Chapter I Notes_Salona, Fairfax County, Virginia

[Transcriber's Note:

The "^" character is used to denote superscripted letters,

e.g. "p^r." means "p" with a superscripted "r."]

_SALONA_

_FAIRFAX COUNTY

VIRGINIA_

Ellen Anderson

Fairfax County Office of Comprehensive Planning

February 1979

Other Fairfax County Office of Comprehensive

Planning historical publications are available from:

Fairfax County Publications Center

Massey Building, First Floor

4100 Chain Bridge Road

Fairfax, Virginia 22030

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 79-84335

CONTENTS

Illustrations v

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

I. Langley and the Lees 5

II. Salona and the Maffitts 11

III. Salona for Sale 25

IV. Salona and the Smoots 28

V. Salona and the DuVals 41

VI. Salona: The House and Outbuildings 45

VII. Preservation by Easement 53

Chapter Notes 55

Appendixes

A. Chain of Title, 1719-1974 71

B. Maffitt Inventory, 1828 77

C. Maffitt Slave Schedule 81

D. DuVal Deed of Easement 84

List of Sources 95

ILLUSTRATIONS

Salona location 2

Thomas Lee's 1719 grant, "Langley" 7

Advertisement, land later called "Salona" 9

The Reverend William Maffitt 13

William Maffitt, Jr. 25

The Reverend William Maffitt's tombstone 27

Civil War troops at Salona 29

McDowell's 1862 Civil War map 30

Wartime memorandum 32

Smoot family portraits 34

Jacob Gilliam Smoot and some family heirlooms 35

G. M. Hopkins _Atlas_ map, 1879 36

The Salona Farm, 1890 and 1900 37

Rambler photo of Salona, 1914 38

Division of Smoot property, 1947 40

DuVal family portrait, 1957 42

Salona first and second floor plans 46

Salona attic floor plan 47

West wall 49

Entrance hall 49

Old stone house 50

Springhouse 50

Rear views of Salona mansion 51

Smokehouse 51

Stone barn ruins 51

Outdoor kitchen 52

Old brick privy 52

Permanent and temporary easement plat 54

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many people have helped materially with the story of Salona. Peter

Maffitt, descendant of the Rev. William Maffitt, and Douglass and

Henry Mackall, descendants of one of Maffitt's sisters, generously

shared information on the Maffitt family and gave William Maffitt a

three-dimensional shape. John D. K. Smoot, Jane Smoot Wilson and

William Smoot, descendants of Jacob Smoot, recalled many stories of

their family and of Salona. Clive and Susan DuVal, present owners of

Salona, endured hours of interviews, photographing, and measuring of

the house and outbuildings.

Valuable assistance has also been given by Mike Rierson, Fairfax

County Park Authority, and W. Brown Morton, III, National Park

Service, who contributed useful information on the architectural

features and possible age of Salona; and William Elkjer measured and

drew up floor plans of Salona. The Rev. William Sengel of the Old

Presbyterian Meeting House, Jean Elliot, Frank Gapp, John Gott,

Winslow Hatch, Beth Mitchell, and Donie Rieger also contributed

information.

Librarians who have provided information and encouragement are Harva

Sheeler, Dot de Wilde, and Eric Grundset, Virginia Room, Fairfax

County Public Library; Mathilde Williams, Peabody Collection,

Georgetown Public Library; the helpful staff at the Archives

Division, Virginia State Library; and Ruth B. Lee, Historical

Foundation of the Presbyterian and Reformed Church, Montreat, North

Carolina.

Introduction

At the edge of the busy commercial area of the community of McLean,

hidden from the heavy traffic on Dolley Madison Boulevard by a

natural screen of trees and shrubs, stands the substantial brick

dwelling known as Salona. Only a portion of the original 466 acres

surrounds the house; the rest of the land has been converted into

church properties, shopping centers, residential subdivisions, and

other appurtenances of development.

Originally, the land was part of a large grant of 2,630 acres taken

out by Thomas Lee in 1719 from the Northern Neck proprietor, and

later named "Langley," a name which persists in the area to the

present day.

