrib- ute all I can to his Recovery. 1 can foresee no more than one Obstruction to a complete cure, which is that he hath Three or Four Wens growing to his side, which are like to draw all the Nourishment from the other Parts. However between this and Sunday perhaps some method can be thought of, to encounter that formidable symptome. ''I am Sr ''The most obedient of your servants, ''W. Byrd. ''July the 26th, 1742." The next letter is from Robert Carter, ot Nomony, — Councilor Carter, — who has the distinction of being the earliest Swedenbor- gian in America, and who liberated his slaves during his life because of religious principles. It is addressed to Dr. George Steptoe. "Nomony Hall 12th July 1771. "Sir, "Your letter, which you Call an Answer to one I wrote to you last Tuesday, Doctr Francks AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 195 delivered to me— the Doctr waited on you, not to precipitate an answer but to know whether you had received the letter men- tioned above, because letters frequently mis- carry. You say it is remote from your Intention to violate the laws of any Country wherein you Dwell ; that your present En- deavours are to prevent the fatal Effects of one of the most Malignant diseases ; that it is not your Intention to Introduce general Inoculation, and that you have taken all pre- cautions to prevent the propagation of the Small-pox in this Instance. Does the Act of the Legislature referred to in my former letter tollerate, without Licence, either a partial or General Inoculation ? If it does not your pre- sent Endeavours, tho' the Inoculation be par- tial, be in direct opposition to that Written law of the land. It is said that Master George Turberville infected his Brother and four Ne- gro's who were his most Common playmates ; that those were the Only persons who caught the Small-pox of Master George ; that you procured Matter of Doctor Jonathan, and with it have Inoculated about seven Whites, and a much greater Number of Blacks. If this report be not fabulous it will be insisted that if that malignant disease had not been propagated 196 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K by Inoculation att Hiccory Hill, and due atten- tion given to those there who caught it the Natural way, that the Suppression thereof would have been less Hazardous, than as the case now stands — therefore your Conduct strengthens the probability of its generallity — 1 say your Conduct but I mean the Conduct of those gentlemen, who procured the Inocu- lation of the Small-pox — for I consider you as the secondary Only. The present scheme of Inoculation is not defensible, and 1 again Intreat you to desist therefrom. Whatever your apprehensions of me now are or may be hereafter, I beg to tell you that my sincere Intention is to patronize you, believing you possess Quallifications to make your Com- pany Destinct in this or any other Commu- nity. '' I am Sir your most Obedt Servt "Robert Carter." IX The Fit:{ljughs HE hereditary dignities of the Fitzhughs in England ended in the time of Henry VIII., whose sixth and last wife, Catharine Parr, — reformer and authoress, — was granddaughter of the last Lord Fitzhugh. They traced back to Hugh, Lord of Ravensworth, supposed to be of Danish extraction because of his castle's name and his crest, the raven, still used by the family in Virginia. Two Fitzhughs signed the Magna Charta, and one is on the Roll of Battle Abbey. In the Wars of the Roses they took an active part with Lancaster. Lord 197 198 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K Henry Fitzhugh married a sister of Warwick, after whose death he was a leader in the re- bellion against Edward VI. The last of the male line was one of the Catholic bishops of London. The family was dispersed. One of them became a representative of the East In- dia Company in China, and entertained Cap- tain Cook at Canton. There are descendants of the ancient Fitzhughs in England, but the historic career of the family was resumed in America, to which William Fitzhugh emi- grated in 1670. At Bruton Church, Williams- burg, on the tomb of this first settler's grand- daughter, Sarah, wife of King's Attorney Barradell, are the arms of the Fitzhughs : [az.] three chevrons braced in base of escutcheon [or] a chief of the last. But William, a second son (his elder brother, Henry, was a courtier of Charles II.), gained little assistance from his escutcheon in the New World, where, however, he never forgot his motto, — Pro patria semper. He came to Virginia in his twentieth year; secured a grant of land in Stafford ; married Miss Tucker, of Westmore- land, who was (actually) not quite eleven ; built him a house which he named after the town of his birth, Bedford ; there died at the age of fifty (1701); divided among his five AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 1 99 sons 54,054 acres in Stafford, King George, and Essex counties ; in these sons founded a race that has spread through America — for it is believed that all the Fitzhughs in this coun- try are descended from the immigrant William and the eleven-year-old wife he married in his minority. He was lawyer, planter, shipper, statesman. There is interesting information concerning him in Miss Rowland's excellent biography of George Mason. In the time when Virginia was in panic at a rumor that the Maryland Catholics meant to bring over Indians to destroy the Protestants (1688-9), Captain Brent, a Catholic, took refuge in the house of his Protestant neighbor, William Fitzhugh, who bravely defended him from the mob, and protected him five months, mean- while expecting to be himself murdered. He consumed three quires of paper in writing and sending out messages to quiet the panic, which was mainly excited by a fanatical noncon- formist preacher named Waugh. Possibly the gallant William Fitzhugh had in his youth witnessed the persecutions of John Bunyan in his native Bedford. The five sons of this first William Fitzhugh married in America and had families. One of them, Henry, married a Miss Cooke, of Glou- 26 200 r>ARONS OV TUV- VOTOMACK cester County, daiKuhtor, it is said, ot one of the hundred Fiii^lish uiiis imported soon after Bacon s rebellion. This was his second son; the eldest. William |:d|. married Ann Lee, daui^litei ol councilor Richard lee, ,ind resided .it '■ fable's Nest," Kuii^ cU\>ri;e c'cinn- ty. These had one son. 1 lenrw who married Lucy, daughter ot " Kiiii^' Carter." The last named also had i>iil\- one son, the eminent publicist, William l'it;tuiL;h | ul ], ol c'h.itham. It is generally stated that William of c^.hatham was grandson of the tirst settler, but 1 am t'ol- lowin^ Ceorue latzhuuh. oi Port Ko)al. for some o{ whose papers I am indebted to his daughter, Mrs. Champe I'lt/lui^h Tlioiiiton. It was the custom ol \ iil;iiiki gentlemen in colonial times to build oi puicluise lunises tor their si^ns. and t\\ o of the Fit/luii^h mansions in SLiUoid, lUMi lacdeiicksbui^, weiesc^ built — Boscobel And bel.iu. But Willi. im lat/huuh l^d] has alwa\s been credited with building" t^iy^^o") his picturesque cli.itham. which is now recovering its u.ime. ha\ lug been known as ■■ l..ic\''s" while he. idqu. liters of the Arm\' of the PotcMu.ick, c"ok>uel Willi. im I'lt/hugh, (>f Chath.im, m. lined a R.uidotph; .i d.iughter ot these, .Mai\ I ee b^it/hngh. uuirried Mrs. George Washiiimon's grandson, C. W. P. AND llll' KAI'I'AIIANNOCK 201 Ciislis, of Arliiii;l()ii, whose (l.-iiit^^Iilcr iii.inicd (IciK'i'.il Kohcii l{. I.cc. M.'ijor L.icy, owner ol (]li:illi;iili wliile it W.'is Iie;i(l(|ii;iilers ol Hie I Jiiioii ;imiy, li.is sl.-iled lli.il lie one d.iy (he- loic Hie h.lHle ol I redeiickshlirK) :i|)|)lo;i( lied Lee ;iiid poililed lo Hie oHiceis W.'llkili;', .'ihoiil Hie •grounds ol ( Ji;iHi;iii]. Me .idvised Hie t^enenil to shell Hie pl.Kc, hiil I.ee li;id iiol Hie lie.'irl lo destroy ;i m.-iiisioii willi whu li In- had such lender associations. Some olliceis may owe their lives to this sentiment ol the (^onleder.'ite chief, .'iiid to it a Northern jj;vi]- tleiii.'in owes his |)ossession ol Hie historic mansion. (]h;ith;im wnsa stntion tor ;ill distin.i^niished travelers between the lower and nj)|)er coun- tries; it was never without quests; and when the IredericksburK tail's .11 id r.ices occurred the terraces were covered with conches. As his years ;idv;inced (Colonel Willi.im I'itzhu^h h:id to esc;ii)e Irom ;ill this, ;ind p.'issed the rest of his life ,'it Rnvenswortli, in l;iirl;ix. I le w.'is always ;i devoted Irieiid of Washin^don, ;iiid must li.'ive known him ;is;i boy, for the W;ish- in^ton tariii .'idjoins (JiatlKim. Ww. follow- ing was written to the son of (Colonel Willinm l^it/hu<^d) by IMesident Wasliington, June i6, 1793: 202 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK ''The China Bowl with which your good Father was kind enough to present me came safe, and I beg you to assure him that I shall esteem it more as a memento of his friendship than from its antiquity or size. Not before the receipt of your letter, dated the 24th of last month, had I heard of the death of Mrs. Fitzhugh. On this melancholy event I pray you both to accept my sincere condolence. I also sincerely wish that the evening of his life although at present clouded, deprived of one of its greatest enjoyments, may be perfectly serene and happy : — that you will contribute all in your power to make it so I have no doubt." William Henry Fitzhugh, to whom the above note was written, married a Goldsbor- ough of Maryland, and died childless. He was an only son, and that branch of the fam- ily ended with the death of Mrs. [General] Robert E. Lee's mother. But the old tree had a banyan growth in the Northern Neck, plant- ing stems at Eagle's Nest, Marmion, Boscobel, Belair, Selwood, Chatham, Ravensworth, and several other places. Bishop Meade was one fruit of it. The fine intelligence and scholarly traditions of the family found a remarkable AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 20} representative in the late George Fitzhugh of Port Royal, well remembered by the present writer as a profound thinker and vigorous writer. He fell upon an era of reaction from the old anti-slavery principles, and wrote a philosophical defence of Southern ''Sociol- ogy." In one of his valuable historical papers in De Bow's ''Review" he speaks of two members of the Fitzhugh family: "These two sisters of the name, strange to say, inter- married with two distinguished abolitionists (and married well), Hon. Gerrit Smith and Mr. Birney. This branch of the family is descended from the Masons of Gunston, and inherit much of their military and adventurous spirit." Not so "strange to say," after all ; for Wil- liam Fitzhugh of Chatham manumitted by will his two hundred slaves, and the injus- tice of slavery was a conviction of every Vir- ginia gentleman until, some two generations ago, President Dew of William and Mary Col- lege announced the new "Sociology," which captivated the younger generation. A few years before the war, George Fitzhugh of Port Royal was invited, as the ablest defender of the new "Sociology," to expound his views in a Northern city. He was hospitably enter- tained at New Haven and Hartford, listened 204 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK to without dispute, and driven about those places to witness some results of what had been called ''the failure of free society." The present writer had a letter from him shortly after, expressing his enjoyment of this visit, and, though he did not so say, I feel certain that his old opinions were some- what shaken. George, fourth son of the first settler, Wil- liam Fitzhugh, married Mary