USA > Maryland > Some old historic landmarks of Virginia and Maryland : described in a hand-book for the tourist over the Washington-Virginia railway > Part 12
USA > Virginia > Some old historic landmarks of Virginia and Maryland : described in a hand-book for the tourist over the Washington-Virginia railway > Part 12
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In the woods near adjoining, rows of sunken mounds indicated the family burial- place. A score of graves may still be counted, without stone or vestige of enclosure. The marble slabs which had marked the last resting place of William Fairfax and Deborah, his wife, the first master and mistress, and which had remained intact until a few years before the war, had been sacreligiously broken up and carried away.
The inscription read as follows:
"HERE REST THE REMAINS OF DEBORAH CLARKE FAIRFAX WHO DEPARTED THIS TROUBLESOME LIFE ON THE FOURTEENTH DAY OF - 1747 IN THE SIXTY-SEVENTH YEAR OF HER AGE.
SHE WAS TIIE WIDOW OF FRANCIS CLARKE OF NEW SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS COLONY, AND LATE WIFE OF WILLIAM FAIRFAX, ESQ., COLLECTOR OF HIS MAJESTY'S CUSTOMS ON THE SOUTH POTOMAC, AND ONE OF TIIE KING'S IIONORABLE COUNCIL OF VIRGINIA. IN EVERY STATION OF LIFE SHE WAS WORTHY OF IMITATION. A FAITHFUL AND LOVING WIFE. THE BEST OF MOTHERS. A SINCERE AND AMIABLE FRIEND. IN ALL RELIGIOUS DUTIES WELL INSTRUCTED AND
OBSERVANT, AND HAS GONE WHERE ONLY SUCH VIRTUES CAN BE REWARDED."
The tablet over the grave of the proprietor and master of the homestead who died 1757 disappeared long before that of the mistress. Some portions of the old enclosure were still lying around the burial place and with these the writer improvised a rude cross over the remains of the two, as represented in the picture of the place, and gath- ering some wild flowers blooming near by, strewed them about with kindly regard to light up for the hour at least, the utter loneliness of the spot.
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OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND.
Surely this place of sepulture, presenting in its loneliness and neglect so saddening a contrast to the kindly, reverential care which has been bestowed by a grateful people upon the home and last resting-place of his neighbor and early companion, George Washington, deserves a fitting enclosure, and should receive at the hands of friends and descendants that care and loving attention which the eminent worth and characters of the sleepers there entombed so well deserve. Who then of all Virginians who fondly cherish the memories of the ante-revolutionary days and revere the men who were in- strumental in evolving their state and national governments from colonial chaos will now come forward and initiate a movement for the accomplishment of this object. Not only should an inelosure be provided, but a monument to their memory as well.
S
GRAVES OF WILLIAM AND DEBORAH FAIRFAX.
"Where shall onee the wanderer weary Meet his resting-place and shrine:
Under palm trees by the Ganges, Under lindens of the Rhine?
Shall I somewhere in the desert Owe my grave to stranger hands?
Or upon some lonely seashore Rest at last beneath the sands?
'Tis no matter! God's wide heaven Must surround me there as here:
And as death lamps o'er me swinging Night by night the stars burn clear."
The old road running down from the mansion to the river's edge over which Wash- ington so frequently passed in his visits by water to his friends the Fairfaxes with whom he was on the most intimate and cordial relations, may still be traced through a growth of pines, oaks and cedars.
Here at Belvoir in those primitive times lived like feudal magnates, the representa- tives of the honorable Fairfax family, who marrying and giving in marriage with other noted scions of Virginia, saw their wealth and influence steadily increase as the years passed on.
As we behold the mansion now, in imagination after the lapse of a century and a half, with the help of not only Washington's description, but with that of accounts gathered from old inhabitants of the neighborhood, many years since dust, and with the aid of the traeings of the ruins already described, our idea is that of a stately manor house, very similar, in outline and finish, to most of the colonial dwellings still to be seen in Virginia, down to two generations ago. It has two stories and an attie, with steep over jutting roofs, dormer windows, and huge outside chimneys of stone. There are belfry, and outlook, and ample verandas, for the summer breezes, . and views of the near flowing river. Within, the halls and rooms are spacious, with high ceilings, wainscoted and panelled walls, and the fireplaces are wide for warmth and cheery flames. This is our ideal of the "Belvoir House." There is not only a
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"fruit garden" as has been stated, with bountiful supply of varieties of fruits, but there is a garden of flowers where "my lady Fairfax" has her box-bordered beds of lady- slippers, sweet-williams, marigolds, shrubs, lilacs, and the like; and there are winding paths, and carriage ways around the mansion, which lead down under the branches of great oaks, to the edge of the rippling waters or out into the broad fields adjoining.