The Reverend William Maffitt of Maryland purchased the 466-acre

parcel in 1812, and he may have been the builder of the brick house

at Salona to which President James Madison fled when the British

burned the capital in August, 1814.

After the death of Maffitt, the property went through the hands of

several northerners who were part of the influx of Yankees just prior

to the outbreak of the Civil War. The parcel was divided into several

pieces.

Jacob G. Smoot of Georgetown, D.C., purchased 208 acres, including

the house, in 1853. He and his descendants owned Salona for almost

100 years--through the Civil War when Camp Griffin troops were

temporary residents in tent villages on Salona and surrounding

property and in the extended period of rebuilding during the

agricultural era following. They witnessed and were part of the

subdivision of lands for suburban tract housing.

As a reflection of changes experienced in the Washington metropolitan

area following World War II, Clive DuVal, a veteran, came from

New York to accept employment with the federal government. He and his

wife Susan purchased Salona with the idea of restoring it and using

it for a family residence.

[Illustration]

The DuVals entered into a period of community participation which

repeatedly involved the house as a center for meetings, tours and

entertainment. Because it was a sound, comfortable, gracious old

house with historical associations and community significance, they

decided to grant a permanent historic and scenic easement to Fairfax

County in 1971, preserving the house, its brick outbuildings and

eight acres of land surrounding them in perpetuity. A temporary

easement for 44 additional acres of the Salona property was granted

at the same time, fitting in with the county's stated purpose to

shape the character, direction and timing of community development

through the preservation of open space land.

Because of its historical associations, the house was placed on the

Virginia State Landmarks Register and on the National Register of

Historic Places in 1973.

LANGLEY AND THE LEES

The brick house known as Salona stands solidly on a portion of the

original grant known as "Langley," a tract named by Thomas Lee for

ancestral Lee lands in Shropshire, England.

Thomas Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1690, the

fifth son of Richard Lee, II, a member of the King's Council and

Naval Officer and Receiver of Customs for the Potomac. When Richard

died in 1714, young Thomas succeeded his father as Naval Officer for

the Potomac. Three years earlier, in 1711, he had been appointed

resident agent along with his uncle, Edmund Jenings, for Lady

Catherine Fairfax. She was proprietor of the Northern Neck grant of

over 5,000,000 acres of land originally made by Charles II in exile

to seven loyal followers, in 1649. She had become dissatisfied with

the management of her agents Micajah Perry and Robert Carter. While

his uncle was in England, Thomas Lee kept the books for the

proprietary and visited most of the farflung Fairfax property. After

his uncle returned to Virginia and took over the books, Lee used the

knowledge gained from his work with the Fairfax estate to acquire

grants of his own, among them, in 1719, the Langley tract of 2,862

acres on the Potomac River between Great Falls and Little Falls.

Because of the strategic location of this tract, he hoped to benefit

from the economic development of the western lands. While he never

realized this dream, he did become president of the King's Council

and, in 1749, acting governor of the Colony.[1]

After Thomas Lee's death in 1750, the Langley property went to his

eldest son, Philip Ludwell Lee, who also was a member of the King's

Council. A Royalist by preference he did not share the revolutionary

enthusiasms of his younger brothers, Richard Henry Lee, and Francis

Lightfoot Lee, signers of the Declaration of Independence. Moreover,

Philip Ludwell Lee, as administrator of his father's estate, was

responsible for paying their legacies to the younger children. These

legacies were never paid in full, an omission which further widened

the gap between him and his siblings.[2] In the tradition of his

father who had envisioned development of the upper Potomac, Philip

Ludwell Lee established the Town of Philee on 100 acres at the Little

Falls of the Potomac. Although he actually built warehouses there,

the town was doomed to failure.[3]

Philip Ludwell Lee died in 1775, and the Langley tract was divided

between his two daughters: Matilda, who married Henry (Light Horse

Harry) Lee, and Flora, who married Ludwell Lee of Belmont in Loudoun

County. Matilda inherited the portion on which Salona was built. If

any buildings existed on the tract at that time, it seems probable

that Matilda, as the elder daughter, would have been given the

section on which they were located.[4]

By an ironic twist of fate, in 1782, Matilda Lee, daughter of

die-hard Royalist Philip Ludwell Lee, married Henry Lee, a dashing

young officer in the American forces, whose brilliant military

exploits at Brandywine, Monmouth, and Paulus Hook (now Jersey City)

won him the esteem of General George Washington, the soubriquet of

"Light Horse Harry," and, in 1780, promotion to the rank of

lieutenant-colonel.

