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Washington, Fairfaxes, Carlyles and Rev Charles Green

Lord Fairfax, Bryan Fairfax and his wife, Thomas Bryan Martin, John Carlyle and the Mr and Mrs Green dined at Mt Vernon with the Washingtons 25 Feb 1760. What a stellar cast to that night ! Talk about who they all are would take a few volumes.


You know Lord Fairfax. He owns a colony within this colony of Virginia. It's the size of Massachussetts. He collects the quit rents, not Virginia.


His nephew, Thomas Bryan Martin is the big man, because he's assigned to collect those quit rents and verify issues of ownership. He represents Frederick Co Va in the House of Burgesses with Washington 1758 to 1761.


Then there's Bryan Fairfax who married the sister of "Sally" Sarah Fairfax. Washington just loved her. He tried to find out her feelings while on the Forbes Expedition. He wrote a letter towards the end of his life how much he treasured their meetings.



And John Carlyle? His house still stands in Alexandria VA. It was the site of the "Grand Congress" of General Braddock and the Governors of the colonies orchestrating a grand design to push the French out of North America. John Carlyle was big in business, financing and procuring needed supplies for George Washington's Virginia Regiment.


Then finally there's the Greens.

Now right there is a story uncovered in 1989.



But before we get to that, here is the diary entry and Founders Online footnote describing all the others, except for the Greens.



Washington writes in his diary, "Monday Feby. 25th. Lord Fairfax, Colo. F[airfa]x & his Lady, Colo. Martin, Mr. B. F[airfa]x, Colo. Carlyle, & Mr. Green & Mrs. Green dind here."


Founders Online footnote gives a brief sketch except for the Greens:

Thomas Bryan Martin (1731–1798), a nephew of Lord Fairfax, came to Virginia in 1751 and the next year was appointed land agent for the Fairfax Grant, taking up residence with Lord Fairfax at Greenway Court in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1758 Martin and GW were elected burgesses for Frederick County.


Bryan Fairfax (1737–1802) was a half brother of George William Fairfax. After an erratic youth Bryan married Elizabeth Cary, a sister of Sarah Cary Fairfax, and settled in Fairfax County, making his home at Green Hill near Belvoir from 1761 until about 1765 when he went to England. He was one of GW’s frequent fox-hunting companions before the Revolution.


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Now the story on the Greens.


Reverend Green was accused of being a pedophile in 1743. The child was Ann Fairfax, daughter of William Fairfax.


Who was William Fairfax?

William Fairfax was really another father figure for GW, moreso than Lord Fairfax. William Fairfax is a man of power in his own right. He was President of Council, the group that advises the Governor and who also acted as a sort of Supreme Court. As President of Council, William Fairfax filled in as head of the government wthen there is no Lt Governor or if Lt Governor is absent.This letter of 22 March 1757. shows he did so. The Governor was often an absent Governor and in title only. This is why you see many references to the Lt Gov Dinwiddie as Governor, because the real Governor such as Lord Loudoun never set foot in the colony.


William Fairfax was born 1691, two years after the Salem Village Witch Trials. Amazingly he moves to that very town in 1729.

Gedney’s sister, Deborah, married William Fairfax and was the mother of Ann Fairfax, Lawrence Washington’s wife. "The Gedneys were among the original settlers of Salem, Massachusetts. The family patriarch, John Gedney (originally of Norwich), sailed in 1636 out of Yarmouth, England on the Mary Anne. One of his sons, Bartholomew, was one of the judges who presided over the infamous witch trials."


William Fairfax named Rev Charles Green as God parent of some of his children.


How old was Ann Fairfax and Reverend Green when they met?

She was 6. He was 26. When did the alleged activity occur? The accusations appeared when she turned 15.


In 1743, William Fairfax' 15 year old daughter Ann Fairfax, was allegedly sexually attacked by the Anglican Reverend Charles Green now aged 35..


"Two years later, his public stature now enhanced by his roles as both adjutant general of Virginia and a member of the House of Burgesses, Lawrence Washington wrote the Rev. William Dawson, the bishop of London's official representative in Virginia, demanding the removal of Green as rector of Truro Parish. His accusation: Green had been guilty of frequent attempts to "debauch" Ann Fairfax Washington in the years before her marriage." - Washington Post interview of Professor who discovered this story.


John Carlyle even assisted with a petition against Reverend Green on this matter.