As we see it, it was an inviting retreat, a home wherc taste and toil had well done their parts to beautify and adorn the surroundings.
The apartments of the house, judging from partial inventories of the household effects sold at two public sales in 1774, must have been furnished as comfortably and luxuriously as any "Old England" manor house of that period. The purchases made by Col. George Washington in August, 1774, alone amounted to nearly two hundred pounds sterling. They were as follows:
I mahogany shaving desk 4 £, I settee bed and furniture 13 £, 4 mahogany chairs 4 £, I chamber car- pet I £ IS, I oval glass with gilt frame in the "green room" 4 £ 5s, I mahogany chest and drawers in Mrs. Fairfax's chamber 12.£ Ios, I mahogany sideboard 12 £ 5s, I mahogany cistern and stand 4 £, I mahogany voider, a dish tray and knife tray I £ Ios; I Japan bread tray 7s, 12 chairs and 3 window curtains from dining room 31 £, I looking glass and gilt frame 13 £ 5s, 2 candle sticks and a bust of Shakespeare I £ 6s, 3 floor carpets in gentlemen's room 3 £ 5s, I .large carpet 11 £, I mahogany wash desk, &c., 1 £ 2s 6d; I mahogany close stool 1 £ 105, 2 matresses 4 £ Ios, I pair andirons, tongs, fender and shovel, 3 £ Ios; I pair andirons, tongs, fender and shovel, 3 £ 175 6d; I pair andirons, tongs, fender and shovel, 1 £ 17S 6d; I pair dog irons in great kitchen 3 £, I hot rache 4 £, I roasting fork 2s 6d, I plate basket 35, I mahog- any spider make tea table I & IIS, I screen 10s, I carpet 2 £ 15s, I pair bellows and brush 11s, 2 window curtains 2 £, I large marble mortar I £ Is, I hot rache in cellar 1 £ 75 6d. 2 mahogany card tables 4 £, I bed, pair of blankets, 19 coverlets, pillows, bolsters and I mahogany table, 11 £; bottles and pickle pots 14S, I dozen mountain wine 1 £ 48, 4 chariot glasses frames 12s 6d, 12 pewter water plates I £.
Another inventory of the Belvoir house furniture is given by Conway in his "Barons of the Potomac." This was sold at a public sale in December of 1774.
In the dining room-1 mahogany 5 ft. sideboard table 5 £ 5s, 1 pair mahogany square card tables 5 £ 5s, I oval cistern on frame 2 £ 175, 1 knife tray 6s, I scalloped mahogany stand 14s, 2 dish trays 1 £ 12S, I large mahogany cut rim tea tray I £ 108, 1 sconce glass, gilt in burnished gold, 15£; 12 mahogany chairs 17 £, 12 covers for chairs 1 £ 105, 3 crimson marine drapery curtains 11 £ 5s, 1 large wilton Persian carpet 9 £ 15s, 1 pair tongs, shovel, dogs and fender I £ 10S.
In the parlor-I mahogany table and I glass to take off 3 £ 15s, I mahogany spider leg table 2 £ 5s, I folding fire screene lined with yellow 1 £ Is, 2 mahogany arm chairs 5 £ 5s, I chimney glass 10 £, dogs, tongs, shovel and fender, 2 £ 145 6d; 2 Saxon green plain drapcry curtains 5 £.
In Mrs. Fairfax's chamber-I mahogany chest of drawers 8 £ 105, I bedstead and curtains 8s, window curtains 1 £ 155, 4 chairs 3 £ 2s, covers for same Ss, I dressing table 10 £, I pair dogs, shovel and tongs, 1 £ 13S.
In Col. Fairfax's drawing room-1 oval glass in burnished gold 5 £ ros, I mahogany shaving table 3 £ 3s, I mahogany desk, &c., 16 £ 16s; 4 chairs and covers 4 £ 8s, I mahogany settee bedstead, Saxon green, 7 £ 18s, covers for same gs, I mahogany Pembroke table 1 £ 18s, dogs, shovel, tongs and fender, 1 £ 13S, utensils for kitchen 20 €.
Another inventory of many other articles of furniture we omit for want of space.