"Harry" Lee was the son of Henry Lee of Leesylvania, in Prince

William County, and Lucy Grymes Lee. His father was a member of the

House of Burgesses for many years and when the war with England

began, was in charge of recruiting and equipping troops for

Washington's army. After serving as a delegate to the Continental

Congress of 1785-88 and the Virginia Constitutional Convention of

1788, he was elected to the Virginia Legislature where he served

until 1791. His wife, Matilda, died in 1790, leaving him a son,

Henry. Matilda left the Langley tract to her son, with a life

interest to her husband.[5]

To assuage his grief, Harry Lee plunged deeper into politics and in

1791 was elected Governor of Virginia. Two years later he married

again, this time to Anne Hill Carter of Shirley. One of their sons was

Robert E. Lee, later commander-in-chief of the Armies of the

Confederacy. After a two-year term in Congress, Harry Lee's star began

to wane. His attempt to establish a town, Matildaville, at the Great

Falls of the Potomac, had failed, and his other land speculations had

gone sour. Eventually he spent two years in debtor's prison in

Westmoreland County, where he had once sat as a justice. In 1810, he

moved his family to Alexandria, and in 1812, was given a permanent

commission as a major-general in the United States Army, but his

failing health made it impossible for him to take part in the war

against England. He spent his last days in the West Indies, in a vain

attempt to recover his health. He died in 1818.[6]

[Illustration: _Thomas Lee's 1719 grant, adjoining Turberville,

showing the future 208-acre Smoot property at Salona._]

Harry's brother, Richard Bland Lee, did all he could to keep economic

ruin from devastating the former war hero, but managed only to get

himself deeper in debt. In 1808, during the period of financial

disaster, Harry Lee and his son sold the Langley tract to Richard

Bland Lee for $25,000. William Maffitt was a witness.[7]

No records or correspondence have yet appeared to indicate that any

of the Lees built a dwelling on the Langley tract. Thomas Lee had the

money, but architectural historians do not believe the house was

constructed during his lifetime. Philip Ludwell Lee could have built

on the tract, especially because of his town, Philee, on the Potomac,

but again the house does not appear to be old enough to have been

built during his lifetime.

Light Horse Harry Lee might have built the house when he was involved

with the development of Matildaville; estimated dates for the

construction range from 1790 to 1810. But after 1803 both Harry Lee

and his brother Richard Bland Lee were facing financial difficulties

and probably would not have built a large brick house on the Langley

tract at that time.

During Richard Bland Lee's ownership of Langley, the land was rented

to tenants.[8] A Lee descendant wrote in 1969 that "no Lee ever

resided at 'Langley.' During the Lee tenure, 1719-1839, the place was

always rented out."[9] So far, no listing of these tenants has been

discovered. The only person mentioned as a tenant is J. C. Scott.[10]

Scott has not been satisfactorily identified, although he may have

been John Caile Scott, grandson of Alexander Scott, owner of

Strawberry Vale.[11] He could have leased a portion of Langley and

even built a house on the property. That this was customary in those

days is shown by the terms of a lease agreement between Richard

Bland Lee and Henson Lewis, which reveals that Lewis leased 130 acres

of Lee's Cub Run tract on which he consented to pay taxes, plant and

maintain an apple orchard, and construct a brick or stone framed

dwelling at least 16 feet square and a brick or stone framed barn.

