Fitzhugh, Richard (c.1765-1821)

Role in Ravensworth: Owner Parcel 1.1.4

Richard was one of fourteen children born to Henry (Colonel) and Sarah (Battaile) Fitzhugh. He married Susannah Meade (?-c.1857), daughter of Andrew Meade in 1790. Sources differ on how many children they had; however, there were at least eight:1

  • Ann F. Fitzhugh (c. 1805-1880)
  • Andrew Fitzhugh (?-1850), appointed a U.S. Navy midshipman in 1811, served in War of 1812 and Mexican War, rose to the rank of Captain in 1843 (Naval Captain Andrew Fitzhugh of Oakhill – by Debbie Robison, Northern Virginia History Notes)
  • Harriet Fitzhugh (1800-1871), married Berkeley Ward (1789-1860), inherited her uncle Giles Fitzhugh’s property near her home in Warrenton, Virginia
  • Meade Fitzhugh (c. 1793-1845), worked as a federal clerk for the Superintendent of Indian Trade in 1816, annual salary $700, and the Treasury Department’s Commissioner of General Land Revenue in 1835 at salary of $1150, died at Oak Hill2
  • Caroline Battaile Fitzhugh (dates unknown), married (1) Horatio C. Withers in 1835 and (2) H. A. White in 1846
  • David H. Fitzhugh (1808-1868)
  • Richard Henry Fitzhugh (dates unknown)
  • Maria M. Fitzhugh (?-C.1862/3)

Richard Fitzhugh established his residence, Oak Hill, on his Ravensworth property, a plantation which he operated with slave labor. The 1820 federal census recorded 50 slaves in his household, equally divided between male and female.

President Thomas Jefferson a Friend

He counted President Thomas Jefferson a friend and sometime visitor. Letters exchanged with Jefferson give insight into Richard’s interests and what appears to be a life dedicated to agriculture.3 Jefferson credited Richard Fitzhugh as a known ornithologist.4

Jefferson’s personal account books record at least four overnight stays at Richard Fitzhugh’s home, while President, on trips between Washington, DC and his Monticello home near Charlottesville, VA. The first of these stays – Jefferson’s April 1-2, 1804 visit – was arranged in Jefferson’s exchange of letters with Nicholas Fitzhugh that also reveal something about local roads and travel challenges at that time. The fourth and final stay, on March 14, 1809, was on Jefferson’s final trip home at the end of his presidency.5

During his lifetime, Richard Fitzhugh sold one small portion – about 120 acres, Parcel 1.1.4.1. The remainder passed to his widow Susannah in 1821. His will did not specify the exact division among heirs. Therefore, after her death c.1857, the Fairfax County Court divided it among four living children, the estate of a fifth child and a grandson, William Marbury Fitzhugh.6

 

  1. Maddy McCoy, “Genealogical Research for Fairfax County, Virginia Slavery Inventory Database,” Slavery Inventory Database, LLC, http://www.slaveryinventorydatabase.com/, (Unpublished manuscript, 2009); The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol 8 (1901) (Virginia Historical Society), 315. ↩
  2. Register of All Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth day of September 1816 (U.S. Department of State) (https://books.google.com/books?id=1A9AAAAAYAAJ Google Books), 12; Register of All Officers and Agents, Civil, Military, and Naval, in the Service of the United States, on the Thirtieth September 1835 (U.S. Department of State) (http://books.google.com/books?id=Tx9AAAAAYAAJ Google Books), 18. ↩
  3. Thomas Jefferson, and Edwin Morris Betts, Ed., Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Book, annotated edition (The University of North Carolina Press, 2001)., 510. ↩
  4. David W. Johnston, The History of Ornithology in Virginia (University of Virginia Press, 2003), 58. ↩
  5. Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books: Accounts, with Legal Records and Miscellany, 1767-1826 (Princeton University Press, 1997), 1123, 1148, 1203, 1243. ↩
  6. Maria M Fitzhugh, Etc. V. Hamden A White, Etc., original case number CFF32J, index number 1869-003, Library of Virginia online Chancery Records Index. ↩