A little bit about Ann Fairfax

Later that same year, Ann Fairfax married Lawrence Washington, aged 25. All the children she had by Lawrence did not live past age 4 And after Lawrence Washington died she married George Lee, a distant antecedent of Robert E. Lee, and with him had three sons. She never lived to see them grow up.. She was dead by the age of 33.


The full story?

The Washington Post interviews George Mason University history professor Peter R. Henriques who discovered this story in 1989 sitting mute in some files at the Library of Congress. See the full story here.


Fast forward to this dinner of 25 Feb 1760

Here they are,former enemies. Carlyle had led a petition against Rev Green. All that history was behind them. The matter appeared closed. See the full story here.

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That's it.

That's our lead story.


There's always more.

Skip around.

Read bits and pieces.


Table of Contents

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Compiled by Jim Moyer, researched 2021, post 2/25/2024




 

Stories on the Fairfax family


Dec 1, 2023


Feb 13, 2023


Oct 17, 2021


Apr 4, 2021


Feb 25, 2021




 

[Diary entry: 25 February 1760]

Monday Feby. 25th.

Lord Fairfax, Colo. F[airfa]x & his Lady, Colo. Martin, Mr. B. F[airfa]x, Colo. Carlyle, & Mr. Green & Mrs. Green dind here.


So[uther]ly Wind and remarkable fine clear day. Set my People to Carting and carrying Rails round the Peach Orchard.


The Broken Legd. horse fell out of his Sling and by that means and strugling together hurt himself so much that I orderd him to be killd.


Founders Online Footnotes

Thomas Bryan Martin (1731–1798), a nephew of Lord Fairfax, came to Virginia in 1751 and the next year was appointed land agent for the Fairfax Grant, taking up residence with Lord Fairfax at Greenway Court in the Shenandoah Valley. In 1758 Martin and GW were elected burgesses for Frederick County. Bryan Fairfax (1737–1802) was a half brother of George William Fairfax. After an erratic youth Bryan married Elizabeth Cary, a sister of Sarah Cary Fairfax, and settled in Fairfax County, making his home at Green Hill near Belvoir from 1761 until about 1765 when he went to England. He was one of GW’s frequent fox-hunting companions before the Revolution.


Source

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Reverend Charles Green



"At a Vestry held for Truro Parish the 19th day of August, 1736. Mr. Charles Green, being recommended to this Vestry by Capt. Augustine Washington as a person qualified to officiate as a Minister of this Parish, as soon as he shall receive orders from his Grace the Bishop of London to qualify himself for the same. It is therefore ordered by this Vestry, that as soon as the said Green has qualified himself as aforesaid, he be received and entertained as Minister of the said Parish. And the said Vestry do humbly recommend the said Charles Green to the Right Honorable Thomas Lord Fairfax for his Letters of recommendation and Presentation to his Grace the said Lord Bishop of London to qualify him as aforesaid.



From George Washington to Charles Green, 13 November 1757

To Charles Green

Alexandria Novr 13th 1757

Reverend Sir

Necessity (and that I hope will apologize for the trouble I must give you—) obliges me to ask the favour of a visit—that I may have an oppertunity of consulting you on a disorder which I have lingerd under for three Months past—It is painful to me to write—Mr Carlyle will say the rest—I shall only add, that I am with very great esteem Yr most Obedt Hble Servt

Go: Washington

ALS, CSmH.


Founders Online footnote

Charles Green (c.1710–1765), the rector of Truro Parish, also practiced medicine.




[Diary entry: 20 March 1760]

Thursday Mar. 20th. Cold Northerly Wind. Colo. F[airfa]x and I set out to Alexa. by appointmt. to Settle & adjust (with the other Comrs.) Cliftons & Carrols accts. conformable to a decree of our Genl. Court but not being able to accomplish it then the 28th. was a further day appointed to meet and my house the place resolvd upon.


The other commissioners were Rev. Charles Green and John West, Jr., now sheriff of Fairfax County. It was the common practice in such cases for the court to appoint four commissioners, any three of whom could act as a quorum.







From George Washington to Charles Green, 26–30 August 1761

To Charles Green

The Warm Springs [Va.] 26th[–30] Augt 1761


Revd Sir

I shoud think myself very inexcusable were I to omit so good an oppertunity as Mr Douglass’s return from these Springs, of giving you some Account of the place, and of Our Approaches to it.1


To begin then—We arrivd here yesterday, and our Journey (as you may imagine) was not of the most agreable sort, through such Weather & such Roads as we had to encounter; these last for 20 or 25 Miles from hence are almost impassable for Carriages; not so much from the Mountainous Country (but this in fact is very rugged) as from Trees that have fallen across the Road, and renderd the ways intolerable.


