Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-13
WASHINGTON WAS
NOT A TAX DODGER

NitpTS0 W aSElnSIOn one nunlreu dnS
eight years after his death is assin
charged with tax lodging. The charge
Is one hundred and forty-seven years old.
1t was made in l760, settled. forgotten
and recently redlscovered when the fol-
owing presentment by the grand jury OF
Fairfax county was disclosed among the
few remaining colonial records OF that
county:
We present George William Fairfax.
George Washington, John Carlyle. Daniel
French, Robert Bogges, Catesby Cooke,
Townsend Dade. sylbiu West. Garrard
Alexander. Jemima Minor. William Ram
say, Benjamin Grayson. George Mason,
John Plummer, Daniel Mccarthy and
Abraham Barnes for mot entering their
wheeled carriages agreeably to law as
appears to us by the list delivered 10 tho
clerk of the county"
All record of the disposition of tho
case is lost. The men named in this
presentment were the elect of the county
at that time. George William Fairfax
vas lifelong friend Of Washington. but
not synpathizing with the colonies in
their aspiration for Independence of the
British crown left Virginia about the time
of the beginning OF the American revo-
son of William Fairfax, proprietor OF
Belvoir, a great estate adjoining Mount
Vernon on the south. The father OF
George William Fairfax was collector OF
the port of Salem. Mass. when in 1874
he came to Virginia manager OF the
COCO Ooo-acre grant to his cousin Thomas
Lord Fairfax. George William Fairfax
was also related TO Washington. his sister
Anne having in 1743 become the wife OF
Lawrence Washington, half-brother Of
ND hn haH hnpf han rRai hal NV
his father. Augustine. the plantation on
Dogue run. which he Qawrence) called
Mount Vernon.
John Carlyle was one OF the rich men
of the new world. He also married one
of the Fairfax girls. Sally. and WAS a
lifelong friend OF Washington. 1t was in
his house in Alexandria that. in 1853 at a
conference Of Braddock and the crown
governors Of Virginia, Maryland Pennsyl-
vania, New York, Massachusetts and
North Carolina was suggested the system
Of taxation that aided In bringing on tho
revolution. Garrard Alexander was of the
Alexander family on whose land most OF
Alexandria was plotted and after whom
the city takes its name. He was also
owner of those lands that became the
GUSTS estates of Abingdon and Arlington.
Sylbill West was most likely of the family
of Hugh West, who was associated with
the Alexanders in laying out the new
town of Alexandria and on whose land
part of the city stands
George Mason was the proprietor OF
Gunston Hall and Gunston Neck which
adjo.ned Belvoir on the south. He was
the author OF the Virginia bill of rights.
one of the fathers of the American Con-
stitution, and for years a counsellor OF
Washington. Jefferson. Patrick Henry and
James Madison. He was a fellow vestry-
man with Washington in Pohick Church.
Daniel Mccarthy, one OF those pre-
sented." was also a vestryman at Pohck
when the Washlngtons. Masons and Fair
faxes worshiped there. Daniel French.
Benjamin Grayson and John Plummer
were influential citizens and friends OF
Washington, and no doubt an examina-
ton of records of the older counties than
Fairfax, particularly of Stafford and King
George or the parish records OF Truro,
Fairfax or Detingen. would reveal ahun-
dant data concerning Robert Bogges.
Catesby Cooke. Townsend Dade, Jemima
Minor. William Ramsay and Abraham
Barnes.
This presentment evidently created no
sensation at the time it was returned.
General Forbes campaign against the
French in the Ohio country closed in tho
autumn of 1888, Washington raising. the
British flag on the ruins OF Fort Duquesns
November %. 1883 Washington aban-
doned hope of securing a commission in
the British army, resigned as commander
of the two regiments of Virginia troops,
was elected TO the mouse OF burgeSSeS
and on January 8, 1859. married Martha
cambridge Gusts at her home. White
House. near Williamsburg Washington
received the thanks of the house of bur
gesses for his part In the French and In
dian campaigns. Three months after his
marriage ne ana his bride removed from
Williamsburg to Mount Vernon. This
would bring the time near when the pre-
sentiment was returned.
Washington continued to be leading
citizen, If not the leading citizen of Fair
fax county. When he introduced in tho
house of burgesses in 1769 the non-im-
portation resolutions prepared by George
Mason there was no hint that any oblouuy
attached to him. So. when Washington
was chosen moderator of the citizens
meeting at Fairfax Courthouse in July,
1I74. at which meeting the non-intercourse
resolutions were adopted. there was no
charge that Washington was a tax
dodger. When Washington went as Fair
fax county's representative to the Vir-
ginia convention at Williamsburg in .Au-
gust. 1TIi, nobody is recorded as having
pointed him out as a tax dodger.
There is a good deal about the pre-
sentiment which might be cleared up. II
is possible that the men named in the
''presentment' intended to try the legal
lty of the tax on their wheeled carri-
ages and that the proceeding was in
the nature of a test case. Certainly very
little interest or importance could have
been attached to the incident at the time.
Some other records bearing on the case
are needed.