This lease clearly indicates that a tenant on the Langley tract might

have built Salona under the terms of a similar contract.[12]

[Illustration: _Advertisement for Salona_, Alexandria Gazette,

_November 18, 1811._]

A bible entry cited by Melvin Steadman in his book on Falls Church

reports that Thomas Sandford Wren "was born at Salona" on May 19,

1808, to Richard and Susannah (Adams) Wren.[13] According to

Steadman, Thomas Wren is buried in the El Nido Cemetery, but all of

the tombstones, with one exception, have been destroyed.[14] Because

the name "Salona" appears on a legal document for the first time in

1823, the reported entry seems still more curious. It is possible

that Salona may have been built or at least designed by one of the

Wren family. Susannah Adams Wren, Richard's wife, was a descendant of

the Adams family which had a mill adjacent to the Salona tract,

another tie to the area.[15]

Fairfax County tax records provide no clue to a possible date of

construction. In 1790, the Langley tract was carried on the rolls as

the property of the Ludwell Lee heirs and was so listed for more than

20 years. Only two significant changes appeared: one in 1792 when

more than 500 acres were sold, and again in 1811 after the sale of a

466-acre tract to Herbert. When William Maffitt first appeared on the

tax rolls as a landowner in 1813, the 466-acre tract was assessed at

$880 and his smaller tract at $79.[16]

William Herbert, who took over the 466 acres in payment of judgments

against Richard Bland Lee, had no apparent intention of living on the

property or of keeping it. A house must have existed on the property

when he bought it because when he advertised the property for sale in

the _Alexandria Gazette_ in November 1811, the copy mentioned "a

comfortable dwelling house, and out houses, a young thriving orchard

of the choicest fruit, a good garden paled in, and a spring of fine

water that has never been known to fail in the driest season, near

the house." There is no indication that the acreage was under

cultivation at that time.[17]

On March 10, 1812, the Reverend William Maffitt bought the 466-acre

tract from William Herbert. It was probably Maffitt who named the

estate "Salona."

Chapter I Notes

Langley and the Lees

[1] Fairfax Harrison, _Landmarks of Old Prince William_ (Berryville,

Va.: Reprint, Chesapeake Book Company, 1964), pp. 146-149.

[2] Gardner Cazenove Lee, Jr., _Lee Chronicle_ (New York: New York

University Press, 1957), pp. 5-6, 55-68; Beth Mitchell, _Beginning at

a White Oak: Patents and Northern Neck Grants of Fairfax County_

(Fairfax, Va.: Office of Comprehensive Planning, 1977), pp. 202-203.

[3] Harrison, _Landmarks_, p. 149.

[4] Lee, _Chronicle_, pp. 86-92; Edmund Jennings Lee, _Lee of

Virginia, 1642-1892_ (Philadelphia: By the author, 1895), pp.

165-167; April 19, 1782, Report of Appraisement and Division of

Philip Ludwell Lee's Estate, Westmoreland, Va.

[5] Trevor N. Dupuy and Gay M. Hammerman, _People and Events of the

American Revolution_ (New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1974), p. 359;

Virginia Dabney, _Virginia, The New Dominion_ (New York: Doubleday,

1971), pp. 170-71.

[6] Lee, _Chronicle_, pp. 86-92.

[7] Fairfax County, Virginia, Deed Book, J-2, p. 84.

[8] Ibid., J-2, p. 245.

[9] Ludwell Lee Montague letter to Eleanor Lee Templeman, May 4,

1969. No documentation was given for this statement. Copy in working

papers, Virginia Room, Fairfax County Central Library.

[10] Diane Rafuse, _Maplewood_ (Fairfax, Va.: Office of Planning,

1970), Appendix D.

[11] Rafuse, _Maplewood_, pp. 56-62.

[12] Robert S. Gamble, _Sully: The Biography of a House_ (Chantilly,

Va.: The Sully Foundation, Ltd., 1973), p. 21.

[13] Melvin Steadman, _Falls Church by Fence and Fireside_ (Falls

Church, Va.: Falls Church Public Library, 1964), p. 509.

[14] Author's visit to El Nido Cemetery, off Old Dominion Drive, near

McLean.

[15] Janice G. Artemel, A Preliminary Survey of the Literature on

James Wren. Unpublished study. Falls Church, Va.

[16] Fairfax County real property tax books, 1790-1813. Virginia

State Library, Archives Division.

[17] _Alexandria Gazette_, November 11, 18, 1811.