We found of both sexes about 2⟨5⟩0 People at this place, full of all manner of diseases & Complaints; some of which are much benefitted, while others find no relief from the Water’s—two or three Doctors are here, but whether attending as Physicians or to Drink of the Waters I know not—It is thought the Springs will soon begin to loose there Virtues, and the Weather get too cold for People, not well provided, to remain here—They are situated very badly on the East side of a steep Mountain, and Inclosed by Hills on all Sides, so that the Afternoon’s Sun is hid by 4 Oclock and the Fogs hang over us till 9 or 10 wch occasion’s great Damps and the Mornings and Evenings to be cool.


The Place I am told, and indeed have found it so already, is supplyed with Provisions of all kinds—good Beef & venison, fine Veal, Lamb, Fowls &ca may be bought at almost any time; but Lodgings can be had on no Terms but building for them, and I am of opinion that numbers get more hurt by there manner of lying, than the Waters can do them good—had we not succeeded in getting a Tent & marquee from Winchester we shoud have been in a most miserable situation here.


In regard to myself I must beg leave to say, that I was much overcome with the fatigue of the Ride & Weather together—however I think my Fevers are a good deal abated, althô my Pains grow rather worse, & my sleep equally disturbd; what effect the Waters may have upon me I cant say at present, but I expect Nothing from the Air—this certainly must be unwholesome—I purpose to stay here a fortnight & longer if benefitted.


I shall attempt to give you the best discription I can of the Stages to this place, that you may be at no loss, if after this Acct, you choose to come up. Toulston I shoud recommend as the first, Majr Hamilton’s, or Israel Thompson’s the 2d; the one abt 30, the other 35 Miles distant; from thence you may reach Henry Vanmeter’s on Opeckon Creek, or Captn Paris’s 4 Miles on this Side, which will be also abt 35 Miles; and then your Journey will be easy the following day to this place.2


I have made out a very long, and a very dirty Letter, but my hurry must apologize for the Latter &, I hope your goodness will excuse the former—please to make my Complimts acceptable to Mrs Gr⟨ee⟩n and Miss Bolan, & be assurd Revd Sir that with a true respect I remain yr Most Obedt & Obligd

Go: Washington


P.S. If I coud be upon any certainty of yr comg, or, coud g⟨et⟩ only 4 days previous notice of yr arrival I woud get a House built such as are here erected very indifferent indeed they are thô for yr receptn.


30th Augt

Since writing the above Mr Douglass lost his Horses & was dataind, but I met with a Fairfax Man returng home, who is to be back again immediately for his wife. this Person I have hird to carry some Letters to Mrs Washn undr whose cover this goes; by him you are furnish⟨ed⟩ with an oppertunity of honouring me with yr Commands, if you retain any thoughts of comg to this place—I think myself benefitted by the Water’s, and am not witht hopes of their making a cure of me—a little time will shew no⟨w⟩.

ALS (photocopy), ViWsBCh.



Founders Online Footnotes

The Rev. Charles Green (c.1710–1765), rector of GW’s home parish of Truro where GW would later serve on the vestry, also attended the family at Mount Vernon as a medical practitioner.


1. GW went to Warm Springs (now Berkeley Springs in Morgan County, W.Va.) in an attempt to recover his health. See GW to Andrew Burnaby, 27 July 1761, n.7. Mr. Douglass may have been Capt. William Douglas (Douglass), a merchant in Alexandria, but he also may have been one of several other Douglasses living in Fairfax County at this time.


2Towlston Grange was a large tract of land in the northwest part of Fairfax County which was left to Bryan Fairfax by his father’s will. Fairfax would later, about 1767–68, move his family to the new house he built at Towlston. Difficult Run provided the northern and western boundaries of the tract, and GW undoubtedly crossed Difficult Bridge. James Hamilton (c.1720–c.1775) a burgess for Loudoun County from its formation from Fairfax in 1758 until 1771, lived on the road from Leesburg to Purcellville in the central part of Loudoun County. He is probably the same man who came with a company of Fairfax County militia to Winchester in 1756. Israel Thompson (d. 1795), a Quaker, lived on a plantation in the vicinity of Catoctin Creek in north central Loudoun County. Henry Van Meter owned several tracts of land near Opequon Creek. This is not the Henry Van Meter (died c.1759) who lived on the South Branch, who was killed near Fort Pleasant by Indians. Capt. Robert Pearis of the Frederick County militia had a home a few miles west of Winchester.