Mason of ''Gun- ston," Maryland, the name of which residence was repeated in ''Gunston Hall" Virginia, home of George Mason the statesman. Their son was the famous Colonel William Fitz- hugh, of the Cartagena expedition, two of whose letters are in the Havemeyer collec- tion. ''Colonel William Fitzhugh," writes Miss Rowland, "son of George and Mary Mason Fitzhugh, married first Mrs. Martha Turberville, nee Lee, a daughter of Richard Lee and niece of Thomas Lee of 'Stratford.' By this marriage he had one son, George Lee Mason Fitzhugh. Colonel Fitzhugh married secondly Mrs. Ann Rousby, nee Frisby, of 'Rousby Hall,' Calvert County, Maryland, and the children of this marriage were Pere- grine, William, and John Fitzhugh. Peregrine and William were both officers in the Revo- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 205 lutionary War, and the former served on General Washington's personal staff. " George Fitzhugh of Port Royal says this Colonel William Fitzhugh surrendered his commission in the British army, rather than fight against America, and, he believes, ''w^as detained as a prisoner during the war." Miss Rowland does not mention this, but states that he re- signed his commission in June, 1776, and served on the Committee of Vigilance of Cal- vert County. ''But during his absence from home [as a prisoner?] in 1780 and in 1781, the enemy landed there ['Rousby Hall'] and burned the buildings and furniture, and car- ried off forty-two of his slaves." The two letters subjoined convey a good impression of Colonel Fitzhugh in earlier life, and of the loyal spirit of those who were pre- sently found struggling against the mother country for which they had fought with en- thusiasm. Although Colonel William Fitz- hugh afterwards resided in Maryland, having married the widow Rousby of ' ' Rousby Hall, " he previously resided in Westmoreland, and his commission as ensign in the Cartagena expedition was received from the Council of Virginia. Both letters are addressed to Major Lawrence Washington. 206 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK ''Westmoreland, May ye 15th, 1747. " Dear Sir, ''Collo Lee informs me that you were so kind as to bring some Papers for me to Wil- liamsburg, which I'm sorry I happened not to be there to receive, and which 1 shall be obliged to you for sending me by the first good opportunity. The Governour [Gooch] has promised to use His Interest in my favour, and I'm a little unfortunate in that I have not the least acquaintance with The Lord Fairfax, whose Letter wou'd do me singular service in the affair. I'm doubtfull of success, as I believe it will chiefly depend on my personal appearance in England, which I can't possibly comply with at present. As for the half pay, I shou'd be very hapy if there was any other way to establish my Rank in the Army, which is all 1 want. ''Yesterday I received a letter from one Gilbert, a friend of mine who now commands Plimouth Garrison, dated ye 28th of December 1746, part of which runs thus : ' Most of the American oficers have been here. 1 suppose you have heard that poor Capt. Bishop was miserably butchered by the Rebbels at the Battle of Falkirk. Addison now commands six additional Companys in this Town.' The AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 207 account of the destruction of our unfortunate friend puts me in mind of what you men- tioned to me concerning two of his sons in Philadelphia, relating to whom he wrote you. 1 shall be glad to take one of them, and do him any service in my power, as a mark of that friendship wth which I allways esteem'd his deceas'd Father. So if you incline to take the other you may please to give Directions for their coming hither, in which expence, if any arises, I will readily contribute with you to discharge. "\ did intend you a visit about the time of your return from the Assembly, but the death of my son prevented my taking that Pleasure. I was in hopes, on hearing of a Diference be- tween our friend Collo Colvil and Conway, that a Battle wou'd have ensu'd, but the Ga- zett informs me the former has cut the latter down with his own Weapons. Mrs. Fitz- hugh offers her Complts to you and your Lady, to whom please to present those of Yr Afft and Oblig'd Humble Servt , " WiLLM FiTZHUGH." It is Plymouth, England, that is alluded to. When the Revolution broke out Colonel Fitz- hugh was drawing half pay as ''captain " in 2^ 208 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK what was still called the Gooch Regiment. Colonel Colville was a neighbor of Major Lawrence Washington in Fairfax, and there was a Conway family there also, one of whom was an early Mayor of Alexandria ; but the controversy of these men, since it was noticed by the ''Virginia Gazette" (founded at Williamsburg in 1736), would appear to have been of general importance. The next letter of Colonel William Fitzhugh is as follows : "Dear Sir, ''As you were so kind to promise me the Certificates and other Credentials sent over to you in Order to receive your Half Pay, I now send a Messenger for them. I'm at Mr. Gra- ham's and did intend to have waited on you but I have been very 111 and am now so weak that I find myself Incapable of Performing the Journey. I have received letters from England that advise ye Establishment of my Half Pay, and have received part of it. The rest waits for proper Certificates. I have also Advice of Capt. Hall's being One of the Unhappy Per- sons that was Butchered at Falkirk. Capt. Stafford has been sometime in Newgate on Suspicion of Treason, but is at last discharged AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 209 both from Confinement and his Majesty's Ser- vice. There is a Report below, of a Grand Battle Fought between his Royal Highness the Duke and ye French Army, in which the latter have lost all their Artilery and 30.000 Men, and were Intirely routed. This report 'tis said is Confirmed by Several Private Let- ters to York and Other Places. If this be true I hope the Monseurs will be Convinc'd that One English Duke has^more Interest in Heaven and Power on Earth than all the Saints they Worship or Pray to for Success. ' ' I Heartily Congratulate you and your Lady on the Birth of your Son, and as I know yi'e a man desirous of Increasing the World I wish you many more. ''If you should not be at home when this Comes to Hand, as the Messenger can't Wait, I shall take it as a Particular favour that you'l Hire a Person to bring down those papers. I will thankfully pay him whatever you agree for. ' 'Please to make my Compliments accepta- ble to your Lady. "I am your affecte Humie Servt, "WiLLM FiTZHUGH. "QuANTico, September 9th, 1747." 210 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK The ''Mr. Graham" at whose house this was written was probably either John or Rich- ard, leading men in Dumfries, Virginia, then a flourishing place, now represented by ruined chimneys and a few cabins. The son on whose birth Major Lawrence Washington is congratulated was Fairfax Washington, born August 22, 1747, died in October of the same year. In 1754 Governor Sharpe of Maryland, having received the King's commission as commander of forces against the French, ap- pointed Col. Fitzhugh to command of the army. Col. Fitzhugh at once made an effort to persuade Col. George Washington back into the service from which he had retired with dissatisfaction. (Sparks, ii, p. 64.) In this he was unsuccessful. Toward the close of his life, Col. Fitzhugh established at Mill- mount, a farm contiguous to Rousby Hall, a manufactory of ship-bread for vessels trad- ing in the Chesapeake. X A Lord and a Lad at Belvoir MONG some old Carter manu- scripts my eye was caught by one bearing the now historic name of ^' Bull Run." It is a deed, dated October 12, 1724, opening with the following words : 'The Right Honbie Thomas Lord Fair- fax of Leeds Castle in the County of Kent and Baron Cameron in Scotland and William Cage of Millsgate in the Parish of Bearstead in the said County of Kent Esqr Devisee in Trust and Sole Execur of the last will and testament of the Right Honbie Catharine Lady Fairfax de- 212 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K ceased ppr of the Northern Neck of Virginia, To ALL TO Whom this present writing shall come send Greeting : Know ye That for divers good causes and considerations but more es- pecialy for and in consideration of the com- position for our use paid unto our Agent and attorney and for the annual rent hereafter reserved We have given granted and con- firmed and by these presents for us our heirs and assigns do give grant and confirm unto Robert Carter Gentn Son of Robert Carter Esqr of Lancr County one Certain Tract or parcel of land scituate lying and being in Staf- ford County Containing six thousand and thirty acres on a branch of Occaquan called Bull Run, etc." For this, Robert Carter, Jr., is to pay his Lordship's ''composition," ten shillings for each fifty acres, and thereafter one shilling annually on each fifty. Out of his six million acres obtained by the marriage of his mother with Lord Culpeper, Lord Fairfax might well have bestowed six thousand acres gratis, or on easier rent, to identify the interests of the Carter family with his own. But the above were his usual terms. His official connection with the Carters ended in 1732, when ''King Carter" died, and Lord Fairfax sent from England an agent named AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 21} Benjamin Borden. On arriving: in Virginia, Borden recognized an opportunity of becom- ing a sort of Lord Fairfax himself. Governor Gooch was then dispensing the Valley lands so freely and indiscriminately that one Jacob Stover, it is said, secured many acres by giving his cattle human names, as settlers; and a young woman, by dressing in various dis- guises of masculine attire, obtamed several large farms. Borden hastened to that region, captured a buffalo calf, carried it to Williams- burg as a present to the governor, and so won the favor of good Mr. Gooch that he acquired a vast tract. Lord Fairfax, finding his interests in Virginia neglected, applied to his cousin, William Fairfax, who settled in Virginia as his agent in 1734. The Hon. Col. William Fairfax was a first cousin of Lord Fairfax, his father being Henry, younger brother of his Lordship's father. Henry Fairfax married Anne Harrison, of South Cave, Yorkshire, whose sister Eleanor married Henry Washington. Whether his uncle Henry was related in any way to the Washingtons of Virginia is not known, but William Fairfax may have known more of the matter than is now discoverable. At any rate, he fixed his abode, as we have seen, near that of the Wash- 214 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K ingtons, and the intimacy of the two families was that of relationship. William Fairfax had long been in Government service. He had been a soldier in Queen Anne's wars, Chief Jus- tice in the Bahamas, Governor of the Isle of Providence, and Collector of the Port of Salem, Massachusetts. His first wife was Sarah Wal- ker ; by her he had four children — George William, Thomas, Anne (married Lawrence Washington), Sarah (married Major John Car- lyle of Alexandria). His wife died in 1731, expressing on her death-bed the hope that her husband might marry her friend Deborah Clarke. The hope was fulfilled. By this sec- ond wife William Fairfax had three children — Bryan (who became eighth Lord) ; William Henry, a soldier, who fell at Quebec, 1759; Hannah (married Warner Washington, first cousin of the general). William Fairfax thus brought to Virginia a large family, and at the head of it was a woman whom tradition declares to have possessed ex- traordinary intelligence and character. Debo- rah Clarke was daughter of the Hon. Col. Bartholomew Gedney, of Salem, Massachu- setts. She married Francis Clarke, October 16, 1 701, and became a widow in 1727. The portrait which, by favor of the Essex Institute, DEBORAH CLARKE. