Not long after their eldest brother Henry Lee Washington died in 1817, this Bushrod and his slightly older brother John decided to move with their growing families to their Jefferson County land, and build mansions near each other. John named his Blakeley, and though it survives today, it was not as grand as Bushrod's mansion, in part because John knew that he would inherit Mount Vernon upon the death of his jurist uncle Bushrod (which happened in 1829, although John would only live another three years and his namesake son J.A. Washington III would agree to sell it to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association in 1858 but died at the Battle of Cheat Mountain in September 1861 before the association could raise the funds to complete the transaction). This Bushrod named his mansion Claymont Court and spent $30,000 as well as used the labor of his 90 slaves to build what some people called his "Folly", in part because of its pretentious size, luxury and grounds. The house burned down in 1838, but Bushrod rebuilt it in brick, and it survives today. Notwithstanding his use of enslaved labor described below, Bushrod C. Washington became a charter member of the local chapter of the American Colonization Society in 1819, and his namesake uncle was the national president.