Source





George Washington's Trusteeship over the Estate of the Reverend Dr. Charles Green, 1765-1772, Which Included the Present Area of Farmer's Delight Farm, Loudoun County, Virginia

George C. McGhee

Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society

Vol. 143, No. 4 (Dec., 1999), pp. 639-647 (9 pages)

Published By: University of Pennsylvania Press





 

THE SCANDAL THAT ROCKED OLD VIRGINNY

HISTORIAN UNCOVERS TALE OF THE PARSON & THE PRESIDENT'S SISTER-IN-LAW

By Ken Ringle

December 14, 1990 at 7:00 p.m. EST

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A history professor who peeked into the wrong Library of Congress file has stumbled onto the records of a sensational, long-forgotten 18th-century trial alleging the attempted debauchery of George Washington's sister-in-law by a prominent Fairfax County cleric who later became the first president's physician.


The records, which document the only full-scale ecclesiastical trial ever held in Colonial Virginia, paint a complex portrait of Ann Fairfax Washington, first mistress of Mount Vernon, who according to the testimony was either the adolescent prey of a lascivious parson or an 18th-century Lolita tempting an upright clergyman to sin.


The testimony, replete with references to exhibitionism, fondling and even sexual play with vegetables, gives a rare look into the private lives of some of the most famous families in American history.



"This was no small event," said George Mason University history professor Peter R. Henriques the other day, proffering photocopies of the faint, quill-penned documents in his Fairfax County home. "It was widely discussed in Maryland. A Philadelphia newspaper tried to purchase the story. The governor of Virginia personally intervened in the trial."


But in a particularly Virginian fashion, Henriques says, the aristocratic families involved combined to keep a highly public scandal entirely out of the public press and ultimately have it all but erased from history.


How Henriques happened on the story is a textbook case in the serendipity of research. In quest of information 18 months ago on an obscure neighbor of George Washington named Capt. John Posey, Henriques was looking for a well-thumbed primary source document for the early history of Fairfax County written by a Rev. Charles Green.


Not knowing the document was in a separate file, Henriques asked for "the Rev. Charles Green papers" and soon found himself puzzling over an exchange of obviously angry letters, plus records of some sort of legal or semi-legal proceeding. At the center of the correspondence was George Washington's older half-brother, Lawrence.


"It was clear that Lawrence Washington was making serious accusations against the Reverend Mr. Green," Henriques said. "But the documents were difficult to read and referred to others that weren't there. It took me quite a while to realize what I had, and even more to piece the whole story together. Even then I assumed others must have come upon it years ago."


When he checked with historians at Mount Vernon and Colonial Williamsburg, however, "nobody knew anything about it," and he began to realize what a bombshell he had.


"In some ways it's a story out of today's headlines," he said. "The issues it raises are very much with us still."


As told by Henriques, who is writing a scholarly article on the trial, the story begins in 1736 when George Washington's father, Augustine, nominated as rector of Pohick Church and what was then known as Truro Parish the Rev. Charles Green, 26, a headstrong, Oxford-educated clergyman who had arrived in Virginia only three years before.


Green, who was also a physician, allied himself with the local gentry and quickly became close friends with William Fairfax of Belvoir, one of the wealthiest and most influential men in Virginia. Though 20 years older than Green, Fairfax admired the young pastor immensely, naming Green and his wife, Mary, godparents to several of the Fairfax children.


Also friendly with the Fairfax family was Lawrence Washington, who in 1742 returned to Virginia from the Caribbean after fighting against Spain in what became known as the War of Jenkins' Ear.


While his younger brother, George, was still a lad, Lawrence had been schooled in England, had won praise for his military efforts, and had achieved considerable reputation and influence by the age of 25.


Now establishing himself as a planter on the estate he named Mount Vernon, Lawrence found his attentions falling upon William Fairfax's teenage daughter, Ann, perhaps the most eligible young woman in the colony.


No portrait or physical description of Ann Fairfax has survived, but "she was clearly an attractive, if not flirtatious, girl," Henriques said.

Ann, however, was also a young woman with a clear need for affection. Her mother had died when she was a very young child, and her stepmother, Deborah, a strong-willed woman of keen mind and education, capable of penning French epigrams and Socratic quotations, "perhaps overawed her," Henriques said. As Deborah Fairfax gave birth to four new children, Ann evidently felt increasingly ignored within the Fairfax family.



