Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1885-03-28
SELECTIONS.

SELECTIONS.
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SOME TRADITIONS CONCERNING
LORD FAIRFAX.
"Lord Fairfax Stone,n planted on
the 18th of October, 1916, and stu
.ated where Grant, Tucker and Pres.
ton counties, w. Va, meet 70 form
two sides Of a triangle with Garrett
County, Md, is the only monument
in West Virginia to the memory of
a man who at one time owned near
~ half Of the State. Even this stone
has been clipped by the relic fiend
until it is at present less than twelve
inches high, but the United States
Government several years ago erect
ed duplicate within a few feet of
the original stone, and this new one
stands intact.
Concerning his lordship / have
been able to pick up a few facts and
traditions. Kercheval's history of
the Valley Of Virginia 1889, says:
Charles II, King of England,
granted to the ancestors of the late
Lord Fairfax all the lands lying be-
tween the heaGwaters OF the Poto-
mac and Rapahannock to the Chesa-
peake bay. The immense Fairfax
estate has passed out of the hands of
Fairfax's heirs. The lands were
granted in fee simple to his
tenants, subject to annual rent
of two shillings sterling per hundred
acres. This small rent amounted in
the aggregate to very large sum;
added to which Fairfax required the
payment of ten shillings sterling on
each fifty acres, which was paid on
issuing grant. About the year 1742
his lordship opened his Office in the
county of Frederick and settled at
what was called "Greenway Court"
about IL or Ia miles southeast of Win
chester, where he kept his land office
during his life. Fair
fax's representatives soon sold out
their interest in his private estate in
this country, and it is believed there
is no part of this vast estate remain.
ing in the hands ofany branch of the
Fairfax family. He
never married; of course left no
children to inherit his vast estate !;
but devised his property, or a large
portion of it, to the Rev. Denny
Martin, his nephew in England. The
sale of the estate of Lord Fairfax by
his legatees in England is the last
chapter in the history of the Fairfax
interest in the Northern Neck,
territory comprising about one-fourth
Of the whole of the present limits of
Virginia"
A foot note says: Conongorutom
is the ancient Indian name of the
Potomac from its junction with the
river Shenandoah to the Allegheny
mountains. Lord Fairfax, in his
grants for lands of this water-course,
designated it Potomac; by which
means it gradually lost its ancient
name and now is generally known by
no other name."
ORIGIN OF HAMPSHIRE COUNTY.
The same author relates the fol-
lowing tradition: "Lord Fairfax,
happening one day in Winchester
to see large drove of unusually fine
hogs passing through the town, in
quired from whence they came. Be-
ing informed that they were from
the mountains westward, he remark
ed that when new county should
be laid off in that direction it ought
to be called Hampshire, after a
county in England celebrated for its
production Of fine hogs: and this, it
is said, gave name to the present
county Of Hampshire
Anothe. account of Fairfax saws !:
Ellis lordship lived and died in a
single clap-board story and half
house, which stood just in front of
the modern brick dwelling of Mr..
Kennerly, and was destroyedin 1884.
Fairfax had probably LOO negro ser
wants, who lived in log huts scatter.
ed about the woods. "A few years
since, in excavating the grounds near
the house, Mr.. Kennerly discovered
q large number Of .joes and halfjoes,
amounting to about $3.50; they we're
what is termed cab coin, of square
form and dated 1880. They we're
supposed to have been secreted there
/ by Lord Fairfax
His lordship was a dark swarthy