The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1878-11-30
Written for the Baltimore County Onion.
NOTES ON DULANY'S VALLEY, MD.
by AN ExILI
No. 8.

| hall. In an account OF this lady 1t natural
that her husbands (for she had two) should be no
| ticed. Her first was soon disposed of mean in
the story-for he died untmely leaving his lovely
wife at the age of 20 with an infant daughter. A
| number of candidates for the second choice are
| said to have gathered in due time about Rousby
| Hall-amOng others Col William Fitzhugh. He
isrepresented as having been gentleman of "good
social position and fortune" who had served in
the Colonial contingent of the British army with
Admiral Vernon in his disastrous attack on Cartha-
gena, and was an intimate friend of Lawrence
Washington well of his great brother, George.
The GGzeftes account of the ''wOoing OF" is
worth reproducing. at is said that on one occa-
sion Col. Fitzhugh rode up, reaching the door of
the mansion as it was gained at the same moment
| by another admirer Of the fair widow. Approach
| ing Col. Fitzhugh, the other gentleman exclaimed
rather warmly, You have come here to court the
/ widow Rousby. give you one hour and if at the
| end of that time you not ready to leave l will
haul you out by the collar Col. Fitzhugh's ad-
dresses having been rejected by the lovely widow
at Rousby Hall, he pressed his suit refusing to be
| cast off. She remained inhexible. He continued
his visits feeling sure of success Upon one occa-
| sion, having paid visit to Mrs. ROusby, he was
| leaving the house to take his boat, when negro
/ nurse approached, bearing in her arms the infant
heiress of Rousby Hall. Snatching the child from
| the nurses arms and unheeding the cries of the
| baby the desperate soldier-lover sprang into his
| boat and pushed from shore. Midway in the
i stream he held the screaming child over the water
threatning to drown it If its mother did not relent
| and agree to become his wife at once. In vain
were all imploring words; the lady, half frantic,
| stood on the river bank while her mad lover held
the innocent baby between sky and water. Be-
/ lieving that the threat would be carried out Mrs.
| Rousby yielded the yes that sealed her fate
i After little parleying the lady promised to be-
come his wife without delay. Setting the child on
/ bo wit tho Wiz nd
| the two were driven to the house of Protestant
clergyman where the widow Rousby became Mrs.
| Fitzhugh." ,,
Traditions are sadly liable to distortion in the
handing down from generation to generation. A
somewhat different account of this important affair
1 is told as follows: Col. William Fitzhugh hearing
| in his home in the northern neck of Virginia of
the charms of the widow Rousby's person-and it
is barely possible purse1one fine day ordered out
| his iohdle-6Oat, manned by six negro rowers and
pulling up the Chesapeake into The ''mouth Of the
| Patuxent," made fast to the barcadier or pier,
| few yards from the front door Of Rousby Hail.
| Advancing upon the house he was met at the
| Threshold by the widow herself and then and
there in plainest terms, made known to her his
name and the reason of his visit. Finding another
| sutton the ground he declared his intention to
| have fair play-insisting that he and his rival
| should have hour and hour about in the lady's
presence. Spite of these vigorous proceedings his
suit did not seem to prosper, and in real or pre-
tended despair he made OstentatiOus preparations
| to depart. In those ceremonious times the lady
of the house could do less than attend the part
ing guest to the entrance of the mansion, and this
| courtesy the highbred mistress of Rousby, with
her little daughter by means baby in arms) in
her hand duly performed for her retracting lover
The last adieux were said when the willy man of
war, under sudden happy inspiration or more
probably through deep-laid strategy, caught up
the little girl and made off with her to his boat,
exclaming "By -, madame" (soders swore
terribly in those days. 81 shall take your daugh-
ter if 1 can't have your The mother, as was
but natural, pursued the bold ravisher to the wa
ter's edge, and as my informant put it, 'the bar
gain made right there"
Of course it is not supposed that all these do
ngs occurred within the first twenty four hours of
the landing of the Col at Rousby Hall, nor do
know that the nuptials which ensued followed so
fast upon the brides consent is represented in
the Gazeftes account. Having no testimony to
offer upon the point am disposed to allow the
reader to adjust it to his own satisfaction. On
considering the intrinsic probabilities, however,
incline to the view that but little time lost for
these reasons: The Col. is known to have been
naturally one of the promptest of men in ell his
undertakings, and then he was .wdower-nor
only that, which in itself was mucbfbut his first
wife had been a widow, and he must have practi-
cally learned if he never had heard the rhyme that
''He that would woo a widow must not daily,
He must make the hay while the sun doth shine,
He must not stand-'Widow, shall 1? shall II?