As compensation she had turned for companionship to Green, whom she first met when she was a child of 6 and soon knew well as a frequent visitor and family friend. Exactly what went on between them as the years progressed remains unclear, Henriques said, "but there was clearly at least {during her girlhood} the sort of innocent horseplay adults have with children" plus "times when she would sit on his lap, hug him and rub his neck in an affectionate manner."


She also, Henriques said, found in Green a confessor and confidant to whom she could pour out her heart about her "ill-usage" by her stepmother and her difficulties within the Fairfax family.


In March 1743, however, there was a rupture in the relationship between the Green and Fairfax families, the reasons for which were not made public.


That July Ann married Lawrence Washington. She was 15.


Two years later, his public stature now enhanced by his roles as both adjutant general of Virginia and a member of the House of Burgesses, Lawrence Washington wrote the Rev. William Dawson, the bishop of London's official representative in Virginia, demanding the removal of Green as rector of Truro Parish. His accusation: Green had been guilty of frequent attempts to "debauch" Ann Fairfax Washington in the years before her marriage.


Despite the shocking nature of the charge, Washington did not ask that Green be defrocked. He said that to avoid a public scandal he would be satisfied if Green were just sent to some distant parish.


Green, however, vigorously and indignantly denied Washington's accusations, refused to leave his post and promptly filed suit against his accuser for slander. Washington, in turn, demanded a full-scale ecclesiastical trial, promising to "purge the church of so unworthy a member," a "vile rogue" who by his immorality had brought religion into contempt.


The resulting trial was evidently a public sensation. It began on Nov. 6, 1745, in Williamsburg in the Chapel of the College of William and Mary, where Dawson was pastor and where he heard the evidence together with two other clergymen. Though outsiders were barred from the proceedings, rumors of the testimony spread quickly, augmented by publicly circulated petitions demanding Green's ouster signed by such prominent members of his parish vestry as John Carlyle, master of Carlyle House in Alexandria. Not content with portraying the clergyman as a wanton seducer, the petitions accused him of everything from neglect of duty and disturbing the peace to land fraud and cattle theft.


The ecclesiastical proceedings followed a form prescribed by the bishop of London, with each side presenting a list of witnesses to be heard and cross-examined. Each witness's testimony before the judges was summarized by an official recorder, then corrected and signed by the witness.


"Unfortunately, Ann Washington's deposition did not survive," Henriques said, "but enough others have survived to give a pretty good idea of the evidence."


The most damning prosecution witness, he said, is Ann's stepmother, Deborah, who portrays Green as a ruthless pedophile betraying the trust of an innocent girl. When Ann was only 9 years old, she says, Green stood her on a chair, thrust his hands up her clothes and pushed himself against her. At age 10 or 11, while caring for Ann during her parents' absence, Deborah Washington says, Green carried the child into a fodder shack and exposed himself to her. Another time, while playing hide-and-seek with the Fairfax children, she said, Green found Ann under a bed, pulled her atop the bed and "pushed himself against her in an indecent and immodest manner."


Green's most serious attempt, Deborah Washington said, occurred when Ann was 14 and visiting the Green home. The pastor suggested they go for a walk. Passing a pile of boards, Green pulled one off the stack, threw Ann upon it and pulled up her clothes. He then "uncovered his nakedness" and fell upon her, stopping only when a servant passed nearby and Ann threatened to scream.


Ann was ashamed to confide the incident to her stepmother, according to the evidence, and first told a servant and then her aunt. The horrified aunt immediately told Deborah Fairfax, who relayed the information to her husband, who promptly wrote Green, "Your crimes are discovered!" and broke off all correspondence with the minister.


Deborah testified that at this point Green acknowledged himself guilty of "an indiscretion," but protested that no harm had come from it since Ann was still a "virga intacta." No such letter was introduced in the trial, however. The Fairfax witnesses said they burned it in an effort to keep the incident quiet and not damage Ann's reputation and chance for a good marriage.


Yet Henriques said the case against Green is clouded by an increasing, and apparently separate, hostility to Green by Deborah Fairfax during the period, hostility apparently stemming from a dispute over a family will. Ann's story, he said, could have been colored by that hostility.