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 21 5 Salem, is presented in this volume, was un- doubtedly painted by John Smibert of Edin- burgh. It represents her in widow's dress, and was probably painted soon after Smibert's arrival (1728) in Boston. The countenance is at once powerful and refined ; it can hardly fail to impress one with a feeling that the in- fluence of Deborah Fairfax may have been of importance in forming the character of George Washington, so much of whose boyhood was passed under her roof. She died, as shown by one of our letters, in 1747. Lord Fairfax (according to Sir Bernard Burke), ''visiting his American estates about the year 1739, was so captivated with the soil, climate, and beauties of Virginia that he re- solved to spend the remainder of his life there ; and he soon after erected two mansions, Bel- voir and Greenway, where he continued ever afterwards to reside in a state of baronial hos- pitality. " But according to tradition, probably correct, Belvoir was built by William Fairfax between 1734 and 1736. it was destroyed by an accidental fire during the Revolution, and unfortunately no picture of it can be found. Its architectural character may be gathered from an advertisement in the Ga;(ette of Phila- delphia, October 19, 1774: 28 2l6 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K ''To be rented from year to year, or for a term of years, Belvoir, the beautiful seat of the Honorable George W. Fairfax, Esq., upon the Potomac river, in Fairfax County, about 14 miles below Alexandria. The mansion is of brick, two storeys high, with four conve- nient rooms and a large passage on the lower floor ; five rooms and a large passage on the second ; servants' hall and cellar below. Con- venient to it are offices, stables, and coach- house ; adjacent is a large and well-furnished garden stored with a great variety of fruits, all in good order. Appertaining to the tract on which these houses stand and which con- tains near 2000 acres (surrounded in a man- ner by navigable water) are several valu- able fisheries and a good deal of clear land in different parts which may be let all to- gether or separately as shall be found most convenient. ''The terms may be known of Colonel Washington who lives near the premises, or of me in Berkeley County.— Francis Willis, Junior." I have from a descendant of the Fairfax family, now residing in Virginia, a copy of the list of articles sold at the auction held at Bel- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 217 voir August 15, 1774, and the prices brought. This I conclude to copy literally. DINING ROOM. I Mahogany yft. sideboard Table I Pr. Mahogany square card Tables I Oval Bottle Cistern on a Frame . I Knife Tray ....... 1 Schollopt Mahogany Voider 2 Dish Trays ® 1 6/ I Large Mahogany Cut rim Tea Tray I Sconce Glass gilt in Burnished Gold 12 Mahogany Chairs 12 Covers for ditto © 2/6 .... 3 Crimson Morine Drapery window curtains I Large Wilton Persian Carpet . . I Pr Tongs, Shovel, Dogs and Fender £ s.d. 5 b b 5 2 17 6 14 I 12 I 10 15 17 I 10 II b 9 15 3 10 PARLOR. I Mahogany Table (dining) one glass to take off 3150 I Mahogany Spider leg Table ..... 250 1 folding fire skreen lined with yellow . . i i o 2 Mahogany Arm Chairs cov'd with figured hair 550 1 Chimney Glass 1000 Dogs, Tongs, Shovel and Fender . . • 2 14 6 2 Saxon green plain Drapery curtains . . 500 2l8 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K MRS. FAIRFAX'S CHAMBER. I Mahogany Chest of Drawers .... 8 lo o I Bedstead and Curtains ...... 800 Window Curtains i 15 o 4 Chairs ©15/6 320 Covers for Do © 2/ 080 Dressing Table 1000 I pr. Dogs, Shovel and Tongs .... i 13 o COL. FAIRFAX'S D-G ROOM. I Oval Glass in Burnished Gold .... 5 I Mahogany Shaving Table 3 I Mahogany Desk, &c 16 4 Chairs and Covers © 22I 4 I Mahogany Settee Bedstead Saxon green • 7 Covers for Ditto o I Mahogany Pembroke Table i Dogs, Shovel, Tongs and Fender ... i UTENSILS &c. I Case and i dozen bottles ...... i 16 o 1 pr Garden Shears, i snuffer stand, bales, Brushes 013 2 Flint Decanters 2/ an old pine desk . . o 18 6 A large pot, a lanthorn 6/ lot of Queen's china i 16 o 9 Knives and 10 Forks 10/, i pr Endirons 5/ o 17 o I pr Scales & 3 weights 10/, 2 pr. Stilyards 12/ . 120 10 3 16 8 18 9 18 13 AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 219 2 Brass Candlesticks 9/, 2 Copper Stew- pans 6/6 0150 I Copper Fish kettle 1 8/, 4 do stewpans and covers i 14 o 3 Saucepans 5/, 4 do kettles 10/ . . . . o 15 o 1 Tea kettle, 2 Cannisters and oven 1 5/, Pes- tel & mortar 12/6 176 23 [?] and 9 qt Bottles ....... 076 2 Old Flour Searchers 076 I hand mill 30/, i 80 gal. Copper kettle . 350 I large iron pot 20/, i Bread Toaster 1/3 • i 13 The books have no prices attached. They are: Batavia Illustrated; London Magazine (7 vols.) ; Parkinson's Herball ; Knolles' His- tory of the Turkish Empire; Coke's Institutes of the Laws of England (3 vols.) ; England's Recovery ; Laws of the Colony of Massachu- setts Bay ; Lex Mercatoria, or Laws of Mer- chants; Laws of Virginia ; Compleat Clerk and Conveyancer; Hawkins, Pleas of the Crown Gunnall, Offences in the Realm of England Ainsworth, Latin and English Dictionary Haine's Dictionary of Arts and Sciences Blackmore's Prince Arthur; History of the Twelve Cassars, by Suetonius ; John Calvin's Institutions of Religion ; Fuller's Church His- tory from its Rise; Locke on the Human Understanding; A New BodyofGeographie; 220 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Croope's Reports ; Heylin's Cosmographie in 4 Books ; Collection of Voyages and Travels ; Political Discourses, by Henry Earl of Mon- mouth ; Wooten's State of Christendom ; Hobart's Reports; Johnson's Excellency of Monarchical Government; Latin and French Dictionary ; Langley's Pomona, or Gardening ; Obreneter, a Political Piece ; Strada's History of the Low Country Wars ; Spanish and Eng- lish Dictionary; Latin Bible; A Poem on Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell; Knox's Martyrologie ; Jacob's Law Dictionary ; Cham- berlyn's State of G. Britain ; Hughes, Natural History of Barbadoes ; Laws of His Majesty's Plantations ; The Way to get Wealth. One or two of these, it will be observed, were published in the later colonial period. Probably the books were not sold, for some later hand has added to the list a work of 1 777, with the full title-page and dedication: "A Compendious View of the Civil Law ; being the substance of a Course of Lectures read in the University of Dublin, by Arthur Browne, Esquire, S. P. T. C. D. , Professor of Civil Law in that University, and Representative in Parlia- ment for the same. 1777. Inscription: To His Excellency Gen. Washington, with the utmost respect, this Book is humbly presented AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 221 by the Author, once an American, who knew in America his earliest ^nd his happiest days.'' The sale brought about ^242, Washing- ton's purchases, which included no books, amounting to ^169. Such then was Belvoir and its contents. The Hon. Colonel William Fairfax found his Lord- ship's affairs in such a condition as to require all of his administrative ability and personal tact. The immense territorial claim of Lord Fairfax, dating from a time (Charles 11.) when much of the land had not been discovered, confirmed to Lord Culpeper by the discredited James 11., was disputed on every hand. It was not fully acknowledged by the Crown, which wished to earn rents by new grants; its northern boundary was disputed by the Maryland proprietary, its eastern and southern by many settlers. On the Maryland side the question was which of the two head-streams of the Potomack was intended to be the nor- thern boundary of Lord Culpeper's purchase, or Fairfaxland. In Virginia the dispute was concerning the grants of settlers east of the Alleghanies, and also as to which of the two head-streams of the Rappahannock was the Fairfax limit — the Conway (confluent of the Rapidan) or the Rappahannock, between these 222 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK being all the land now comprised by Cul- peper, Madison, and Rappahannock counties. William Fairfax first appears in his Lordship's affairs in 1733-4. On a petition of Lord Fair- fax, the King appointed a " Commission for running out and marking the limits of his Patent." The three commissioners for the Crown were Colonel William Byrd of West- over, John Robinson, and John Grymes. Lord Fairfax appointed William Fairfax, William Beverley, and Charles Carter. Colonel Byrd has left a narrative of their survey, which began at Fredericksburg, October 12, 1736, and ended December 14. In pursuance of their report, Lord Fairfax gave warning to Joist Hite and his partners that they must purchase or vacate 140,000 acres for which they held warrants. A lawsuit began in 1736, which was settled in favor of the Hites, 1786, when all of the original parties were dead. The Hite-Fairfax lawsuit, and the general struggle of the settlers in Fairfaxland with his Lordship, deserve a consideration not yet given to them by historians. Here was a tremendous and continuous training in hatred of aristocracy. The accident of birth had thrown into the hand of one Englishman six millions of acres in a country he never saw, AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 22} and made fiefs of a thousand estates tilled by Virginians, while he was hunting foxes around his castle in England, — that same ''Leeds Castle" after which the ''Manor of Leeds " was named in Culpeper. Although Lord Culpeper had purchased the proprietary title of the Northern Neck (1683), the right to sell it represented an arbitrary claim of Charles II. to give away Virginia to hispersonal friends ; and the abdicated James II. was also associated with it. Since 1692 there had been a lawful resistance in Virginia to this establishment in the colony of a despotic realm, whose agent was angrily nicknamed ' ' King Carter. " This label was the first cry against royalty. By the great wealth and influence of "King Car- ter," and by the intermarriages of his family with other powerful families, the Fairfax realm was maintained, but it is doubtful whether it x j could have continued but for the support of William Fairfax, who was Collector of South Potomack ; and equally, perhaps, the alli- ances of his family with the Washingtons, Carys, and Carlyles. Above all, probably, the marriage of Anne Fairfax with Lawrence Vv^ashington, allying the powerful Whiting and Butler families, and the later marriage of Hannah Fairfax with Warner Washington, 29 ^dyn-"-^' ytd5> n^iyr^ ^t-ei/^a^ \r^fJ^ C^-f-^J^-fQ «. Mfe^\' ^•^ i''^ ^A^r c-^^.