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William Fitzhugh

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For the archaeologist, see William W. Fitzhugh.
For his son the 19th century Virginia planter and politician, see William Henry Fitzhugh.
William Fitzhugh
Delegate to the
Second Continental Congress
from Virginia
In office
September 12, 1779 – October 31, 1779
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Stafford County
In office
October 15, 1787 – June 22, 1788
Preceded byGustavus Brown Wallace
Succeeded byRichard Brent
Member of the Virginia Senate from Westmoreland, Stafford and King George Counties
In office
May 7, 1781 – October 17, 1785
Preceded byWilliam Brent
Succeeded byThomas Lee
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Stafford County
In office
May 1, 1780 – May6, 1781
Serving with Bailey Washington
Preceded byCharles Carter
Succeeded byThomas Mountjoy
In office
May 5, 1777 – May3, 1778
Serving with Charles Carter
Preceded byn/a
Succeeded byWilliam Brent
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from King Goerge County
In office
October 7, 1776 – May 4, 1778
Serving with Joseph Jones
Succeeded byThomas Jett
Member of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Virginia Revolutionary Conventions from King George County
In office
1774–1776
Serving with Joseph Jones
Member of the House of Burgesses from King George County
In office
1772–1774
Serving with Joseph Jones
Preceded byWilliam Robinson
Succeeded byn/a
Personal details
BornAugust 24, 1741
King George, Virginia
DiedJune 6, 1809(1809-06-06) (aged 67)
Fairfax, Virginia, United States
Resting placePohick Church Cemetery
Lorton, Virginia, USA
Political partyFederalist
SpouseAnn Bolling Randolph
Signature

William Fitzhugh (August 24, 1741 – June 6, 1809) was an American planter, legislator and patriot during the American Revolutionary War who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress for Virginia in 1779, as well as many terms in the House of Burgesses and both houses of the Virginia General Assembly following the Commonwealth's formation.[1] His Stafford County home, Chatham Manor, is on the National Register for Historic Places and serves as the National Park Service Headquarters for the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.[2]

Early and family life

Born into the First Families of Virginia, Fitzhugh was physically born in King George County, Virginia, where his father owned large estates, largely acquired by his grandfather (this man's great-grandfather) before the county's creation. His family traced its descent from Bardolph, Lord of Ravensworth in Richmondshire in the time of William the Conqueror.[3] His great grandfather, also William Fitzhugh (1650-1701), immigrated from England to Virginia from England about 1671, became a successful lawyer and tobacco planter as well the first member of the family to sit in the House of Burgesses (in 1677). He established "Bedford" plantation as his family's seat and by the time he died in 1701, owned 54,000 acres (220 km²) mostly in the Northern Neck of Virginia, most of which this man inherited. His son (also William Fitzhugh, sometimes distinguished as "of Eagle's Nest"), also served as a burgess before his death in 1714. His eldest son Henry Fitzhugh became this man's father, and also served in the House of Burgesses representing Stafford County, before his death in 1742, when this man was a baby.[4] Henry Fitzhugh had married Lucy Carter in 1730, and they had a daughter the next year, who could not inherit land by primogeniture, but who married Benjamin Grymes of Spottsylvania County and also had issue that became prominent among the First Families of Virginia. This man's mother, Lucy Carter, was a daughter of Robert "King" Carter, the largest landowner in Virginia in his lifetime, but who also provided for several other children. Despite losing his father when he was an infant William Fitzhugh of Chatham received a private education suitable to his class. He also lost an eye in a childhood accident, hit by one of his stepbrothers with a horse riding crop.

Chatham Manor, 120 Chatham Lane, Fredericksburg, originally built by William Fitzhugh, 1768-1771, restored, with changes, by Oliver H. Clark for Daniel Bradford Devore, from 1920. Landscape: Ellen Biddle Shipman, from 1922. David Hanlon, gardener.

Despite his visual disability, Fitzhugh married Ann Bolling Randolph (1747–1805), also descended from the First Families of Virginia. His wife's paternal grandparents were William Randolph II and Elizabeth Beverley.[5] This Randolph connection made Ann Fitzhugh cousin to Thomas Jefferson, who visited their home in Fredericksburg. This William and Ann had only one son, William Henry Fitzhugh, who continued the family's planter and political traditions in the 19th century.

Career

Fitzhugh was primary a planter, farming large estates (in several counties in Virginia's Northern Neck and what has now become the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C.) using enslaved labor. He built Chatham Manor on property in Stafford County across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Virginia and completed it in 1771 after three years of construction. The Fitzhughs lived a lavish life there that included experimental farming, horse breeding and racing. After the Revolutionary War, as the economy floundered, Fitzhugh sold Chatham Manor and 1,288 acres (5.2 km2) to Churchill Jones for $20,000.[6]

William Fitzhugh and George Washington visited each other frequently until Washington died in 1799. Washington mentioned Fitzhugh in his diary and they served together on the Pohick Church vestry.[7] Fitzhugh was the last person that Washington visited outside of Mount Vernon before his death.