Then too, he said, 32 pages of notes analyzing the evidence, penned by "an extremely perceptive witness to the court proceedings who unfortunately remains a mystery," shows Ann was "very outgoing, even forward" in her relationship with Green, not only sitting on his lap at times but occasionally asking him to lace the stays of her corset.


Green's sister-in-law, a major defense witness, testified that the night before the final break between the families -- and apparently after the alleged rape attempt -- Ann "kissed and patted and embraced him until he blushed."


These would not appear, Henriques pointed out, to be the actions of a girl terrorized by molestation. They seem instead, he said, those of a young woman discovering her sexuality.


Her accusations against Green, he said, might have stemmed from her discomfort with that discovery and the frightening reactions her behavior sometimes provoked. The judges, he said, clearly reached the conclusion that Green was innocent of anything serious.


Since Green's only possible defense was to attack the testimony and character of Ann Fairfax, however, "you have to wonder why Lawrence Washington chose to put his wife through this ordeal," Henriques said. Green's sister-in-law, Mary Bolan, was asked what she knew of Ann's "loose behaviour and lascivious actions in bed." Another witness indicated that Ann's brother had seen her doing "something improper with radishes," a vague reference, Henriques interpreted, "to some kind of masturbation or sexual stimulation."


After a week of hearing such evidence, the court adjourned until the following April when closing arguments were scheduled. Before that time, however, Gov. William Gooch, a close friend of Lawrence Washington, clearly distressed at the turn things were taking, personally intervened in the case. As both an extremely popular governor and secular head of the Anglican Church in Virginia, he was ideally positioned to do so.


Under the settlement he worked out, Green dropped his slander suit against Lawrence Washington and also paid the not inconsiderable costs of the trial, which normally would have been borne by the loser.


"But on the key point," Henriques said, "Green won. He was not removed as the rector of Truro Parish. In fact, he stayed there the remaining 20 years of his life, repaired his obviously damaged reputation, and died a rich and respected clergyman. George Washington employed him as a physician and became his friend. The families involved gradually healed their differences and seemed determined to put this behind them."


The process may have been eased by the sudden death of Deborah Fairfax the year after the suit -- she was not yet 40 -- and of Lawrence Washington of tuberculosis five years later at the age of 34. "It's easy to forget how hard and short people's lives were then," Henriques said.


But perhaps the true measure of the suffering endured in those days was felt by Ann Fairfax Washington. Five times between her 15th and 24th birthdays she gave birth only to watch her child die a short time later. None lived past the age of 4. Only months after her husband's death she married George Lee -- a distant antecedent of Robert E. Lee, and with him had three sons. She never, however, lived to see them grown. She was dead by the age of 33.


"You know, a feminist historian could have a field day with this story," Henriques said. "You can use it to prove anything you want about 'the victimization of woman,' 'the history of sexual harassment' or whatever."


But for him, he said, the true fascination of the story is the flesh and blood it puts on those dusty names from two centuries ago, and how much closer it brings their lives. "These were obviously very strong and vital people," he said, fingering the photocopy of a fading letter. "They were all caught up in very human situations of the kind we see very much today. And most of them died so very, very young."


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Newington: Part Two:  Charles Green, The Truro Parish Glebe and the Glebe House

Part Two:   Charles Green, The Truro Parish Glebe and the Glebe House

In Part One, we looked at the small world of George Washington and his fellow planters such as George Mason, as well as the Fairfax family in Belvoir.   

In Part Two, we delve into Charles Green, the Truro Parish and its glebe lands and glebe house.  It was this land that would become known as Newington, the name given to the glebe house.    This is a fascinating part of colonial Virginia history, essential to understanding the story of Newington and Fairfax County in the colonial times.

 

The story of the Truro Parish is a story that took place even before the founding of Fairfax County in 1742 and Alexandria in 1749.    To understand the role of a glebe lands and glebe house, one must first understand the role of a parish.   

Perhaps the best definition of a parish in colonial Virginia comes from the Encyclopedia of Virginia.

A parish in colonial Virginia was a unit of both civil and religious authority that covered a set geographical territory. Each Church of England parish in the colony was served by a single minister and governed by a vestry usually composed of local elites.   

Dick Hamley, the historian at the Pohick Church, tells us: 

Truro Parish and Fairfax County existed together and worked together.  Both were part of the government except that Truro Parish reported to the Bishop of London.  The Vestry contracted for care of indigent, poor and elderly.  They arranged for schooling and apprenticeship for orphans.  They were responsible for marking and updating land boundaries for all residents.   The Vestry was responsible for some road building.  The Vestry assigned and collected the annual levy, assessments fines and tithes as they felt necessary.   