As our readers may be curious to know something about the stock of literature in a gentleman's library as well as of the style of his houschold furniture one hundred and fifty years ago on the banks of the Potomac, we give the inventory of the books of William Fairfax in his Belvoir home as follows: Batavia illustrated, London Magazine, 7 vols., Parkinson's Herbal, Knolle's History 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, Laws of Merchants, Laws of Virginia, Complete Clerk and Conveyancer, Hawkin's Pleas of the Crown, Gunnel's Offences of the Realm of England, Ainsworth's English and Latin Dictionary, Haine's Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, Blackmore's Prince Arthur, History of the Twelve Cesars by Seutonius, John Calvin's Institution of Religion, Fuller's Church History from its Rise, Locke on the Human Understanding, A New Body of Geography, Croope's Law Reports, Heylin's Cosmography in 4 vols. Collection of Voyages and Travels, Political Discourses by Henry, Earl of Monmouth, Wooten's State of Christendom, Hobart's Law Reports, Johnson's Excellency of Monarchical Government, Latin and French Dictionary, Langley's Pomona or Gar- dening, A Political Piece, Strada's History of the Low Country Wars, Spanish and
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English Dictionary, Latin Bible, A Poem on Death, Judgment and Hell, Knox's Mar- tyrology, Jacob's Law Dictionary, Chamberlayne's Great Britain, Hughes's Natural History of Barbadoes, Laws of His Majesty's Plantations. The way to get Wealth. . This, in those early times of bookmaking, was doubtless considered not only an exten- sive library, but a learned one for a private home, and may be taken now as an index of the general drift and bent of the literary inclinations of the Belvoir Fairfaxes. It was all solid reading; though in these days, when styles and tastes in literature are so widely different, it would be accounted very dry reading, and not of much value or in- terest by the general reader; and one cannot help speculating now, after the lapse of so long a time, how variously, in the mutations of the generations the quaint volumes of the collection were scattered after their sale, into what different hands they passed, and whether any of them are still in existence in any library of to-day. Doubtless they found their way in the course of years into the lofts and garrets of the surrounding neighborhoods, were over and over resold at public auctions and were eventually con- sidered as rubbish and went the ways of destruction.
Lord Thomas Fairfax did not visit the new world until the year 1739, and then he did not come with a decided intention of permanently remaining. However, he spent a year in examining the country and then returned to England. But he had been so well pleased by his Virginia empire, its delightful climate, its virgin freshness and beauty, the fertility of its lands and their varied resources, that after settling up his personal affairs, disposing of his commission in the "Royal Blues" and giving to his cousin Robert his Kentish estates, he determined to bid a long adieu to the home of his nativity-a longer one perhaps than he imagined it would be; for he never recrossed the seas, but died forty years afterward, a veritable hermit in the Shenandoah valley, at the extreme age of 93 years. For six years he tarried with his cousin and agent, William, in the newly erected mansion at Belvoir; and it was during some part of this time that he first met the youthful Washington, just fresh from the instruction of "Hobbs" and "Williams," who had taught him the mysteries of the three R's and a smattering of land surveying and had assured him doubtless that he was then ready to begin the great battle of life. And here it was that the great proprietor made a contract with the young graduate of fifteen to brave the perils and dangers of a but slightly explored wilderness, inhabited by treacherous Indians and half breeds, to assist his cousin, George William Fairfax, to survey and map out his remoter possessions in the Shenan- doah valley.
Early in the year 1750 William Fairfax, accompanied by his son-in-law, Major John Carlyle, of Belle Haven, made a visit to England, from which place he wrote home a number of letters still extant, and which would be very interesting reading did space allow of their publication here in our story of Belvoir.
George Wm. Fairfax born as already noticed in Nassau in 1724 succeeded on his father's death which occurred in 1757 to his large estate, and he was heir apparent to the Barony of Cameron. He had been educated in England as was then the usage with the sons of the wealthy colonists. Like his father William he had found favor among his neighbors on account of his many estimable qualities and from time to time he had served them in various public capacities of trust and honor.
In 1748 while a member of the House of Burgesses at Williamsburg he became ac- quainted with Miss Sarah Carey, daughter of Col. Wilson Carey, and in a letter to his cousin Lord Thomas Fairfax he wrote "Dear Cousin Tom, while attending at the General Assembly I have had several opportunities of visiting Miss Carey, and finding her an amiable person, and to represent all the favorable reports made of her, I ad- dressed myself and having obtained the young lady's and the parents' consent we are to be married on the 17th inst."
In 1773, accompanied by his wife he went to England to look after some property he had recently inherited there. They never returned to Virginia, but both died and were buried at Bath, England, without issue, he in 1787, she in 1811.