SALONA AND THE MAFFITTS

The first occupant of record of the house at Salona, William Maffitt,

is surrounded by legends. Supposedly, Maffitt built Salona in 1801.

Maffitt was from South Carolina. Maffitt went to Princeton. Maffitt

preached the funeral sermon for George Washington. Maffitt had a

boys' school at Salona. Maffitt lived at Salona with his wife

Harriotte Lee Turberville Maffitt, who deserted her three children by

her first marriage. Dolley Madison spent the night with the Maffitts

at Salona when she fled from the White House during the English

invasion of Washington.

The available documents give a different picture.

William Maffitt was born in Cecil County, Maryland, in 1769, eldest

son of Samuel and Ann Strawbridge Maffitt.[18] His father was a

justice of the peace, elder in the Presbyterian Church, owner of a

flourishing farm and a mill, and was a major under George Washington

during the American Revolution.

The Rev. Mr. John H. Johns made his contribution to the Maffitt

legends:

The Rev. William Maffit [sic] was a son of

Samuel Maffit, an elder of this church.

Having been licensed October 9th, 1794, by

New Castle Presbytery, he went, April 1st,

1795, to Alexandria, Va., in Baltimore

Presbytery. He had delicate health, and was

pastor there for only a brief period, when

he went to Salina [sic] six miles from

Washington, and there became principal of a

school, which he continued to teach for many

years. He married twice, each time to a

widow Lee, of the noted Lee family of

Virginia. He died in 1828.[19]

Although many young men of Cecil County attended Princeton, the

University does not have Maffitt recorded as a student, and his name

does not appear in the official list of early Princeton

graduates.[20] He probably attended some theological school because

on October 9, 1794, the New Castle Presbytery appointed him to supply

various New Castle Presbytery congregations.[21] At that time, he

seems to have been teaching at the Wilmington Academy.[22]

On April 7, 1795, he was transferred to the Baltimore Presbytery,

with residence in Alexandria.[23] On April 14, 1795, he was hired by

the Alexandria Academy to teach Latin and English to 35 students for

the sum of 200 pounds a year.[24]

In 1798, George Washington wrote regarding the education of Martha

Washington's grandson, George Washington Parke Custis:

If he (Custis) was to go to Alexandria, his

Studies must be conducted at the Academy or

in his own chamber. The first, after coming

from a large and celebrated College, he

would consider as degrading, and in the

other case (being left alone) he would

attend very little to them while Mr. Moffet

was discharging the trust reposed in him at

the Academy.[25]

An Alexandria historian, Mary Powell, wrote that: "The school was

attended by the best classes of Alexandria boys and able instruction

was given in the classics, history, and elocution." She also

observed: "The Rev. McWhirr and the Rev. Mr. Moffat were both

Presbyterian clergymen who taught during the lifetime of General

Washington. Mr. Leary succeeded Mr. Moffat ..."[26]

In 1801 the _Alexandria Gazette_ reported that the trustees of the

Alexandria Academy:

express their satisfaction at the progress

of every branch taught in the academy ...

reading and spelling; the accurate and

extensive knowledge of English grammar and

of the Latin classics, reflect the highest

honor on the capacity and diligence of Mr.

Maffitt, the teacher.[27]

Maffitt remained at the Academy until 1804 when he notified the board

of trustees that he intended to "relinquish his situation as

principal" on June 8. No hint of his future plans was given.[28]

At least as early as 1799, Maffitt became a member of Masonic Lodge

22[29] and took part in other community activities befitting a

schoolmaster and minister. On December 24, 1799, the _Alexandria

Gazette_ reported:

Friday next being St. John's Day, Brother

Maffitt, at the request of Lodges 22 and 47,

will deliver a Charity Sermon at the

Presbyterian Meeting house at which all the

brethren are requested to attend. N.B. it is

expected that every brother will appear with

his badge of mourning--and those of Lodge 22

in full mourning.[30]

[Illustration: _A physiognotrace of "William Maffett, chaplain."

