Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/426

Catherine, daughter of Lord Culpepper, and thus acquired the title to vast estates in the northern neck of Virginia, and also in the Shenandoah valley. Their son, Thomas, was educated at Oxford, en- joyed the reputation of a man of wit and letters,

and was in early life a contributor to the "Spectator."

When he became sixth Lord Fairfax, he

sent his cousin, Sir William, son of Henry, to take charge of the Virginia estates. Sir William's daughter, Anne, married Lawrence, elder brother of George Washington. In 1739. Thomas came himself to Virginia. Remaining about a year, he returned to England, when, on accoimt of an alleged disappointment in love, he closed his affairs in England and came a second time to his Vir- ginia estate in 1745. Plis inherited domain em- braced all that section lying between the Potomac and Rappahannock, comprising the twenty-one counties of Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, Westmoreland, Stafford, King George, Prince Will- iam, Fairfax, Loudoun, Fauquier, Culpeper, Clark, Madison, Page, Shenandoah, Hardy, Hamp- shire, Morgan, Berkely, Jefferson, and Frederick. The area was 5,282.000 acres, and formed nearly one quarter of the commonwealth of Virginia. Lord Fairfax lived for several years with Sir Will- iam at Belvoir, and thus in 1748 he made the ac- quaintance of George Washington, then a youth of sixteen, and, impressed with his energy and talents, employed him to survey his lands lying west of the Bkie Ridge. This was the beginning of an inti- macy between Fairfax and Washington, which survived all differences of opinion on political sub- jects, and terminated only with the death of the former. So favorable was the report of Washing- ton, that his employer soon afterward took up his residence at Greenway court (see illustration), in the midst of a manor of 10,000 acres, about twelve miles from Winchester, where he resided during the remainder of his life. Here he laid out a farm, and put it under a high state of cultivation. He was very fond of hunting. He was indulgent to all who held lands imder him and around him. kind to the poor, and allowed them a large part of the surplus produce of his estate. During the panic on the Virginian frontier after the defeat of Braddock, Fairfax organized a troop of horse, and, as lord-lieutenant of Frederick county, called out the local militia. Although a pronounced loyalist, his hospitality and noble qualities caused him to be held in so much esteem and veneration that dur- ing the entire Revolutionary war he was never in- sulted or molested, and his property was equally respected by Americans and British. The great wealth in the immense clay deposits in that sec- tion of Virginia being unavailable, Lord Faii-fax had brought from England the brick used for the erection of Christ church. Alexandria, the church at Falls Church Corners, and the hotel in Alexandria where Washington had his headquarters. He was a friend and patron of Washington's early life, and saw, with the most intense anguish, that the widow's son, who surveyed his lands, was destined to be the great instrument for dismem- bering the British empire. The surrender at Yorktown deeply wounded his national pride, and, according to tradition, was the immediate cause of his death, which happened soon afterward. He was a dark, swarthy man, more than six feet in height, of large frame, and extraordinary strength. His remains were deposited under the communion table of the Episcopal church in Winchester, but were removed in 1838, and the old church was torn down to make way for the erection of a pile of buildings. He never married, and his extensive domain descended to his only surviving brother, Robert Fairfax, who became the seventh Lord Fairfax, but, as the estate was in the possession of Thomas during the Revolution, it was confiscated. — George William, b. in England; d. in Bath, England. 3 A|)ril, 1787, was the son of Thomas's first cousin. Col. Sir William Fairfax, lieutenant of the county of Fairfax, and member and president of the council in Virginia. He was educated in England, and. coming to Virginia in early man- hood, became quickly identified with the country. He was the early companion of Washington and his associate as surveyor of lands. Some property in Yorkshire having descended to him in 1773, he went to England, and, in consequence of the political troubles which followed, did not return to America. During the war he evinced much kindness to American prisoners who were carried to England. A part of his Virginia estate was confiscated, by which his income was much reduced. In making his will, he named Washington as his executor, but the office was declined on account of the pressure of public engagements. He left no children, and bequeathed his property to Ferdinando, the second son of his only surviving brother, Bryan, or Brian. — His brother, Bryan, eighth baron Fairfax, b. about 1730; d. in Monteagle, Va., in August, 1802, was the third son of Sir William Fairfax, and a life-long friend of Washington, notwithstanding their political differences. In 1789 he became an Epis- copal clergyman, and presently took charge of the parish at Alexandria, Va. On Robert's death in 1793, the title to the Scottish peerage descended to him,

and his claim was

recognized as valid by the house of lords in 1800, but he never asserted it. — His son, Thomas, sometimes called ninth Lord Fairfax, b. in 1762, d. at Vaucluse, Fairfax eo., Va., 21 April, 1846, lived on his Potomac estates. He married Miss Cary. Thomas's eldest son, Albert, died during the lifetime of his father. — Albert's son, Charles Snowden, b. in Vaucluse, 8 March, 1829 ; d. in Baltimore, 7 April, 1869, was speaker of the California house of representatives in 1854, and clerk of the supreme court of that state from 1857 till 1862. He was chairman of the California delegation to the Democratic national convention held in New