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On his way over he passed the ships which brought to the colonies the ill-fated cargoes of tea which were either burned or cast overboard in the harbors of Boston. Annapolis and Bridgeton. Washington consented to act as his agent at home in his absence, supposing the agency would be of but short duration. But owing to long delays . in the settlement of his English affairs and the occurrence of the political troubles of the colonies, he never returned to Virginia, although it had been his intention to do so and rebuild the Belvoir Mansion. He finally directed his agent, George Washington to dispose of his household furniture and the stocks and fixtures of the plantation and to lease the premises of Belvoir. A sale was accordingly held on the estate in August, 1774, which continued two days; and a second sale was held in December of the same year. The inventories of the articles of the household furnishings as far as can now be gathered have already been given. The property was then leased to Rev. Andrew Martin, a cousin, for a term of seven years, but in a short time after, the old home was destroyed by fire. The owner's long absence and the fact that the place was desolate, together with the exeitement, and derangement of business incident to the revolutionary war, caused the whole estate to rapidly depreciate in value. The long and incessant cultivation of tobacco and corn crops, chiefly of the former, had absorbed the virgin fertility of the soil, and the broad fields which had formerly been so clamorous with the shouts and refrains of the negro gangs, one by one had lapsed baek into wilderness conditions.
It was very natural that Washington who had been so often a welcome guest in the cheerful, hospitable apartments of the now blackened and desolate walls should write to a friend shortly after, of his great sorrow whenever he visited the ill-fated place. In that letter to one of the Fairfaxes in England he says: "It is a matter of sore regret when I cast my eyes toward Belvoir, which I often do, to reflect that the former occu- pants of it with whom I lived in such harmony and friendship are there no more, and that the ruins ean only be viewed as the mementoes of former pleasures."
After the removal of George William Fairfax to England, Washington, in a letter to him in June, 1786, thus expressed himself: "Though envy is no part of my nature, yet the picture you have drawn of your present home and way of living is enough to create a strong desire in me to be a participant in the tranquility and rural amusements you have described as your lot. I am getting into the latter as fast as I can, being determined to make the remainder of my life easy, let the affairs of it go as they may. I am not a little obliged to you for the assurance of contributing to this by procuring for me a buek and a doe of the best English deer; and in regard to the offer of my good friend, Mrs. Fairfax, I have to say that I will receive with great pleasure and gratitude the seeds of any trees or shrubs she may be pleased to send me which are not natives of this country, but reconcilable to its climate; and while my attentions are bestowed upon the nurture of them, they would, if anything were necessary to do it, remind me of the happy moments I have spent in conversations on this and other sub- jeets with your lady at Belvoir."
Early in 1775 Washington relinquished the agency of the Belvoir estate, as his time was chiefly absorbed by the pressing duties imposed upon him by the imminence of the revolutionary struggle.
Years ago this estate of Belvoir with its two thousand five hundred acres of good farming lands, passed from the hands of the Fairfax family; and with the exception of about two hundred and fifty aeres the entire area has lapsed back to a veritable wilder- ness, chiefly of pines and cedars, which have grown up from the ridges, still, every- where to be seen, of the old corn and tobacco crops. Once, nearly every acre of its arable portions was under tillage, but as the impoverishing process of eropping with- out remuneration to the soil went on, through the generations, as was so often the ease in old Virginia, the wornout acres here and there were abandoned to the invasion of the wiry sedge grass and wild wood growth. The encroachments were slow but sure, for there were no hands to cheek nor stay their progress. Now, this wilderness is awaiting the coming of axes and hoes and ploughs which, in the hands of eapable, in- dustrious, and practical settlers, will reverse the order of nature, clear the eumbered
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lands, turn anew the kindly furrows, scatter again the seeds, gather again the harvests and build up in the wastes, homes of comfort, with gardens and orchards, and all the surroundings which make rural life so pleasant and desirable.
Almost within sight of the National Capital, lying on tide water, and near to the line of the new Electric Railway, the realization of all these possibilities cannot, we think, be so very remote; and some lover of the picturesque and beautiful, with historic pride and veneration for the associations of the "dear, dead past beyond recall," which linger around the famous locality by the "grand old river," will, we trust, come with ample means and classic taste, and on the foundations of the old Fairfax home, erect a structure which will be worthy of the superb situation and the story of its memorable events.
In 1814 what portion of the walls of Belvoir were left standing from the fire, were leveled by the shot from the British fleet of General Gordon when retreating down the river from the sacking of Alexandria. Little did George William think, such is the irony of fate, when at the beginning of the revolutionary struggle, with a leaning to the British side of. the controversy, he passed out over the threshold of his stately home, on his way to England, that it would be soon burned, and that British shot and shell would finish up what the flames had left of it to be destroyed.