Courtesy of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, A. F. & A. M.,

Alexandria, Virginia._]

George Washington, a member of Lodge 22, had died on December 14,

1799, and the call was to a memorial service. Maffitt did not, as

legend claims, preach the funeral sermon, although he did march with

the clergy in the lodge's funeral procession from Alexandria to Mount

Vernon to attend the ceremony.[31]

Earlier in 1799, the minutes of the General Assembly of the

Presbyterian Church show that Rev. William Maffitt was assigned to

Bladensburg.[32] There is no record of his actual presence there and

he was not re-assigned.[33] For the rest of his life, his listings in

the minutes show him "without charge." Although Maffitt was a

licensed minister, there is some doubt that he was ever ordained.[34]

On January 14, 1800, the subscribers to the establishment of a

Washington Society met at Gadsby's Tavern and William Maffitt was

named to the committee to form the constitution and by-laws.[35] On

January 28, Maffitt was appointed chaplain of the society,[36] a post

which he held at least through 1803. On February 23, 1800, the

society was called to meet at Gadsby's at 10 a.m. "to move in

procession to the Presbyterian Meeting House where an oration will be

delivered by the Rev. Mr. Maffitt, commemorative of the distinguished

merits of the Illustrious Washington."[37] Again, on February 22,

1803, the Washington Society called on Maffitt to deliver a memorial

sermon on the first president "at the Presbyterian Church at 12

o'clock. There will be instrumental and vocal music and the day will

be announced by a discharge of 16 rounds from the Market Square."[38]

On February 18, 1801, the Rev. Mr. Maffitt was elected a director of

the Alexandria Library Co., and was re-elected to this post in 1802,

1803, and 1804.[39]

On May 5, 1803, the Rev. Dr. Muir, pastor of the Presbyterian Meeting

House, married the Rev. William Maffitt to Mrs. Harriotte

Turberville.[40] Harriotte (or Henrietta) was the daughter of Richard

Henry Lee, a brother of Philip Ludwell Lee, and his second wife, Anne

Gaskins Pinckard, widow of Thomas Pinckard. Harriotte was born

December 10, 1773 at Chantilly, the Richard Henry Lee estate in

Westmoreland County.[41] Her siblings included a younger sister Sarah

who married another cousin, Edmund Jennings Lee, and the youngest

son, Francis Lightfoot Lee.[42] Her first marriage in December, 1794,

was to Richard Lee Turberville, a cousin and neighbor, who died in

1799,[43] leaving his widow with their three children: Cornelia,

Richard, and George. Richard and Harriotte Turberville had settled at

Chantilly in Fairfax County and Richard apparently died there.[44]

When Harriotte and William Maffitt were married, he was still

principal of the Alexandria Academy, living in Alexandria, and active

in community affairs. But between June 8, 1804, the date of Maffitt's

resignation from the Academy, and early 1805, he moved to Chantilly

with his wife, their first child, and the three children of

Harriotte's first marriage. It is probable that the move took place

in 1804, soon after his resignation.

Legal guardian of the three Turberville children was Thomas Lee,

Harriotte's oldest brother.[45] After his death in 1805, William

Maffitt was named guardian.[46] In this capacity he had to keep

accurate accounts of his expenditures on behalf of the children and

of income received on their property, all of which were matters of

court record. These records indicate that Maffitt was living at

Chantilly at that time.

William and Harriotte had two daughters, both christened in the

Presbyterian Meeting House: Ann Lee, born March 23, 1804, and

christened on April 20, and Harriotte, born March 16, 1805, and

christened on April 17, 1805.[47] Harriotte died right after the

birth of the second daughter, probably on April 11 or 12, 1805,

because on April 12, Maffitt began paying rent to the three

Turberville heirs for the use of their property. This was recorded

for the first time in his accounts for 1805.[48]

That he had a school on the Chantilly estate seems highly probable,

because starting in 1805, he charged the two Turberville boys for

board and tuition, but not for transportation.[49] In 1805, Maffitt

was listed for the first time on the Fairfax County personal property

tax rolls.[50] In 1810, the county census listed him as having under

his roof two males under 10, five males between 10 and 16, one male

between 26 and 45, five females under 10, and one female between 26

and 45.[51]

The guardian accounts give some interesting insights into day-by-day

activities. Buying new shoes and mending old ones for the two boys

were constant expenses. Regular sums of money were sent to Mrs. Lee,

Harriotte's sister Sally, to pay for Cornelia Turberville's board,

education, and small purchases. Books and supplies were bought for

the boys. A large portion of the estate was rented out, and so were

some of the slaves. The chimney and cellar were repaired; a new barn

was built.[52]

The accounts also show that Cornelia Turberville was married to

Charles C. Stuart in 1817, rather than 1814, as some sources report.