^'^'' XI Tbe Fairfax Stone HREE of our original letters re- late to the expedition which laid the Fairfax Stone at the head-spring of the Potomack. In 1745 the Crown affirmed the inheritance of Lord Fairfax to be the entire Northern Neck, its western boundary a line from the head-spring of the Conway River (confluent of the Rapidan) to the head-spring of the northern branch of the Potomack. In 1746, when Lord Fairfax ar- rived at Belvoir, an expedition of forty gentle- men was prepared to define the boundary and take formal possession. His lordship's agent, 236 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK William Fairfax, accompanied the party, whose military leaders — for they expected to en- counter Indians — were Captain Downes and Colonel Joshua Fry. Downes was a leading man in Orange County, whose Grand Jury once presented him " for Sabbath-breaking by travelling with loaded horses to Sharrendo." Colonel Fry, a mathematical professor turned soldier, was the commander whose death, in 1754, while on the French expedition, gave his young friend George Washington his first command. The surveyors of the expedition )c were Thomas Lewis of Augusta County, and Robert Brooke, their assistant being George Fairfax. Brooke had been on the Spotswood exploration of 1 7 1 6 ; he was grandfather of the famous Governor Brooke. Captain Downes had the management of the tents, and ar- ranged a camp near Orange Court-house as the rendezvous of the company. Our first letter is from William Fairfax to Major Law- rence Washington, at Mount Vernon, who did not accompany the expedition. ''Fredericksburg, Sept. 9, 1746. "Sir, "We got here on Sunday evening, and all yesterday with some impatience waited the AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 237 arrival of Colo Beverley and Colo Lomax. At night a negro man of Colo Lomax came to Mr. Jackson's with some baggage, and said his master and Colo Beverley were ready to set off when he came away. Colo Lewis, Mrs. Lewis, and Mr. William Lightfoot came yesterday, and bring account that your uncle, the Major, died yesterday sennight after a short illness. We are also told, with too great certainty, that Mr. Archibald Taylor of Norfolk lately drowned himself by voluntarily leaping into the creek at the Capitol Landing, rising suddenly from his bed at Mr. Nimmo's, who had a little before as they travelled saved him from another leap he had made into a Mill Dam, when he prepared and put a Brick- bat into each of his Pockets, the better to sink him, with one of which he violently struck Mr. Nimmo on the Forehead for sav- ing him against his will. "September 10. Yesterday to our great satisfaction Col. Beverley and Col. Lomax came, and we are preparing to set off for Capt. Downe's this morning. I propose to make an essay and proceed as 1 find myself able, but run no Risque, and on the most probable Sensation of unfitness to Return. The weather is so sultry, and being neces- 238 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK sarily obliged to go about this town to collect several things wanted, I have not yet seen Mrs. Washington. George has been with us, ^ and says He wHl _be steady and thankfully follow your Advice as his best Friend. I gave him his Mother's letter to deliver with Cau- tion not to shew his. I have spoke to Dr. Spencer who I find is often at the Widow's and has some influence, to persuade Her to think better of your advice in putting Him to Sea with good Recommendation. '' By some mistake in the enquiry for them we have not got the Rundletts your Bro. made. I again repeat my Desires that you will continue your kind advice and assistance to Mrs. Fairfax, etc. etc., and visit as often as Leisure with Inclination will permit. I am always, dear Sir, ''Your truly affectionate Parent ''and faithful Friend, "W. Fairfax." The next letter is from Robert Jackson, a citizen of Fredericksburg, and intimate friend of the Washington and Lewis families there — a godfather with George Washington of Betty (Washington) Lewis's first child. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 239 ''Fredericksburg, i8 ybre 1746. ''Maj: Washington, ''Sir: You will receive with this a letter from ye Honbie Wm. Fairfax which he deliv- ered me at ye camp at Henry Downes's the 1 6th instant where ye Comlssrs were met, viz. Cols Fairfax, Beverly, Lomax, Fry, and Major Hedgman and Mr. George Fairfax, to- gether with their surveyors, aid du Camps, valet de Chambres, and a numerous train of Cavalry and Infantry, making all necessary preparations for a march, and this day or to- morrow expect they will decamp. They were all in top spirits, and Colo Fairfax in particular as cheerful as ever I saw him. "They pressed me to stay a little longer with them, and must confess it was with re- luctance that I left them, and Major Hedgman swore I should share the reward equally with him if I would go out. ''I stayed two nights with them where we regaled ourselves with good liquor in your tent seated after the manner of the Eastern Nations on Sophas of party collour'd Bristol rugs, etc. " I am afraid Mrs. Washington will not keep up to her first resolution. She seems to inti- mate a dislike to George's going to Sea and 3' 240 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK says several Persons have told her its a very bad Scheme. '' She offers several trifling objections such as fond and unthinking mothers naturally sug- gest, and 1 find that one word against his go- ing has more w^eight than ten for it. Colo Fairfax seems desirous he should go, and desired me to acquaint you with Mrs. Wash- ington's sentiments. I intend shortly to take an opportunity to talk with her and will let you know her result. 1 am, Sir, ''Yr most Hble Servt " Rob. Jackson." The names mentioned in these letters were those of great families, and nearly all of them are honorably inscribed in the history of their country. William Beverley, son of the his- torian, was a famous lawyer and county lieu- tenant of Essex. He was a member of the Council, and had at his house, ''Blandfield," on the Rappahannock, now occupied by his descendant, one of the best libraries in Vir- ginia. Lunsford Lomax, Burgess for Caroline, a commissioner at the Indian treaty of Logs- town, was the founder of the family at Fred- ericksburg long represented by Judge Lomax, who, when feeble with age and illness, was AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 241 carried to the polls that he might vote against secession. William Lightfoot, descended from John Lightfoot, a Jamestown colonist, was soon after a member of the Council. Major Peter Hedgman was a justice of Stafford, and a few years later one of those who resigned office rather than carry out the Stamp Act. The Colonel Lewis mentioned was Warner Lewis of Warner Hall, Burgess, who married the widow Gooch. Coming up from Glou- cester, they could bring tidings of the death of Major John Washington, last of that genera- tion of Washingtons, the time of whose death is ascertained by the above letter. Warner's fa- ther, John, had died November, 1745, aged 76. To Thomas Lewis, surveyor of Augusta County, one of the leading men on the ex- pedition (which started out from Fredericks- burg September 18, 1746), we are indebted for the subjoined notes concerning it. His jour- nal, in possession of the Hon. John F. Lewis (formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia), has never been published, though some ex- tracts were given in a supplement to a portion of an edition of Waddell's ''Annals of Au- gusta County." For these I am indebted to Mr. Brock, of the Virginia Historical Society. The camp was visited by ''a great number 242 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K of the neighboring gentlemen." On Sunday, September 14, the Fredericksburg party not having arrived, ''most of the gentlemen went to hear Mr. Marshall preach, who returned with them to dinner. Several of us solicited him to preach us a sermon before we set off. He after making several religious evasions showed us the impossibility thereof, and so bid us farewell." (Marshall probably sym- pathized with the anti-Fairfax masses.) Dur- ing the night of the 17th there was a quarrel in the crowd that had gathered about the camp; they used fence-rails ''with tolerable good success." " 19th. We set off from Cap- tain Downs's with expectation of reaching head of Conoway that night. Col. Fairfax and Col. Beverley outrode the rest. We called at Hickley's and regaled ourselves with some very good cider. Night coming on we were obliged to encamp in the mountain be- fore we got to ye spring head." " 20th. The mountains made such a dismal appearance that John Thomas, one of our men, took sick on the same and so returned home." "Oct. 3. This day several of the horses had like been killed, tumbling over rocks and preci- pices, and ourselves often in the utmost dan- ger. This terrible place was called Purgatory. " AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 243 " Sunday 5. Our situation was such that we could not lie by. Our horses were starving ; our provisions not being sufficient for us more than one day made it a work of necessity for us to press forward"— that is, to the camp; for this refers to a detached party. It would appear that the expedition divided, one party working to and from the Potomack, while Thomas Lewis, with the others, surveyed from the Conway. ''Oct. 7. We were very much put to for want of water. We could find no other than a standing puddle wherein the bears used to wallow." ''9th. Went to see Coburns who, with his wife and miller, a buxom lass, repaid the visit in the evening, which we spent very merrily." ''14th. This river [Looney's Creek] was called Styx, from the dismal appearance of the place, being suf- ficient to strike terror in any human creature." They had a dreadful time crossing this creek. On the 28th one of the men killed a buck with an axe. On the 30th, his Majesty's birthday, they drank his health, fired nine guns, and ''concluded the evening in merriment." On November 13 the divided parties were to- gether again, and ''drank to his Majesty's and Lord Fairfax's health, which was accom- panied with a discharge of nine guns to each 244 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK health." Colonel Peter Jefferson appears to have been now with the party. On the 17th the horses, tents, etc., were sold at auction. Of the party that went to the head-spring of the Potomack none kept a diary, and the com- missioners' journal was lost from the Virginia State Library during the civil war. They reached the fountain of the Potomack on Oc- tober 1 7, and there planted the Fairfax Stone. On January 23, 1747, the commissioners as- sembled at the house of Colonel Peter Jeffer- son C'Shadwell," Albemarle) to draw plans of the Northern Neck. But they had to send all the way to Williamsburg for "paper and other things." One little sequel of the expedition may be mentioned. While Thomas Lewis, who lived near Staunton, was on his visit to Fredericks- burg, just before the expedition started, he probably saw a little lady whom he did not forget. This was Jane Strother, the friend and schoolmate of George Washington. In 1749 she married Thomas Lewis, and there is no greater genealogical honor in Augusta County, or in the valley of Virginia, than to be sprung from those two — whose home was many a time the pleasant shelter of General Washington. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 245 Lord Fairfax remained at Belvoir about two years, and amused himself with reading, fish- ing, and fox-hunting. He had with him one of the Cage family, son probably of William Cage, executor of Lady Fairfax, his lordship's mother. Among our manuscripts is the fol- lowing (undated) note to Lawrence Washing- ton at Mount Vernon : , _ ' ' Wednesday Morn. ^'DearSr ^ ''His Ldship proposes drawing Mudd Hole tomorrow; first killing a Fox; and then to turn down a Bagged Fox before your door for ye diversion of ye Ladys ; but I would not have you think that we shall stop a long time at yr door, for if yi* dinner shou'd be ready by two then we shall pass through ye door and enter yr House. Mr. Bowles desires you wou'd send a Horse by ye Bearer. My ser- vice attends yr Ladys, and am Sr '' Yr very Humble Servant, ''J. Cage. 