George William Fairfax (January 2, 1724April 3, 1787) was a planter in

colonial Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertGilbert (Saunders Family), Sir Humphrey" (histor ...

who represented then-vast Frederick County and later

Fairfax County Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...

in the House of Burgesses before the American Revolutionary War, by which time he had returned to England (where he was a Loyalist). A mentor and good friend of

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

, Fairfax made opportunities for the younger Washington through his powerful British family, and Washington assisted him afterward by arranging for the sale of his Virginia property after he returned to Britain.

Early life and education

Fairfax was born in 1724 on the island of New Providence in the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archi ...

. He was the son of Sarah (née Walker), and her husband Sir William Fairfax, a British colonel who had served as an English Customs agent in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

, as well as a justice and Governor of the

. At his son's birth, William was working as the Customs Collector in Marblehead. Sarah's father Thomas Walker was

Chief Justice of the Bahamas The Chief Justice of the Bahamas heads the Supreme Court of the Bahamas. Legal basis The position of Chief Justice is authorised by Article 93(2) of the Constitution of the Bahamas. Under Article 94(1), the Governor-General appoints the Chief Jus ...

. In addition to George, the Fairfaxes had two daughters, Anne and Sarah. The father William was first cousin to Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. George William's mother Sarah died January 21, 1731, when he was only seven years old.Mario Valdes, "The Fairfaxes and George Washington"
''The Blurred Racial Lines of Famous Families'', ''Frontline'', PBS. Note: Valdes interprets historical documents as suggesting that Sarah Walker was of partial African descent from her maternal line. Her husband Fairfax was concerned about the progress of his mixed-race children in the world. Valdes has found that a later descendant tried to cover up this aspect of the family's history by eliminating parts of letters when quoting family documents. At Lord Fairfax's request, the widower William Fairfax was reassigned to the colony of Virginia as customs agent. There he became a lieutenant of the County of Fairfax, and member and president of the council in Virginia (equivalent to lieutenant governor). William Fairfax also assisted his cousin as his land agent, managing his extensive holdings in northern Virginia known as the

Northern Neck Proprietary The Northern Neck Proprietary – also called the Northern Neck land grant, Fairfax Proprietary, or Fairfax Grant – was a land grant first contrived by the exiled English King Charles II in 1649 and encompassing all the lands bounded by the Pot ...

. Genealogists disagree about whether George William Fairfax's mother, Sarah Walker, might have possibly been of mixed race. In a letter to his mother, William Fairfax appeared to have worried about the reception of the boy by the London Fairfax family when he sent him to England.

Col. Gale has indeed kindly offered to take the care of safe conducting my eldest son George, upwards of seven years old but I judged it too forward to send him before I had your's or some one of his Uncles' or Aunts' invitation, altho' I have no reason to doubt any of their indulgences to a poor
West India Western India is a loosely defined region of India consisting of its western part. The Ministry of Home Affairs in its Western Zonal Council Administrative division includes the states of Goa, Gujarat, and Maharashtra along with the Union ...
boy especially as he has the marks in his visage that will always testify his parentage.

"West India" was a term used synonymously with Creole, which denoted native-born as much as it did mixed race in the period. After William Fairfax moved his family to Virginia, George William became a friend of

, who was eight years younger. Fairfax's older sister Anne married George Washington's older half-brother Lawrence in 1743, when George Washington was eleven years old. Fairfax remained Washington's friend until his death in 1787. Meanwhile, he arranged for the younger Washington to help him to survey the Virginia lands of his cousin, Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. This gave Washington a working introduction into Virginia society.

Marriage and family

In 1748, George William married Sally Cary, who came from one of Virginia's oldest and wealthiest families. Sally was apparently one of the most attractive women in Virginia at the time and also had a close friendship with George Washington, who lived at the neighboring plantation, Mount Vernon and may have been smitten with her, despite his lower social status than his mentor.Thomas Fleming
"George Washington in Love," ''American Heritage'', Fall 2009.

Career

In 1752, George William Fairfax was elected to represent then-vast Frederick County (almost all of which was in the Northern Neck Proprietary) in the House of Burgesses, where he succeeded George Fairfax and served alongside Gabriel Jones until Jones resigned to accept the office of county coroner. In the next session of the House of Burgesses, Fairfax represented Fairfax County. In 1757 after his father's death, George William Fairfax inherited the Belvoir plantation, which also operated using enslaved labor. His cousin Lord Fairfax moved to the

Shenandoah Valley The Shenandoah Valley () is a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge ...

in 1752, fixing his residence at Greenway Court near White Post (in what later became Clarke County), at the suggestion of his cousin

Thomas Bryan Martin Thomas Bryan Martin (1731–1798) was an 18th-century English American land agent, justice, legislator, and planter in the colony (and later U.S. state) of Virginia and in present-day West Virginia. Martin was the land agent of the Northern Nec ...

. G.W. Fairfax first served as one of the Fairfax County Justices (with administrative as well as judicial powers) in 1762. Since George William Fairfax was a mentor to the young George Washington, the younger man spent considerable time at Belvoir before marrying

Martha Dandridge Custis Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 21, 1731 — May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington served as the inaugural ...

in 1759. From letters that have survived, it seems that Washington had fallen in love with Sally Cary before his own marriage. George William and his wife

Sally Fairfax Sarah "Sally" Cary Fairfax (1735 – 1811 in Bath, England) was the wife of George William Fairfax (1724–1787), a prominent member of the landed gentry of late Colonial Virginia and the mistress of the Virginia plantation and estate of Belvoir ...

did not have any children. They returned to England in 1773, prior to the events of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, to take care of a family property matter. Fairfax was a Loyalist. He directed his friend Washington to rent Belvoir and sell some of his property, including slaves. The Fairfaxes did not return to Virginia afterward. In one of his final acts in Virginia, in 1772, Fairfax together with Washington funded the gilding of the alter in the new

Pohick Church Pohick Church, previously known as Pohick Episcopal Church, is an Episcopal church in the community of Lorton in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Often called the "Mother Church of Northern Virginia," the church is notable for its ass ...

, on whose vestry both served. In 1774 Washington wrote to George William Fairfax with an account of actions related to his business and property affairs in Virginia; with political tensions on the rise, he assured Fairfax he was keeping quiet about his friend's plans not to return to the colony. Washington also wrote of the Virginia governor's dissolution of the 1774 Virginia Assembly for passing a resolution critical of his office and the Crown, and news of tensions in the northern colonies. The two men continued to correspond during the buildup to war."George Washington letter to William Fairfax, 31 May 1775"
excerpted from ''The Writings of George Washington,'' Vol II, edited by Jared Sparks, 1847; at Family Tales Website

References

External links

''American Memory'', Library of Congress * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fairfax, George William 1729 births 1787 deaths 18th-century American Episcopalians American people of English descent American people of Scottish descent American planters British North American Anglicans Cary family of Virginia George William House of Burgesses members Loyalists in the American Revolution from Virginia People from Fairfax County, Virginia People from Marblehead, Massachusetts American people of Bahamian descent