George William Fairfax, born 1724, was married to Sarah Carey, daughter of Col. Wil- son Carey of Celeys on James River, in 1748. A few years before the American Revo- lution he and his wife left Belvoir and went to England expecting to return, but never did. They died at Bath, he in 1787, she in ISII.
The curious wayfarer of our time who strays by the site of the once stately mansion of Belvoir will find only fallen walls, blackened hearthstones, mounds of briar grown bricks and rubbish, to mark the historic spots where through so many years went on the long forgotten routine of domestic events and incidents of colonial life in the Fairfax family succession. Of all these events and incidents which would be fraught with so much interest to the present generation, only the most fragmentary accounts have come down to us through either written record or word of tradition. Only here and there a canvas memory-some familiar names, and some wandering, vague report of grace and loveliness and gallant exploit. Their failings are lost sight of and no longer dwell in living recollection. Let them so remain, bright images gilded by the sunlight of the past and clad in all their halo of romance-with nothing hidden by the distance but their human imperfections. We know that in connection with Mount Vernon, this home of the Fairfaxes was one of the chief social centres of the tide water region of the Old Dominion, with always open doors and a generous hospitality for the coming guest. We know that within its walls our Washington was an oftimes and welcome guest. From Mount Vernon it was but a few minutes' sail or pull with the oars; and well he knew how to handle both. Here it was that he met the charming Miss Mary Carey, sister of Mrs. George Fairfax, and became conscious for the first time in his stripling years of the conquering fascinations of female charms, only to be denied after- wards the coveted privilege of being a suitor and claimant of the hand and heart of the young lady by the stern and unyielding father, who failed to perceive in the young aspirant a prospect of that wealthy and influential alliance which he had contemplated for his daughter. "His heiress," said the haughty old cavalier, "had been used to riding in her own chariot attended by servitors." The love-lorn youth pressed no more his claim after such an unexpected rebuff, and never saw her but once again. That was when he nodded to her pallid and fainting visage in a window of the old capital of Williamsburg, when he rode through on his triumphal march, with waving banners and music playing, from the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. We know also that Lord Thomas Fairfax, the proprietor, the scholar and graduate of Oxford, and the friend of Addison, the whilom devotee of fashion and gayety in old London town, and the jilted and inconsolable lover, was for years a dweller under the same roof. We know, too, that in those halls were gravely talked over and considered by many great minds of the time, various measures for the public weal in the infant colony, preparatory to their proposal and final enactment in the House of Burgesses at the vice-regal capital
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of Williamsburg. This is all of the story which has come down to us through the long lapse of the years. The rest of it for the most part is silent forever with the dust of the many actors of those times. Some of it may still be preserved in musty letters and other papers in old lofts. and garrets, some time, it may be, to be rescued and unfolded for the curious listener by faithful chroniclers yet to come. But in our fondness for all such reminiscences of the olden times, we may go back in imagination through the dim and shadowy vistas of the past, and giving loose rein to fancy, let it summon up and
thrown at the batteries by the fleet.
on Alexandria. In the fields adjoining, the plow-share every year turns up solid shot and shells which were vised batteries and sharp shooters the passage of Commodore Gordon's British fleet returning from their raid officers of the militia troops of Virginia and Maryland who so persistently disputed with their hastily impro-
1814 it was the headquarters of Captain, afterwards Commodore Perry of Lake Erie fame and the other
This is the only colonial dwelling left standing on the Belvoir estate.
OLD HOUSE ON THE BELVOIR ESTATE.
It is about one mile from the river. In
reincarnate for us the many other guests of high degree who came and went from year to year over those thresholds as social or other occasions invited.
Let us for a time be spectators within those old halls with their massive oaken doors and wide fireplaces, and their wainscoted and pannelled walls whereon hang fowling- pieces and antlers of the chase, and from which look down ancestral faces, and appear
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pictures of old castles and scenes of battle. Many shadowy forms stand out in strange outline before our wondering visions. We smile at their quaint costumes and their ways of speech, but they are men and women well bred, with courtly manners and comely lineaments, and they please us well by their easy dignity and stately demeanor. They pass on and vanish. Another group comes up-a group of neighbors and friends listening intently to the "freshest advices" by the latest ships just in from London. Amsterdam, or Barbadoes to Alexandria or Dumfries, it may have been, after a voyage of weeks or months. The London Gasette informs them of the "wars and rumors of wars" in Europe, of the campaign in Germany and India, and of the course of hostili- ties between England and France; and precious letters are read telling of how all is going with friends they left behind them in the homes so far away over the seas.
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