'Mf you shoud chuse Friday for our coming lett me know. We took the Fox yesterday without Hurt." Two of our Havemeyer manuscripts are in the handwriting of Lord Fairfax. They show 246 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK that to lay the Fairfax Stone was one thing, and to secure respect for it another. The first letter is without superscription, but was prob- ably addressed to Warner Washington, hus- band of Hannah Fairfax, an active agent of his lordship in Frederick (now Morgan) County. ''June I, 1747. ''Sir, " Having been informed that several Persons who go to drink of and bath in the Medicinal Springs near the Mountains of Cape Capon and River Potomack, within my Proprietary, do un- necessarily bark and cut down Timber Trees on the waste and ungranted Lands near the said Springs and the Mountain adjacent, more than useful for the erecting and building the Houses and Cottages required to shelter them, 1 desire You will in my Name use your best Endeavors to prevent such waste of Timber. And if upon your Application the said Persons will not desist, You will acquaint One or more Justices of Frederick County, requiring their Assistance towards restraining them. And if neither of these Remonstrances will avail, then to send me the names of such wilful Trespass- ers that I may proceed against them according to Law. 33 fy^ crH^c<^ /n.cO<^ i ^ ir>z^/tZ 9-dy?ru/ 90X4 .£c/irc M^St- i.u^ AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 247 ' ' You may assure the Gentlemen and Others that if the Waters continue to be useful in re- lieving the Sick I shall cause the Lands around the Springs to be surveyd, and a Number of convenient Lots laid off for a Town, also give all fitting Encouragement to invite People to inhabit and Settle there. ''Yr affecte Friend, ''Fairfax." The land was duly surveyed by George Washington, who in the end became the chief landholder at the Springs. An immense white elm is still pointed out there as having been planted by Washington, the site of whose summer residence in the place is well known. But the town suggested by Lord Fairfax was not built until more than a quarter of a century later, and then not by order of his lordship, but of the republican Assembly of Virginia. The other letter of Lord Fairfax, dated No- vember 10, 1773, is given in facsimile. To whom it was addressed does not appear. It is pathetic to think of the lonely old bachelor, at the age of eighty-three, trying to attend to the business of his six million acres ; for William Fairfax was dead (1757). and his son George 248 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K William Fairfax, master of Belvoir, was wrap- ped up in public affairs. The old nobleman's realm steadily slipped away from him, and while his friend and former surveyor, George Washington, was fighting for American inde- pendence, the aged lord was still struggling in law courts for the principality set up by the Stuart dynasty in Virginia. Yet was he a fine old man, with many excellent qualities. It was his misfortune to live too long; the last words attributed to him were true enough — ''It is time for me to die." They were ut- tered when he heard that Lord Cornwallis had surrendered to his former surveyor, George Washington. Mr. C. S.White, clerk, writes me from Rom- ney, West Virginia: ''The Fairfax Stone is still standing at one of the head springs of the Potomac. It is said to be a hard sand- stone marked ' F. ' The stone is within about three miles of the town of Davis, on the West Virginia Central Railroad, in Tucker County." Another correspondent, however, tells me that the original stone has disap- peared, its site being occupied by one set there by our government. The Fairfax Stone was inscribed "FX." It should be in the pedestal of the Washington AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 249 Monument, in Washington City: for Fairfax- land was lost in Washingtonland. The Fair- faxes remain among our worthiest Americans, but not an acre, I am told, belongs to one of that name in the State of which Lord Fairfax owned a fourth. Belvoir exists not, even in a picture. At the close of his life Washing- ton wrote to Mrs. Fairfax in England: "It is a matter of sore regret, when I cast my eyes towards Belvoir, which I often do, to reflect that the former inhabitants of it, with whom we lived in such harmony and friendship, no longer reside there, and that the ruins can only be viewed as the mementoes of former pleasures." Greenway Court Manor, where Lord Fairfax so long resided, has also dis- appeared. Near it ^50 in gold was found, which the old lord had buried, probably during the Revolution. The owner of six million acres had become anxious about even that sum! Greenway Court was devised by Lord Fair- fax to his nephew. Colonel Bryan Martin, with ten thousand acres, slaves, etc. By his mistress, Mrs. Crawford, who had been house- keeper for Lord Fairfax, Colonel Martin had a daughter, who married Captain Francis Gel- dart, R. A., to whom part of the estate was 250 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK given. The residence was bequeathed to a Miss Powers, who lived there as housekeeper after his daughter's death. Lord Fairfax died in 1782, his 92d year, and was buried under the communion-table of a church he had built in Winchester. When he first came to Virginia (1739), Winchester consisted of two cabins ; he lived to see it a flourishing town. About fifty years after his burial the church was sold for mercantile pur- poses. Among the thousand skeletons in- discriminately carted away was that of the Right Honorable Thomas Lord Fairfax, of Leeds Castle, England, and Baron Cameron in Scotland, of Greenway Court in Virginia, proprietor of the Northern Neck of that colony. Undistinguishable now is the great man's dust from that of the humblest of those around him. So ends the story of the Fairfax Stone, so resolutely set by the gallant young gentlemen of Virginia. Those who follow the points of it — the merry camp at Fredericksburg with little George^looking on, the setting of the Stone, the passing away of Belvoir and Green- way Court, the fate of Lord Fairfax, his dust and his estate — may find new significance in the shrine at Mount Vernon, and in the bril- / ") AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 25 I liant capital bearing the name of his lordship's surveyor. An apparition of lordship in Virginia was seen at the close of the century, when the Rev. Bryan Fairfax, son of William Fairfax and the Yankee lady Deborah, repaired to England, successfully claimed his title, sat once only in the House of Lords, and immediately returned as Lord Fairfax to his home, "Mount Eagle," near Alexandria. His departure and his return are represented in the following letters, hith- erto unpublished : ''Mount Vernon, i8th May 1798. "Dear Sir, " Having occasion to write another letter to Sir John Sinclair, I take the liberty of giving you the trouble of it, and Mrs. Washington begs the favour of you to put her letter to her old neighbor and friend, Mrs. Fairfax, into a channel for safe delivery, if you should not see her yourself. ' ' Knowing, from experience, that Masters of Vessels never sail at the time they first ap- point, Mrs. Washington and I propose to call upon you on our return from the City, in full confidence of seeing you then. If, however, contrary to expectation,the Captain of the Ves- 252 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK sel you embark on should be more punctual than usual, and we should be disappointed in this, we beg you to receive our ardent wishes for a safe and pleasant passage to England — the perfect restoration of your health — and happy meeting with your family and friends when you return. To these wishes let me add assurances of the affectionate regard of '' Dear Sir, ''Your Obedt Servant, ' ' Go Washington. "Our compliments to Mrs. Fairfax and the family. ''The Revd Mr. Fairfax." Mrs. Washington's letter was for the widow of Hon. George William Fairfax, who resided at Bath, where her husband died in 1787. The next letter is written by Hannah, wife of Warner Washington, the general's first cousin. She was the own sister of the Rev. Bryan Fairfax, now returned as the eighth Lord Fairfax. The residence of Mr. and Mrs. Warner Washington was ' ' Fairfield, " near Ber- ry ville (then Battletown) , Clarke County . The "Lacey's" alluded to in the following letter was an inn half-way between their residence AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 253 and Alexandria. The letter is written from ''Mount Eagle," and dated December 7, 1799. '' 1 have the pleasure of informing my dear Son that I found his Lordship greatly mended though still weak. " He had paid some morning visits to Alex- andria, the day we got down. He has no legs left now, and indeed his whole body is greatly emaciated. We were very lucky as to weather and roads in our journey down. We left La- cey's (where I was told I should get to my Brother's funeral) before sunrise, and only stopped to feed, which enabled us to get to 'Mount Eagle' by 5 o'clock, — when we were agreeably surprised to find my brother in the dining-room. His Lordship has invited six- teen gents here today, so we are to have a feast, — all those who have paid visits since his arrival and during his illness. It is so long since I have conversed with Noblemen that it was very awkward the first day to address either my Brother or Sister by their titles — indeed I have only got over the difficulty to- day. It began to rain hard on Wednesday Night, and has continued small rain ever since, though this is Saturday, which has made the roads extremely bad. I shall go to town on 33 254 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Monday and get the things for the Doctor against Tom gets down. The family join in love and good wishes to all in Fairfield. '' I am your affectionate mother, ''H. Washington. ''To Fairfax Washington, Fairfield." The Fairfax family in America is represented by a cultivated and unpretending gentleman, residing in the neighborhood of Washington City, who might at any time take his seat in the House of Lords. yrL4r-x> i^^^^^^fijj^^^^^^^^^^^a^^^^^^^^^^^j^^^^^ XII Mount l^ernon, and Young yirginia AD not the career of Major Law- rence Washington of Mount Vernon been cut short by death, in his thirty-fourth year, his would now probably be a great name in the American Revolu- tion. Though only in his twenty -fourth year when he returned from Cartagena, he at once entered into public affairs, and was accorded high position. He was elected a member of the House of Burgesses, for Fairfax, in 1748. There are indications that both he and William Fairfax, President of the Council, were too f1 '^' 256 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK much in sympathy with Young Virginia and its enterprises to please Lord Fairfax. It is painful to trace along with the growing in- fluence of Major Lawrence Washington the intimations of physical decline, partly due, no doubt, to the severe strain to which his con- stitution had been subjected in the Cartagena campaign, partly also to the loss of his chil- dren. His daughter Jane died in 1745, his son Fairfax in 1747, his daughter Mildred in 1749; and his little Sarah, though she sur- vived him, he saw destined for an early grave. William Fairfax, himself bereaved, extends his sympathy to Major Washington in a note (much torn) dated October 2, 1747: "Sir, "As it has been the Will of God lately to take to his mercy the spirits of my late Wife and your child we must submit to his Divine Pleasure and take thence Tokens or Warnings of our own Mortality. I am glad you have resolved to carry Nancy to Fredericksburg, where