Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1898-05-12
EARLY VIRGINIA HISTORY.
OLD BELvoIR CONTINUED.
No. II.

liam Fairfax to England Washington
in letter to him in June, 1856, thus
expressed himself; Though envy is
no part of my nature, yet the picture
you have drawn of your present home
and way of living is enough to create q
strong desire in me to be participant
in the tranquility and rural amuse-
ments you have described as your lot.
am getting into the latter as fast as L
can, being determined to make the re-
mainder OF my life easy, let the affairs
! of it go as they may. am not little
( obliged to you for the assurance of con-
trihuting to this by procuring for me a
| buck and doe of the best Eoglish
deer; and in regard to the offer of my
good friend, Mrs. Fairfax, l have to say
tnat will receive with great pleasure
and gratitude the seeds of any trees or
shrubs she may be pleased to send me
which are not natives of this country,
nut reconciliable 10 its climate; and
while my attentions are bestowed upon
the nurture of them, they would, if any
thing were necessary to do it, remind
me Of the happy moments have spent
N conversations on this and other sub
Jets with your lady at BelVoir."
Early in 1775 Washington relinquish-
ID the agency Of the Belvoir estate, as
his time was chitf fly absorbed by the
pressing duties imposed upon him by
the imminence of the revolutionary
struggle.
The proprietors of Mount Vernon
and Belvoir, together with their fami-
lies, were always on the most cordial
terms, as the letters OF each still pre-
served attest. William Fairfax had
passed away before tue passage of the
stamp act. George William, his son,
favored the early protests against the
obnoxious acts of Great Britain, also
the petitions to the King in the inter
-sts of the colonists, but he opposed
the popular measures looking to armed
resistance. He was for many years a
member of the House Of Burgesses from
Fairfax county and it was in this con-
n cron during the election contest OF
1854 when he was opposed by Col. Ell
z-y that his friend, George Washing
ton, engaged in The acrimonious con.
,roveisy with VIM. Payne, FREUD Of
thu former, in the market place of AL
exAudria.
During the war which ensued some
of the property of George VIM. Fairfax,
in Fairfax county, was escheated to the
State. His loss of income from his Vir
ginia estate forced him 10 limit his ex-
penses and remove from Yorkshire TO
Bath, where he lived in q modest way.
dividing generously his limited means
with American prisoners of war held in
| Eugland. He left Beivoir and some
other landed property to Ferdinando,
! third son of bis half brother, Rev. Bry-
IN Fairfax, and died at Bath April 3,
1887, aud was buried in WirthliDgton
church yard. His will appointed bis
true and fast friend George
Weshing on one of his exec
utors. His wife survived him until
1912 90 receiving the news OF George
Williams death from a mutual friend
in Eogland, Washington wrote in rt
uly to him January, 17SS, about the
Long and uninterrupted friendship
which had subsisted between himself
and his esteemed friend whose loss
would be amented by all who had
known him."
BRYAN Fairfax, third son of William
of Beivoir, was married to daughter
of William Carey, and his residence in
Fairfax county was known as Mount
Eagle, near Great Hunting Gle k bridge.
He was brother-in law of Lawrence
Washington, friend of George Wash
ington, and at one time chaplain IN
the revolutionary army. Ferdinand,
SUh lord, died at Mount Eagle in 1920.
at the age of forty-si1. He had be.
nevoent turn of mind and was the
originator of the American Colonization
Society for the sending of free blacks to
Liberia. Bryan Fairfax was rector of
Christ Church, Alexandria, from 1870
to 1892, and went to England in 1898
to claim his right to the peersRe after
the death of Robert, seventh lord, who
never lived in Virginia. The title was
confirmed to him in 1900 and the empty
privilege he made use OF by sitting with
the other princely dignitaries for the
brief space of an hour. During the last
wears OF MS ITO u0 cAhOaaOCN VIZ wv
trines of Swedenborg. He was buried
in the burying ground of Christ Church,
Alexandra, with the following inscrip.
over his remains:
"In memoriam, Right Hon. and
Rev. Bryan Lord Fairfax, Baron
of Cameron, rector of Fairfax parish.
Died at Mount Eagle August Z, lSo2,
aged 75."
Many years ago this fine estate Of
Belvoir with its TWO thousand acres OF
good farming lands passed from the
hands of the Fairfax family, and with
the exception of about two hundred
and fifty acres, the entire area he's
lapsed back to g veritable wilderness
chiefly of pines and cedars which have
grown up from the ridges still every
where to be seen of the old tobacco and
corn plantations. Once, nearly every
acre of its arraoe portions was under
/, tillage, but as the impoverishing pro-
ness of constant cropping without le~