But boldly say, Widow thou must be mine?"
In my humble judgment, therefore, the sooner we
get this pair before the protestant clergyman"
the nearer we shall approach the truth of the his
tory.
1t seems to me further that the probabilities are
rather with my version of this story. Col Fitz-
hugh was not parsonage to whom any would
say: "DO this or | haul you out by the collar
So bold a man was he that for the strenuous OPP
position he made to the British in the Revolution
airy war he obtained the soaLregHet of "War Billy"
And it may be said here that ''the enemy got
even with him by burning him out of Rousby Hail.
where he resided after his marriage, and carrying
off some forty of his negro slaves. 1t was much
more likely that he laid the rule upon his rival
than that he submitted to have it imposed on him
| self. Again it is not creditable-and therefore
hardly credible-that the stately dame should be
receiving a swarm of suitors represented while
her child, who was so precOcious, afterwards to
have been married at the age of IL, according to
the Gazette's legend, was baby in arms l sub
NIT farther that if he held the screaming child be-
tween SAY and water "midody the stream, the ne
gotatons which are said 70 have then taken place
could only have been carried on by telephone
since the river in front of ROusby Hall is, | re
member it, at least two miles wide, for the mouth
the Gazette was furnished by lady, who may be
pardoned for over-estimating the amount of re-
sistance likely to be offered by widow of twenty
to so enterprising wOOer as Col. Fitzhugh. She
might therefore incline to the version which puts
the greatest pressure of dHress per aiads as the
lawyers have it, upon her heroine, in order to
count for her sudden and complete surrender
Perhaps some readers may agree with her, to
which having said my say have not the least OBJ
lection. "They pays their money and they takes
their choice"
Col. Fitzhugh comes fairly into the "Notes on
Dulanys Valley" from the fact of his having been
the father of George Fitzhugh, who, / have al
ready said, married Mary or Molly Duany, one of
the three ladies lowered by the Legislature of
Maryland with 500 acres apiece in that fair vale.
George Fitzhugh, however, was no son by the
widow ROusby, but the only child of the prior
marriage of his father with Mrs. Turberville-
nee Patty Lee-whO died when he was little more
than an infant, leaving the bereaved COL free for
such adventures as have just been related. At the
early age of seven he was sent "hOme" to England
and placed for his better instruction in the human
tiles, at the famous Eaton College, where he re-
manned till about his eighteenth year, when he
was withdrawn to take service with the East In
dia Company, in whose "good ship Latham" he
performed a voyage to Canton. Returning then
to Maryland to visit his family, he abandoned the
COmpany's service and studied law. This profess
sion, however, he never followed, but, as he prob
ably supposed, did much better by marrying Miss
Dulany and removing with her into the "Valley."
This probably about the beginning of the
Revolutionary war, and the young couple first re-
sided at Epping, described in a previous number.
Upon the coniscation of the Dulany estate and the
assignment of Windsor to his wife, Mr.. Fitzhugh
erected homestead on sold Windsor HILL, into
which he removed about the year 1888.
Thenceforward Epping was occupied by Dr.
HOratio Belt, who married Catharine Dulany,
while Springfield was in possession of Thomas
Hanson, whose wife was Rebecea Dulany, the
third sister. 1 think, however, that Mr.. and Mrs
Hanson never resided upon that estate-and it
to which the Legislature of Maryland conided it.
These three families were naturally and for q
considerable time the most prominent of the Val
ley. The landed property of Mr.. Fitzhugh was
not confined to the limits of his wifes grant, but
at the sale of the Dulany estate he made consid-
cradle additions of adjoining l am under
the impression that part of the land now owned
and occupied by the Misses Jenkins, and of that
of Mr. j. NJ. Matthews, was included in his pur-
chases. But he was one of those who have not the
grip to hold what they have the ambition to grasp
and all of those acquisitions passed out of his
hands except about so acres, which were incor-
porated in the Windsor estate as it stood when the
writer first knew anything about it. By that time,
however, all the title of George Fitzhugh to every
thing he had ever possessed had been extnguish-
ed by his insolvency. His life estate by the cour-
tenn in the 500 acres of his wife and his fee in the