she might find Relief both in Body and Mind. I will sollicit and endeavour to settle your Affairs [with] Lidderdale — and take care of yese. Portm ... Mr. Noden and Sally will go over on Tuesday . . . What Rum I AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 257 have to share you may c . . . Pay if I can dispense with Mrs. Clarke's last . . . "I wish you and Nancy all Health and Hap- piness, being very truly, my dear Sir, "Your and Her most affectionate "W. Fairfax." It is pleasant to find among our papers a letter from the Major's younger brother (' 'Aus- tin "), residing at ' ' Wakefield. " The interest- ing seal is engraved on a previous page. "Dr. Brother ' ' I hope by this I may be able to Congrat- ulate you upon my Sister's Safe Delivery of a Boy. As the assembly setts next month hope you'll take this in your way. I am afraid we shall loose a friend in the Removal of the Seat of Government this Session by the Indisposi- tion of Col. Lee who has been extremely 111 ; he is now much better, but will not be able to go to town. Suppose you have heard Mr. Nimmo was Dead of the Flux, which is very Violent below. Six or Seven dying in a week in Williamsburgh. Commissary Dawson is extremely ill with it. I think his Honor ought to prorogue the Assembly till the town was Clear of such a Contagious Distemper. If you 258 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK incline to Dispose of your land down here I wish you would lett me know it and the terms ; there is several inclinable to purchase it. When you come down I wish you wou'd bring me the notes for the Tobacco made at hunting Creek last year and prospected at Ocoquan. My Wife joins with me in our Compliments to you and my Sister. I am Dr. Brother yrs most affectionately "Aug't. Washington. ''To Majr. La we. Washington ''In Fairfax County. "August 28, 1748. "Pr. Jupiter." The land alluded to in the preceding is ap- plied for by Lawrence Butler in our next letter. The Washingtons and Butlers were ancient neighbors and friends in Virginia. In 1698 Ann, widow of Captain John Washington, son of Colonel John the immigrant, gave power of attorney to her "trusty and well beloved friend Mr. Caleb Butler," and this lawyer's daughter was the first wife of Captain Augus- tine Washington. Lawrence Butler, the son of Caleb, was, therefore, the uncle of Major Lawrence Washington. He was also godson of the major's grandfather, Lawrence, who be- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 2^9 queathed him a young mare, two cows, and 137 acres — probably adjacent to the land he desires to buy from Major Lawrence Wash- ington. He may have succeeded, as no West- moreland land is mentioned in the Major's will four years later. The letter is marked, ''By favour of Mr. A. Washington" (Austin). It must be added that the seal is an indecent device, nicely cut, surrounded with the words ''No immodesty." "Dear Sir, "I am sorry it should be in your power to tax me with a Breach of promise in not coming up to your House, the occasion of which is : since parting with you am sum- mon'd to the first day of General Court; which is so Nigh hand that it cant well be done now ; but when the assembly Rises which I presume will be about Christmass, then, if your Brother Augustine is agreeable, will wait on and spend a fortnight or Three Weeks. I assure you my Friend I shall be proud to keep up that Friend- ship which has been so long United between that [?] of your Worthy Ancestors and my Father, long before our memory; And as I am no ways conscious why that Friendship should not subsist as ourforefathers did I know 26o BARONS OF THE POTOMACK not ; and it is my earnest wishes that it always may to the end of time. However I shall with- draw from that subject Else peredventure you may look on it as a piece of flattery, but, as it is a thing I cant enjour, hope you will look on it as nothing more than the truth of a sincere Friend. ''However give me leave Sir to fall on an- other subject; which is, 1 have a great desire to purchase the Land we were talking of, but your price was when we talked the matter most extravangty, and since upon looking and Enquiring into the Land find it not Nigh so Good as the character, but as 1 want a seat on the Water to Build would give more than the Intrinsick Valine just for fancy ; therefore will make you such proposals as 1 make no doubt will be agreeable ; that is, 1 will give you Six hundred and fifty pds Current Money in the following manner; that is, five hundred pounds by ist April and the Ballance as you told me four years after, otherwise will pay you Twenty Shillings Current Money per acre, and make my payments in proportion to the other offer, which to be sure you nor no man can think but that is sufficient, as you very well know most of the Land is clear'd and worn out quite so much that some of your AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 261 Tenants are obligd to Rent other Land to make Corn or else buy ; besides there is a good deal of it Barrens not worth five shillings, so that I must be of Opinion that when you come to Consider my offer you will think it is suffi- cient. 1 shall be glad to have your result by your Brother and shall conclude only wishing you in a better state of Health than when we parted, which is the sincere wishes of ''Dr Lawrence your assur'd Friend '^andHbleServt ''Law: Butler. ''27th Sepr 1748." The exploration of the western region of Lord Fairfax's estate, and of the upper Poto- mack, and the maps made and circulated (long before they were printed), awakened Virgin- ians to the reality of a Great West. While Joist Hite and his partners were battling with his lordship for their claims, the majority of young Virginians felt that if they were to se- cure land they must adventure into new re- gions as their forefathers had adventured into Virginia. In 1749 the Ohio Company was formed ; the twenty shareholders comprised men now famous in Virginian, and some in our National, annals. The company obtained 34 262 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK a grant of six hundred thousand acres west of the mountains and south of the Ohio. Chris- topher Gist was sent out to survey the region, and to establish and fortify a settlement at the spot now known as Pittsburg. Those who would now study that enterprise will find some fresh information in the newly published biography of George Mason, by Kate Mason Rowland,— a useful contribution to American history. While Christopher Gist, the first white settler west of the Alleghanies, was cut- ting out there the first roads. Col. Thomas Lee, President of the Council, was engineering the company in Virginia, and several agents were attending to its interests in London. Major Lawrence Washington was among the original organizers of the company, and it was on that business, probably also with hope of benefit to his health, that he visited England. We have here two letters written to him while there by William Fairfax. "Belvoir, 17th July 1749. ''Sir, "Soon after I rec'd your letter by Ben, I gave my Lord the letter you left with me : He read and put it into his Pocket without saying anything then or since. Notwithstanding the AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 263 Land Office for Frederick Co'ty has been Shut chiefly on Acct of Messrs. Joist Hite and Oth- ers concerned, they are now come to an open Declaration of seeking elsewhere for Relief, and have Sent Abram Hite to Mr. Mercer for Council in Hopes of getting Some Kind of Injunction, and a Petition is going about to enable C0I9 Wood and said Hite to go and Solicit his Majesty not to consent to the late Act of Assembly which explains the Word Grants to mean only such Grants as have passed under the Seal of the Colony. "As you had no certain Prospect when You was to sail with the Governor [Gooch] the Passage you and Mr. Carter took with Capt. Kelly a good naturd man was well under- taken. According to Desire I now enclose your Second Bill, and when at Williamsburg shall endeavor to get and send you a Bill of Excha: on Acct of yr half Year's Salary, under cover to Mr. Price in Bush Lane. ''What relates to the Sales of the Lots in our new Town will be communicated, toge- ther With a Plan thereof by your Bro: George. I went over the i ^th inst. to pass Saturday night with your Dame, Brothers Austin, and George, and Sister Betsy; On Sunday Mr. Carlyle and Sally, G. Fx his Consort and Miss 264 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Molly joynd us and you cant doubt but We unanimously toasted your and Mr. Carter's good voyage, and that every Felicity may be your Attendant. Perhaps when you go to London you may find Mr. R. Noden inclinable to see Maj. Fx. If so, desire his favorable In- troduction. By the Character I have, He will receive You with genteel Freedom. I am not personally acquainted, or would send you a Letter. ''lam&c&c&c ''W. Fx." The "new Town" alluded to was Alexan- dria, originally Belhaven. ''Sally" is Sarah Carlyle, daughter of William Fairfax. ' ' Miss Molly" is Mary Cary (afterwards Mrs. Edward Ambler), sister of Sally, wife of George Fair- fax. ''Maj. Fx" is Robert Fairfax of Leeds Castle. The next letter of William Fairfax to Law- rence Washington in England is as follows : Fairfax Coty i 5 August 1 749. "Sir, "Our Principal Occurrence in this County Since your Departure has been the Election of our Vestry, a copy of which is enclosed. AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 265 Majr. Osborne was strongly opposed by the Parson's Interest, who again insinuated my Lord and Family's Intention to build a central Church of extraordinary Expense. Colo Col- vill had so few votes He supprest the Number. ''You will a little wonder if Colo Philip Lee should present you this Epistle in London. By his Father's Letter to me I understand it was a Sudden Resolution to go with Sr Wm G[ooch]. Nat. Smith, who calls for this in Ex- pectation of going also, has so little Time Nancy cannot write. I heard from Mount Vernon this morning. ''I wish you every Satisfaction and a glad Sight of Tommy. ''Yr very affecte Friend, "W. Fairfax." The enclosure, a list of the twelve success- ful candidates and the unsuccessful, in George Washington's writing, and with his signature, follows : ' ' Vestry, Truro Tarisb 1749." Hugh West, Ordy 255 Jera Bronaugh, Sheriff .... 248 James Hamilton, Ordy .... 228 ( ( 266 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Charles Broadwater 224 Geo: Mason, no Resident . . . 232 William Payne, no Freehold . . 200 Thomas Wren do . . 192 John Furley ....... 189 William Peake 207 Daniel McCarty 220 Abram Barnes 196 12 Robert Boggess, Ordy .... 192 John Minor . . . . . . . . 180 John West 165 Henry Gunnell ....... 158 Thos Ford 152 William Elzey 107 George Fairfax • 115 Benjamin Sebastion 103 Richd Osborne 84 James Donalson 67 Sampson Furley 67 Joseph Stephens, little known . 