Up to the time of the marriage, Maffitt referred to Cornelia as "C.

Turberville"; afterwards he formally termed her "Mistress Stuart." He

also listed money given George Turberville to buy articles to attend

his sister's wedding.[53] Historians credit Cornelia and her husband

with building a house named "Chantilly" in honor of the estate of her

grandfather, Richard Henry Lee, in Westmoreland County.[54] Yet the

Maffitt accounts specifically refer to "my rent of Chantilly" in

1814,[55] three years before the Turberville-Stuart marriage.

Moreover, a public sale was held "at Chantilly" in 1817,[56] with

cash paid to C. C. Stuart from its proceeds.[57]

Curiously, the accounts show that Maffitt continued to pay rent to

the Turberville heirs through 1814, the year when, for the first

time, we definitely know he was living at Salona. Does this mean that

Maffitt himself built Salona between 1812, when he purchased the

property, and 1814, or that the house already existed and was rented

to a tenant through the first part of 1814? That Maffitt was there in

August 1814 is proven by the documented fact that President Madison

stayed at Salona overnight with Mr. Maffitt.

Robert Gamble, in his volume on Sully, quotes a letter which states

that Richard Bland Lee, Jr., was under the tutelage of the Reverend

Mr. Maffitt at some time preceding 1805.[58] This again would suggest

that Maffitt had a school at Chantilly, close to Richard Bland Lee's

home at Sully. Another biographer mentions that

Edmund Jennings (Lee) was born at

Alexandria, then in the District of

Columbia, on the 3rd of May, 1797.... Mr.

Lee received his earliest educational

training at the school of the Rev. Mr.

Maffitt in Fairfax, a school of high repute

at that day.[59]

Unfortunately no dates or locations are given by the letter-writer or

the biographer.

In his history of the Old Presbyterian Meeting House, William B.

McGroarty described Maffitt in a footnote as "a Presbyterian minister

who conducted a school for boys in Fairfax County near

Alexandria."[60] Neither Chantilly nor Salona was very close to

Alexandria.

A letter from A. C. Stuart to Elizabeth Collins Lee in 1805 states

that:

Mr. Maffitt intended to leave the place

where he now resides and purchase a small

farm, that he, Frank (Francis Lightfoot Lee,

Harriotte's youngest brother) intended to do

the same, that they were to spend their time

in the pursuit of agriculture, botany, and

philosophy.[61]

Was this wish expressed because Chantilly was not Maffitt's property

but that of his stepchildren, because Maffitt was lonely without

Harriotte, or because he wanted to give up teaching for farming?

Somehow, from the guardianship accounts, it seems likely that Maffitt

did not farm the Turberville acres, but rented out whatever he could,

while he busied himself otherwise.

Usually the _Alexandria Gazette_ carried announcements of the

openings of new schools, but no announcement of Maffitt's school ever

seems to have appeared. Because Maffitt performed the marriage of

_Gazette_ publisher Samuel Snowden to Mary Longden on January 8,

1802,[62] such an announcement might have been expected. Neither did

the _Gazette_ report Maffitt's departure from the Alexandria area.