The vestry was also responsible for the creation and maintaining of glebe lands and glebe house.   Prince William historian Jim Bish describes the glebe lands this way.

The glebe lands usually were lands that were set aside for the church to earn income.  Sometimes these were established when a Parish was established and sometimes landowners willed some of their property to the church at their death which added to the church glebes.  The church then usually received annual rents from these lands or they could be sold to help finance a larger financial obligation.  

The word "glebe" in northern Virginia conjures up the thought of Glebe Road.   From Alexandria, if you take Glebe Road northwest-ward for about a half dozen miles, you will come to the Glebe House in Arlington.   A historical marker tells us the house was built in 1820 and 1850, replacing one that was built in 1775 and burned down in 1808.  This house and glebe lands provided for the rector of Fairfax Parish, which included both Christ Church, Alexandria and Falls Church.

The first and the second glebe house in Fairfax County was the Truro Parish Glebe House whose site is in Newington.   We learn about both from Willard J. Webb and Anne C. Webb in their book "The Glebe Houses of Colonial Virginia."  

In 1734, fifteen years before the founding of Alexandria, the Truro Parish acquired 300 acres on the road from Colchester to Alexandria.    In 1737 they erected a house on the glebe lands.   The authors describe it as a "one-story, weatherboard house 24 feet square with four rooms."    

Cameron Parish was created in 1748, by cutting off about half of the Truro Parish lands.   To pay for its glebe lands, the Truro Parish sold its glebe lands and house and split the proceeds with the new Cameron Parish.    The Truro Parish then bought 176 acres near the old glebe.   A new house was completed there in 1760.  It's not known what happened to the old one.  Perhaps it was taken down, its wood re-used.    

The Truro Parish hired William Buckland to finish the house, which was made of brick and was 72 feet long.  According to the Gunston Hall website, Buckland had worked on the interior design of Gunston Hall.  He would later have a hand in two masterpieces in Annapolis — the Chase-Lloyd House (1771) and the Hammond House (1774).   Charles Wilson Peale’s portrait of Buckland shows a distinguished man with a confidant look.

The Encyclopedia of Interior Design tells us about builders of homes in the colonial age.   Most were master builders and house joiners.  Few were architects in the way we know them today.   Buckland, born in Oxford, was a notable exception.  

The author concludes his bio of Buckland by saying, “Today, there is little dispute that Buckland was one of colonial America’s greatest architects.”   

The first permanent rector (minister) for the Truro Parish was Charles Green (1710-1765).   “The History of the Truro Parish” provides us with a brief bio of Green.  In addition to his duties as a minister, he was also as a doctor.   According to Founders Online, Green was called to Mount Vernon from time to time and gave care to Martha.   

Crazy as it may seem today, Green owned 12 slaves.  They worked the tobacco fields on land that is now Newington.  

Colonial society depended on a strong sense of social order.   A major scandal, however, shook the seemingly placid Virginia world in the 1740s.

Peter R. Henriques brings the story out of the dust bin with his article titled “Major Lawrence Washington versus The Reverend Charles Green” (Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 1992, JSTOR).  Washington, half-brother of George Washington, accused Green of “frequent attempts to debauch Anne Fairfax in the months before her marriage to Washington.”  She was fourteen years old at that time.

Anne's full name (Anne Fairfax Washington Lee) had, arguably, the three most famous family names in the history of Northern Virginia.  She was the daughter of Colonel William Fairfax.  After Lawrence died in 1752, the widow Anne inherited Mount Vernon.   She then married George Lee.  In his book, Paul Nagel tells us Anne and George decided to remain at Mount Pleasant on the Northern Neck.  An agreement was made with George Washington.  He paid 15,000 pounds of tobacco annually to George Lee for Mount Vernon.   This lease agreement lasted from 1752 to 1751 when both George and Anne died.

Henriques writes:

"To conduct a full-scale ecclesiastical trial in Virginia was to venture into unexplored territory.”

The trial was held at William & Mary College in Williamsburg.   In the end, Governor William Gooch negotiated a settlement.  Green had to pay court costs and promised to “behave with good manners toward the Fairfax and Washington families.”  The case against him was dismissed and he was able to remain as the parish minister.    

In 1767, Daniel McCarty purchased the Truro Parish glebe lands and house.   His daughter Sarah and her husband Richard Chichester lived in the house and named it Newington.  