41 12 Colo Colvill "Copy ''G. Washington." The parson whose ''interest" had defeated Major Osborne's aspiration for the Vestry, was the Rev. Charles Green, mentioned in AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 267 my fourth chapter. I suspect that he must have been previously a clerk, for he was a physician, and continued medical practice to the end of his life (1765). He was the family physician at Mount Vernon, after George Washington had come into posses- sion. ''Hugh West," says Miss Rowland, ''is enumerated with the Alexanders, Fair- faxes, and Lawrence Washington in the act incorporating Alexandria in 1748, and the town was built on the land of Hugh West and John and Philip Alexander. One family of the Wests in Virginia is descended from a brother of Lord Delaware whose family name it was." Major Osborne, an original trustee of the town, died in February, 1750. The McCartys and Bronaughs were connected with the Mason family, and men of great in- fluence. Benjamin Sebastian was a clergy- man. All of the men in the list were active in county affairs. Although George Mason is described as "no resident," this was over- looked. He was no doubt living at his mother's house, "Chappawamsic," but prob- ably already building Gunston Hall, in Fair- fax, for the wife whom he married the following year. ("Life of Mason," I, p. 84.) Colonel Colville would appear to have been 268 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK an opponent of the Fairfax interest, but in after years was a friend of General Washing- ton, who was executor of his estate. This appears by a letter of the general to Bushrod Washington, printed in my ''George Wash- ington and Mount Vernon," p. 328. I am indebted to Miss Kate Mason Rowland for assistance in making these brief notes, which may give my reader some idea of the agita- tions surrounding Major Lawrence Washing- ton and William Fairfax. Mr. Elzey, defeated at the Vestry election, was the opponent of George William Fairfax in a contest for the House of Burgesses which is said to have brought George Washington his first political experience, namely, a per- sonal encounter with William Payne, whose name is in the successful list. Mr. Cabot Lodge, in his ''Life of Washington," indig- nantly repudiates this story ; but it is related by the Rev. Dr. McGuire, who married a rel- ative of Washington's, and does not appear to me improbable. "His warm friendship for Col. Fairfax brought him in collision with a Mr. Payne, the friend of Mr. Elzey. In consequence of some offensive language into which he was betrayed towards Mr. Payne, that individual AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 269 struck him with a stick, and so violent was the blow that it knocked him down. ... He [Washington] wrote a note to Mr. Payne re- questing that he would meet him next morn- ing at the tavern, as he wished to see him with reference to their recent disagreement. Payne, in expectation of an unpleasant inter- view, repaired accordingly to the appointed place, and, instead of a hostile meeting, found Washington prepared to acknowledge his fault and solicit pardon for the offense given in an unguarded moment." It speaks a great deal for George William Fairfax that, though nearly six years older than George Washington, he became his com- rade. He appears to have been trained for the work of surveying, probably because his father (William) saw the great need of it on the estates in his charge ; and when George Washington had learned all that the Freder- icksburg school could teach him in that direc- tion, George Fairfax employed him as an assistant on the great survey, of which the boy (just sixteen) has left the graphic account recently edited by Dr. J. M. Toner. (Munsell.) Thenceforth he was devoted to George Fair- fax, and perhaps the only political canvassing in which Washington ever engaged was to 35 270 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK carry his friend to the House of Burgesses. George William Fairfax first entered the House just after the survey mentioned, giving up his place as surveyor to George Washington. In December, 1748, he w^as married to a famous Williamsburg belle, Sally Gary, who also became fond of George Washington. She brought with her a sister, Mary, to whom George alludes in one of his letters as '' a very agreeable young lady," who, however, only ''revives my former passion for your Lowland Beauty" (Betsy Fauntleroy). Thus, if old Lord Fairfax had been disappointed in love (else how could he resist the Virginia beau- ties ?), there was another bond between him and his young surveyor. The ladies at Bel- voir tried to beguile the love-lorn youth even by flirtation — as appears by a letter found in the desk of Mrs. Fairfax after her death, in extreme age, in England. Long years after the charming circle at Belvoir was broken up, Washington defended from confiscation the property of his friend George Fairfax, whose real loyalty to America he affirmed. It has been repeatedly stated that, in mar- rying Sally Gary, George William Fairfax car- ried off his friend's sweetheart, but it is de- monstrably certain that Washington never AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 27 1 met her until after her marriage. In this con- nection 1 will copy here a curious legend of the Fauntleroys from a private letter written by a great-granddaughter of Washington's ''Lowland Beauty": ' 'About the year 1690 a young French prince, heir to the throne, formed a morganatic mar- riage with a young French gentlewoman, Lady Eliza Bellefield, of good family but not of the blood royal. Somewhere about 1700 the Prince of Saxe-Meinigen was also married ad morganaticum to Elizabeth Schurman, and petitioned the Emperor, Charles VI., to give her the title of Princess, and confer the right of succession on her children. This raised a storm in the princely world, which ended in the decision of the leading lawyers that such a marriage as a civil engagement was binding, but failed to confer on the wife the title or fortune of her husband. But long before that result of their combined wisdom was known, Lady Bellefield had died of chagrin, and her three sons were banished from France. They came to Virginia about 1706, bringing with them their princely title, Enfant- Le-Roi, and coat of arms, three infant heads crowned with fleurs-de-lis. Miss Betsy was named for and 272 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K was the granddaughter of Lady Eliza Belle- field." (According to this correspondent, Betsy did not marry an Adams, as I have stated, but a Fauntleroy.) Next to Colonel Thomas Lee in official man- agement of the company was Major Lawrence Washington, and it is with much satisfaction that I find in the Havemeyer collection a letter of his, the only one I have seen from his hand. It was written apparently to some high of- ficial in England, and is without date — also without much punctuation. Although written with the haste of which it speaks, the writing is clear and the statements are lucid. "Sir, "In compliance to your desire I have drawn an imperfect scatch of the Ohio etc. by which you may form some Idea how the Branches of that River and Potomack interlock. ' ' Potomack River is navigable for small Flats as high up as the Aligany Mountains except an obstruction of seventeen miles imediately above where the Tide flows which is described by the two sides of the River uniting in my scatch. "The Ohio is a dull River and admits an easy Passage for Flats or Canoes within seven AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 273 miles of Lake Erie and by the Branch called Yohiogana within forty-five of the head of Potomack and the Mountains on Savage River admitting an easy Passage through makes the communication between those two Rivers very easy. "Wood's River breaks thro' the Aligany Mountains and has its first Source near Roan- oke and is the Branch Howard and his Party went down about seven years ago when they were made Prisoners ; there are several Ger- mans setled on the head of it to the Eastward of the Aligany Mountains. ''The Lands on Ohio and its numerous Branches are described by all our Traders as vastly rich. The Banks of the River expose Coal in most parts to view. The Indians bring Salt from some Place as yet unknown to our Traders. There are numbers of large Plains clear of Trees and cover'd with white Clover. The Country is generally very level and the River affords Fish in great plenty. There are many more Branches of the Missisipi So of the Ohio that take their rise out of the same Ridge of Mts. On one aback of Carolina live the Cherekees and on the back of Georgia the great Nation of Indians the Chekesaws and still more So the Creek Indians they live in 274 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK North Carolina but not on the Branches of the Missisipi. The Ohio is inhabited by the Na- tions tributary to the Six Nations to whom duringtheWar many Indians Friends to France heretofore join'd. The French have no Setle- ment nearer than the Mouth of the Ohbash [Wabash]. The Lands on Lake Erie are said likewise to be very fine. " I have now describ'd in an imperfect man- ner owing a litle to the hurry I am now in, the Country aback of Pensilvania Virginia and Carolina and shall now add my thoughts on the advantage arising by a due encouragement to the speedy Setlement thereof. "The Skin Trade ever has been deemed a beneficial one to all Nations whose Dominions or Course of Traffick would permit them to carry it on. The English have had the French their great Rivals herein who by claiming what I apprehend in nowise belongs to them have prevented our Traders penetrating further into the Country nor indeed could they otherwise well have done it for want of proper places of security on the Ohio for their Goods it being impossible to send to Philadelphia or Virginia every time they want Goods to sort their Car- gos without the loss of so much time and ex- pense as distroy'd the Trade this Evil which AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 275 is a very great one and which I have heard the Traders complain much of will be remedied by the Scheem the Ohio Company are in- tending to pursue who propose keeping a large QZ of Goods at the joining of the Ohio and Monongala in a Fortified Store which are to be sold the Indians or Traders at a moderate advance and can during any season of the Year be easily procured by the out Traders who follow the Indians many hundred miles during the Hunting Season. It appears evi- dent (and is so in fact) that the Trade can be better supply'd from the Head of Potomack than any other way the navigation from Eu- rope being much safer and shorter and the Land Carriage very easy. ''That its the Interest exclusive of Trade to get possession of that extensive Country I be- lieve no one doubts and so I shall say litle more than that the further we extend our Frontier the safer we render the Interior Do- minions and the French having possession of the Ohio might easily invade Virginia etc. for our Mts. are not so formidable as to be much security, and that it can be never better timed than now when the Indians are our Friends and would assist by proper encouragement in securing any Setlement the Crown would 276 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK think proper to make and nothing can more contribute to keeping them our Friends than contriving them the necessaries of Life at the easiest rates which the setling the Ohio will effectually do; The Indians being no Geog- raphers esteem those the honestest who sell the cheapest and was the reason why the In- dians on Ohio proclaim'd War against the French who were so distressed in their Trade as not to be able to supply the Indians on reasonable Terms, neither can they ever do it the navigation up St. Lawrence being very dangerous as likewise there are places they are obliged to unload and carry over land from St. Lawrence to ye Lakes and then the Cur- rent in some places is vastly strong and on the Lakes very wild and dangerous so that I think the head of Potomack the safest and easiest way the Indian can be supply'd. "U his Majesty would ingage the Indians by annual presents it would certainly be the most speedy method of setling that Country for no Persons will dare to live there without being well convinced of the affection of the Indians. Germany will readily