In the 1787 Virginia tax census, Fitzhugh or relatives of the same name owned 60 enslaved adults older than 16 as well as 91 children in King George County, 4 adult and 5 child slaves in Prince William County, 54 adult and 54 child slaves in Stafford County, 57 adult and 81 child slaves in Fairfax County, and 8 adults and 10 children in Westmoreland County.[8] A man of the same name and possibly him or a relative owned 20 adult and 23 children in nearby Caroline County (south of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County).[9]

After the new U.S. Congress decided to move the national capital to land donated by Virginia and Maryland along the Potomac River to become the new federal city (soon Washington, D.C.), Fitzhugh moved his main residence northward from near Fredericksburg to Alexandria, across from the new federal buildings but part of the District of Columbia from 1790 until decades after Fitzhugh's death. His cousin Col. Henry Fitzhugh (1723-1783; son of Burgess Henry Fitzhugh who died in 1745) having died, Fitzhugh acquired much of his estate in Fairfax County (where north Springfiled is now located) from his heirs.[10] In 1796 William Fitzhugh built another mansion, that he called Ravensworth. That Fairfax County property became his country home, with the Fitzhughs spending winters at their townhouse in Alexandria. Ravensworth stood until about 1925, when it burned under mysterious circumstances.[11]

About 1799, William Fitzhugh bought the house at 607 Oronoco Street, Alexandria, Virginia, which is now usually known as "The Boyhood Home of Robert E. Lee." The house had been built in 1795 by John Potts, Jr. After William Fitzhugh's death, William Henry Fitzhugh inherited the property and rented it to the Lee family.

Political career

Fitzhugh first served as a legislator when Virginia's General Assembly consisted solely of the House of Burgesses. He was one of two part-time representatives from King George County, and served alongside Joseph Jones between 1772 and 1775.[12] When tensions with Britain escalated and Virginia colonial governor John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, dissolved the Assembly, Fitzhugh and his co-Burgess from King George, Joseph Jones, continued to serve their County in all five ad hoc Virginia Revolutionary conventions (some held in Williamsburg and others in Richmond), as well as in the first sessions of the Virginia House of Delegates after creation of the new state government.[13] Fitzhugh was also a member of the Revolutionary Committee of Safety in 1774-75. During the American Revolutionary War Fitzhugh was a commissioner of two arms and munitions factories. He represented Stafford County as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates beginning in 1777.[14] Voters in Westmoreland, Stafford and King George Counties elected and re-elected Fitzhugh to the state Senate.[15] He last represented Stafford County in the House of Delegates in 1787-1788.[16]

Fitzhugh also became a presidential elector for the 1789 election from Westmoreland District.[17] That District consisted of King George County, Lancaster County, Northumberland County, Richmond County, Stafford County and Westmoreland County, which cover the area between the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers.[18] All of the 10 Virginia electors who voted cast one of their two votes for George Washington. Although Fitzhugh's second vote is unknown, 5 Virginia electors cast their other vote for John Adams, 3 cast theirs for George Clinton, 1 cast his for John Hancock and 1 cast his for John Jay.[19] In a letter written by James Madison to Thomas Jefferson on March 29, 1789, 'Mr W Fitzhugh of Chatham' is described as a Federalist[20]

In 1804 Fitzhugh's daughter Mary Lee Fitzhugh was married in the parlor of the Alexandria townhouse to George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington and adopted grandson of George Washington. In 1831 their daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, married Robert E. Lee.

Fitzhugh graves at Pohick Church; William's is on the extreme left.

Death and legacy

Fitzhugh died in 1809 at the age of 69, leaving behind the three of his children who survived to adulthood. He was initially buried at Ravensworth, but when the mansion was destroyed, his remains and gravestone were moved to historic Pohick Church cemetery in Lorton.

References

  1. ^ "FITZHUGH, William - Biographical Information". Retrieved 25 October 2016.
  2. ^ William Fitzhugh at National Park Service web site for Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park Retrieved September 8, 2012.
  3. ^ Hardy, Colonial Families of the Southern States p. 219
  4. ^ Hardy pp. 220-222
  5. ^ Bellet, Louise Pecquet du (1907). Some Prominent Virginia Families. Retrieved 9 December 2014.
  6. ^ NPS
  7. ^ http://www.nps.gov/frsp/gwchat/htm
  8. ^ Netti Schriener-Yantis and Florene Speakman Love, The 1787 Census of Virginia (Springfield, Virginia: Genealogical Books in Print 1987) pp. 365,, 901, 990, 1062, 1115
  9. ^ Schreiner-Yantis p. 733
  10. ^ http://ravensworthstory.org/people/owners/fitzhugh-family/fitzhugh-henry-colonel
  11. ^ http://braddockheritage.org/content/vault/Stuntz_Mayo_c092fa2e92.pdf
  12. ^ Cynthia Miller Leonard, Virginia's General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 103, 106
  13. ^ Leonard pp. 110, 113, 115, 118, 120, 123
  14. ^ Leonard p. 127, 139
  15. ^ Leonard pp. 144, 148, 152, 155
  16. ^ Leonard p. 166
  17. ^ The Documentary history of the first Federal elections, 1788–1790, by Gordon DenBoer, Volume 2, page 303
  18. ^ http://elections.lib.tufts.edu/aas_portal/view-election.xq?id=MS115.002.VA.1789.00027
  19. ^ The Documentary history of the first Federal elections, 1788-1790, by Gordon DenBoer, Volume 2, pages 304-5
  20. ^ Cited in 'The Documentary history of the first Federal elections, 1788-1790', by Gordon DenBoer, Volume 2, page 408
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