The exact location of the first and second is not known.   A map George Washington drew in 1765 shows the "Old Glebe" house between the Back Road and Long Branch, and closer to the back road.   A circa 1770 hand drawn map (Belvoir Neck survey, Mount Vernon Ladies Association), shows "Glebe House" between the Back Road and Long Run, closer to Long Branch.    Using bends in the road and the location of Mount Air, the houses appear to be somewhere near modern day Newington Road. 

Built in the 1760s, the second parish house burned down in 1875 and is now long forgotten.   There are apparently no remaining sketches of the Newington Glebe House, nor any photos of the dwelling before it burned down in 1875.    The best we can do is see what has been said about it and others.

In 1767, the Truro Parish, signed by George Washington, placed an ad in the Virginia Gazette.  

To be sold to the highest bidder, in consequence of an act of General Assembly, and pursuant to order of Vestry, on Friday the 22d of May next, on the premises, the late Glebe Lands of Truro parish, in Fairfax county, containing by estimation 400 acres, but the exact quantity will be ascertained against the day of sale. Thereon is a brick dwelling house, with four rooms on a floor, passages above and below, and cellars; also a kitchen, meat house, corn house, coach house, and barn, together with sundry other houses, and a yard and garden paled in. The situation is high, dry, and healthy, with good water, some meadow, and a valuable peach orchard. 

In 1898, a writer “W.H.S” wrote a sentimental piece about landmark homes near Alexandria and lamented the loss of ones like Vaucluse and Newington.   He describes the houses as having “great outside chimney, dormer windows, and clambering vines.”

Webb and Webb provide a sketch of the floor plan of the glebe house at Newington, one prepared by Mrs. George Kernan, circa 1920.   One sees a simple plan with a small porch, and markings for walnut trees and roses.  

Kernan was the mother of Shirley Kernan Enochs, the last owner of Mount Air.   We will provide more on Kernan and Enoch in Part Five.  Kernan purchased Mount Air and its 117 acres in 1914 after returning from a stint in France.  She and her daughter Elizabeth Enochs lived there.

As the historical marker indicates, the Truro Parish sold the glebe home and lands to Richard and Sarah McCarty Chichester in 1767.   They gave it the name Newington.   It’s not known what they named it after, but landowners often chose a place name from back in the Mother Country.   In London, Newington lies about a mile due east of Big Ben, and near the Thames River.

Richard Chichester (1736-1796) married Sarah McCarty in 1766.   One of their children was Richard McCarty Chichester, whose godfather was George Washington.    

In his diary of February 1768 ("Where & How -- my time is Spent"), Washington penned --

"Fox hunting with Colonel Fairfax, Captain McCarty, Mr. Chichester, Posey, Ellzey & Manley who dined here with Mrs. Fairfax & Miss Nicholas.  Catchd two foxes.

Sarah McCarty (d. 1826) was a daughter of Daniel McCarty (1758-1801) and Sarah Eilbeck Mason (daughter of George Mason IV).   Daniel McCarty (Mount Air) was a cousin of Richard Chichester.   

In his diary for January 1769, George Washington wrote:

Fox huntg. again upon long Branch with Mr. Fairfax Mr. Clarke Mr. Mac[ar]ty & Mr. Chichester. All went home from the field. Found Doctr. Rumney here.

We don't know exactly where their outing took place, but it's not a far-fetched guess that Washington rode on his horse from Mount Vernon to the Newington home of the Chichester's.   Perhaps they then proceeded along what is now Newington Road to the Long Branch waters.

The Fairfax Genealogy Society tells us about the Chichester family cemetery.   It is located behind a home on Newington Road near the intersection of Accotink and Newington Roads.  

Gunston Hall has a document dated Feb 20, 1797, an inventory of Richard Chichester’s holdings.   The inventory was performed at “the dwelling plantation” in Newington.

It included 43 enslaved persons, stock including cattle and sheep, household furniture and items, glass and tinware.  Of the total value of 4010 pounds, 3,013 were the slaves.

When George Washington slipped away at his upstairs bedroom at Mount Vernon in 1799, Alexandria and Fairfax County mourned like never before.   His passing seemed to signal the end of an era.  The patriots were growing old, the parish system was gone, and the tobacco fields were worn out.   We pick up the next phase for Newington in Part Three.

 




 

William Fairfax


Oct 17, 2021


Apr 4, 2021



 

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