afford inhabi- tants etc. '* I have so litle time at command that I am forced to leave off without even being at lei- AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 277 zure to read over what I have w^rit, but if it can convey to you any of the Ideas I have of the usefulness of the setling the Ohio it an- swers my end and I hope you will excuse the rest. I am ''Your most humble Servt *'Lawe Washington ''Nov: 7th, 1749." The Wabash is called Obash by Governor Dinwiddie (1754). "Wood's River" is now the Great Kanawha. It was discovered by Abram Wood, who crossed the Blue Ridge at "Wood's Gap." On Fry and Jefferson's Map it is called "Great Konhaway, called also Wood's and New River. " (Dinwiddie Papers, I, pp. 62 and 282.) It was probably from the Kanawha salt-licks that the Indians got the salt to which Major Washington alludes. His appreciation of the coal-field is notable. Among those interested in the Ohio Com- pany was the London merchant Robert Din- widdie, afterwards Governor of Virginia. Din- widdie had in various ways been connected with the colony, — as trader and as inspector of customs, — and was well acquainted with the Washington and Fairfax families of Vir- ginia. On the death of Thomas Lee the presi- 36 278 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK dencyoftheOhio Company devolved on Major Lawrence Washington, to whom the follow- ing letter was addressed, "Pr Collo Fairfax," beneath this name being the incomprehensi- ble letters "D. D." Colonel William Fairfax had passed a year in England. ''London, 20^^ March 17^0/1 ''Dear Sir, "Having so good an oppty as yr Father in Law Collo Fairfax, 1 embrace it to acquaint you of the receipt of yours by him and one since. The last gave me pleasure, that the Dutch wanted 50,000 acres of the Land granted to Ohio Compy, and observe what you write about their own Minister, and to endeavour to have them freed from paying to the Church of England. I fear this will be a difficult Task to get over, and at prest the Parliamt is so busy with public affairs, and the Ministry in course engaged, add thereto the Indisposition of our friend Mr H.y., that we must wait some time before we can reply but be assured of my ut- most endeavours therein. "The Death of my good friend Collo [Tho- mas] Lee, gave me real concern, as he was a person ggreatly Valued, and indeed the Ohio Company have lost a Worthy manager, but AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 279 as the last in course devolves on you, I have no doubt of your Exerting yourself therein if your health will allow of it, it will give me a sensible pleasure to hear of your confirmed good state of health. ''As to news here 1 refer you to the bearer who can tell you more fully than 1 can write. I begg to hear from you as soon as possible, and if I can be of any service to you freely Comand ' ' Sr y r most obedt huie Servt , ''Rob'^ Dinwiddie. ''My Wife joins me in kind respects to your Lady and family." The "Mr H.y." alluded to was John Han- bury, a great London merchant, an eminent Quaker, and an original grantee of the Ohio Company. He died in 1758. The above let- ter is, I believe, the earliest known from Din- widdie. In the collection is also a letter of earlier date than any yet published from the great Virginian, George Mason of Gunston Hall. He was among the most active pro- moters of the Ohio Company, and this letter, "pr favour of Mr. Parker," was addressed to the new manager, "Major Lawrence Wash- ington, Fairfax County." 28o BARONS OF THE POTOMACK "May 27th, 1750. ''Dear Sir, ''As the Gentm Mr. Parker offers for Se- curity are utter Strangers to Me, I cannot take upon Me to say whether I think them suffi- cient or not ; but as Mr. Parker's Affairs are circumstanced, I imagine they are the only Security He can at this Time give, and there- fore I most readily concur in the same Opinion with You, that it's better to accept them than delay sending up the Goods any longer ; for we have already given to our Rivals the Pennsilvns too many Advantages over us by suffering them to engage the Interest of the Indians, and raising in them numberless Pre- judices against the Ohio Compy. While We, instead of fulfilling our Engagements and complying wth our Promises in Supplying them wth Goods, have lain quite still, as if we were altogether unconcerned in the Mat- ter; for these Reasons I shou'd look upon anything that put stop to the Trade for this Season, as utterly destructive of our whole Scheme, and think it ought carefully to be avoided ; and I have really so good an Opin- ion of Parker that I can hardly think He'll offer to defraud us ; besides I believe his All depends upon discharging this Trust with AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 28 1 Honour and Integrity. — But as the Company have ordered that he shou'd give Security, and have relyed upon us to take it, we ought by all means to observe their Direc- tions ; and I make no Doubt, let the event be what it will, that they will approve what we have done ; as they must be convinced We act upon no other motion than the Interest of the Company. — I therefore agree to accept the Security Mr. Parker offers till a Geni Meet- ing of the Company, at wch Time they may accept or reject them as they think proper, — but I hardly think the Instrument of Writing Mr. Parker showed me authentic, and am of Opinion they ought to bind themselves wth him in a Penal Bond under their Hands and Seals; but as this cannot be done imedi- ately I suppose there can be no Risque in letting him have a Load of Goods now, and desiring him to have such Bond signed agst he comes down again. Had Mr Chapman been at Home, I shd have consulted him upon it; as he is not, I give you my own senti- ments, and am wth my comps to the Ladys '' Sr Yr most humble servt ''George Mason. ''I wrote to stop our second Cargoe till next Spring." 282 BARONS OF THE POTOMAC K The Chapman referred to was Pearson Chap- man, whose residence was in Maryland, be- tween the spots afterwards occupied by Wash- ington and Georgetown, and just opposite Gunston Hall. Not far from the Chapman's was ''Mattawoman" (on the Maryland side), from which house the above letter was prob- ably written; for, a few weeks before, this \^ young Virginian had become the happy hus- band of Anne, daughter of Colonel Eilbeck of ''Mattawoman" — the young lady being al- ready, at sixteen, famed for her beauty. Early in the year 1750 William Fairfax, ac- companied by his son-in-law, Major Carlyle, visited England, and we have two interesting letters written from that country to Major Lawrence Washington. The first is dated at Whitehaven, July 6, 1750. "Sir, "As I was several times Seasick in our Pas- sage your Bristol Water and the good plumb Cake as often entertaind me agreably, and used with that care as to bring some of Each hither. Mr. [Joseph] Deane soon came and kindly invited Us to dine with him where Mrs. Deane joynd in a friendly Enquiry after yours and Nanny's Welfare. This Town is AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 283 dayly encreasing in its building of Houses and Shipping. Sr James Lowther is at London attended by his Physicians. All the Gentle- men appear very complaisant. We lodge at Mr. Hicks', and propose setting off with Him on Monday to visit Mrs. Hicks at Pap Castle in our way to Carlisle. When I din'd at Mr. How's, he gave Me the enclosed Advertise- ments assuring that if our Planters would not conform to tye up their Tobacco in Hands or Bundles as the French insist, their Agents are directed not to purchase. 1 suppose that Al- teration will not appear to give any extraor- dinary Trouble especially as the French Market demands it to be so handled. You will there- fore please to recomend the Consideration thereof to your Friends and where you can influence. — Pray tell Nancy that I shall not forget her Tokens upon my Arrival in London. We set off for Carlisle to morrow to visit Mrs. Carlyle, thence to Kendall and York, where my Stay will be uncertain ; however if yue have any Thing for me to negotiate for yue in London yue may direct for me at Mr. Noden's. I have writ to my Lord Fx, desiring Him to acquaint me wherein I have given cause for so much coldness as He Seemed to treat me, yue and Mr. Carlyle, for it would give me real 284 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK concern to have it continued, which would embitter the Satisfaction your Neighbourhood would otherwise enjoy. And my Stay in Eng- land would be rendered more agreable, on hearing that a good Harmony was promoted and maintained in our Familys. — We did not fail in our Passage to remember yue all at Mt Vernon in our Toasts. Hoping Sally [Carlyle] has got a pretty Boy to dandle till his Papa returns and relieves the Sport, With kindest Love to yue all and Friends, 1 am Dear Sir, ''Your affecte Parent ''and faithful Friend, "W: Fairfax." The next letter is addressed "To Lawrence Washington Esqr ; at Mount Vernon on Poto- mack River Virginia." "London 12th October 1750. "Sir, "1 had the Pleasure to receive your two Letters which relieved an anxious Suspense Mr Carlyle and 1 were under on Accot of being told of Sally's dangerous Symptoms in a can- cerous Breast. You'l do Us Justice in think- ing that your present Narration other expected Recovery has only made our Enjoyment easy AND THE RAPPAHANNOCK 285 and sometimes cheerful. I have not been in- terrupted in my Travel and Visits by any con- fining Disorder, and hope even the Winter approaching will not prove too severe in its chilling Attacks.— I am kindly lodgd and en- tertaind at Mr Noden's where I have seen the Earl of Haddington lately married to Mrs Loyd and appear to be an affable and happy couple. They are preparing to set off for Scotland there to live with a noble Spirit but becoming Oecon- omy . The present weather is rainy and cloudy which prevents my going dayly abroad. Majr Fx. is expected in Town next week. I have not visited Mr Bladen yet but intend it soon. 1 am sorry Lord Fx. continues to show his Dislike as None of our Family have given just Occasion ; And 1 trust G Fx. will not do any Thing willingly to Offend so as to make a Pretext for the intended Removal you men- tion. Then if such should happen We might with better Reflection endeavour to make the Best of it. As to Household Linnen &c ex- pect to carry some with us having talkt with Mrs Carlyle about the Want G. Fx may be exposed to, even before We can arrive in the Spring. I have wrote to Col. Gary for his kind assistance. I shall be glad to hear that your Bro. and Self received Benefit at the 37 286 BARONS OF THE POTOMACK Springs. I am much pleased with my Coming for as well in Yorkshire as here I have renewd that good Acquaintance, as I trust G Fx. and my other Family may derive some Advantage. I am dear Sir ''Yrs and Nancy's very affect Parent ^'W: Fairfax." "Mr. Bladen" was the uncle of William Fairfax, an eminent classical scholar, who became one of the Lords of Trade. With these letters this book may draw to a close. They leave us with a feeling that interesting facts remain undiscovered in the early history of the Washington and Fairfax families. George Washington himself wrote to the Earl of Buchan that there had been ''intermarriages" between the Fairfax and Washington families before they came to America, but only one has been discovered — that of Henry Fairfax, father of William, with the sister of Mrs. Henry Washington of South Cave, Yorkshire. No connection be- tween these northern Washingtons and those of Virginia has been made out, yet William Fairfax's letters suggest their acquaintance, H 70 89^ ^^''^O*^ \,**^**\#^ ^.'^^^''aO'^ \,*'^-'\#^ .^'^