Probably Maffitt was still living at Chantilly when he married for

the second time between 1807 and 1811 before William Maffitt, Jr.,

was born. His second wife was Ann Beale Carter Carter

(1767-1852),[63] widow of Charles B. Carter. Ann, also known as

Nancy, was the daughter of Robert Wormely Carter of Sabine Hall in

Richmond County, and Winifred Beale.[64] William, Jr., the only child

of this marriage, was born in November, 1811, and christened in the

Presbyterian Meeting House in February 1812.[65]

In August 1812, Maffitt was appointed a trustee of an academy to be

established in Haymarket. Among those serving with him were Ludwell

Lee of Belmont, Francis Lightfoot Lee, then living at Sully, and

William Fitzhugh of Ravensworth.[66]

Meanwhile, in 1809, James Madison, Secretary of State under Thomas

Jefferson, had been elected President. On June 18, 1812, Madison

signed a declaration of war against England. The causes of the war,

sometimes called the Second War of Independence, were basically

several aspects of nationalism. Some resentment against the British

still smouldered, fanned by British contempt and condescension toward

her former colonists. Because many English sailors deserted their

ships to sail under American colors, British ships intercepted

American vessels and "impressed" their seamen. Furthermore, many

American politicians wanted to annex Canada.

Neither the war nor the President was popular with the people, who

thought the President weak and called the conflict "Mr. Madison's

War." Attempted American invasion of Canada was a fiasco and by

August 23, 1814, the British forces were so close to Washington that

the clear and present danger of an actual invasion of the American

capital seemed imminent.

John Graham, Chief Clerk in the Department of State, and two other

clerks, Stephen Pleasanton and Josiah King, packed the valuable

public records of the State Department in coarse linen bags which

Pleasanton had purchased earlier. These included the original

Declaration of Independence, articles of confederation, federal

constitution, treaties and laws and many other papers. Stephen

Pleasanton found conveyances, loaded the bags into them and took them

to a mill 3 miles beyond Georgetown, where they were concealed.

Pleasanton spent the night of August 23, 1814, at Salona with the

Rev. Mr. Maffitt. The next day, fearing that the mill might be too

accessible to the British, who were fast approaching Washington,

Pleasanton took the state papers to Leesburg for safety.[67]

Dolley Madison, the President's popular wife, could hear in the

President's House the sounds of cannon "from a skirmish at

Bladensburg." The President had gone to meet Gen. William H. Winder,

commander of the military district, and had left his wife

instructions to "take care of my self, and of the cabinet paper,

public and private."[68]

Writing to her sister, Lucy Todd, Dolley cooly reported that her

husband

desires that I should be ready at a moment's

warning to enter my carriage and leave the

city.... I am accordingly ready; I have

pressed as many cabinet papers into trunks

to fill one carriage; our private property

must be sacrificed, as it is impossible to

procure wagons for its transportation.[69]

She continued the letter on Wednesday, August 24:

Two messengers, covered with dust, come to

bid me fly.... At this late hour, a wagon

has been procured; I have had it filled with

the plate and most valuable articles

belonging to the house....

Our kind friend, Mr. Carroll, has come to

hasten my departure, and is in a very mad

humor because I insist on waiting until the

large picture of Gen. Washington is secured,

and it requires to be unscrewed from the

wall. The process was found too tedious for

these perilous moments; I have ordered the

frame to be broken, and the canvas taken out;

it is done--and the precious portrait placed

in the hands of two gentlemen of New York,

for safekeeping.... When I shall again write

to you, or where I shall be tomorrow, I

cannot tell!![70]

Apparently Dolley spent the night of August 24 in a tent in the

American encampment at Tennallytown, and the next day crossed over

into Virginia where she spent the night of August 25 with Matilda Lee

Love at Rokeby. The roads were crowded with refugees and the exodus

was slow. As the Loves had often been guests at the President's

House, Dolley did not have to spend night with strangers. In her

reminiscences, Matilda Love wrote:

In the following spring of 1814, it (the

war) came more home to us, as the British

got into our southern waters, and in August

came up to Washington and burnt all the

public buildings.... As I lived about ten

miles from Washington, Mrs. Madison and a

number of city people took refuge at my home

the night the British took Washington....

They watched the flames of the burning capital from Rokeby that

night.[71]

Irving Brant, definitive biographer of Madison, writes of the

departure of the Madisons from the capital:

The travels of President and Mrs. Madison

after the battle have long been involved in

obscurity and contradiction owing to the

meagerness of early records (Dolley's

letters about it were eaten by mice),

uncertain memories and the derogatory

stories circulated by political detractors.

The facts bear little resemblance to the