Role in Ravensworth – Financier and owner Parcel 1.1.3

John Lloyd was was born in the Quaker community of Philadelphia in 1775 and orphaned at an early age. He was raised by his grandfather, John Harper, an Alexandria merchant. He married twice. First, in 1798, to Rebecca Janney (c.1776-1817) with whom there were seven children:

• John Janney Lloyd (1800-1871)
• Nicholas Waln Lloyd (1801) died in childhood
• Horatio Nelson Lloyd (1804-1860)
• Selina Lloyd (1807-1871)
• Alfred Lloyd (1811-1812)
• Richard Henry Lloyd (1815) died in childhood
• Frederick Lloyd (1817-1868)

In 1820 he married Anne Harriotte Lee (1799-1863), a neighbor and cousin of Robert E. Lee, with whom there were six additional children:

• Edmund Jennings Lloyd (1822-1889)
• Rebecca Lloyd (1824-1873)
• Anne Harriotte Lloyd (1826-1888)
• George Francis Lloyd (1828-1866)
• Jean Charlotte Lloyd (1834-1914)
• Mary Lee Lloyd (c.1834-?)

Lloyd built successful businesses as a dry goods merchant, hatter and real estate investor. He served as a director on the boards of the Bank of Alexandria and the Fauquier and Alexandria Turnpike Company. Lloyd House in Alexandria (home of the Office of Historic Alexandria), which he bought in 1833, still bears the family name.¹

Lloyd amassed extensive real estate holdings in the town of Alexandria and in Fairfax County. He gained control of 1300 Ravensworth acres (Parcel 1.1.3) in 1816, when Jonathan Scholfield was overextended on trust bonds with which he had financed purchase of the land from Giles Fitzhugh. Lloyd assumed responsibility to the bank for the $14,326 debt and thereby became a partner in managing, subdividing and selling the land.² By May 1821 Scholfield was out of the picture and Lloyd in full control. Working at first with the bank’s trust manager Robert Taylor and later on his own, Lloyd sold the land in parcels bordering Little River Turnpike and ranging in size from 100 to 400 acres.

John and Ann Lloyd are buried in Christ Church Episcopal Cemetery in Alexandria.³