Fitzhugh, William, 1741-1809

<ul><b>RACES</b>
<li>03/20/1797 VA District 18 Lost 10.70% (-60.24%)</li>
<li>01/07/1789 VA Presidential Elector Counting 96.64% (-60.24%)</li>
<li>12/31/1778 VA Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
</ul>

FITZHUGH, William, a Delegate from Virginia; born in Eagles Nest, King George County, Va., August 24, 1741; pursued classical studies with private teachers; engaged in agricultural pursuits; member of the State house of delegates in 1776 and 1777; Member of the Continental Congress in 1779; again a member of the State house of delegates in 1780, 1781, 1787, and 1788; served in the State senate 1781-1785; died in Ravensworth, Fairfax County, Va., June 6, 1809; interment in the private cemetery on the Ravensworth estate.

<p>William Fitzhugh (August 24, 1741 – June 6, 1809) was an American planter, legislator and patriot during the American Revolutionary War who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress for Virginia in 1779, as well as many terms in the House of Burgesses and both houses of the Virginia General Assembly following the Commonwealth's formation. His Stafford County home, Chatham Manor, is on the National Register for Historic Places and serves as the National Park Service Headquarters for the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.</p>

<p>Born into the First Families of Virginia, Fitzhugh was physically born in King George County, Virginia, where his father owned large estates, largely acquired by his grandfather (this man's great-grandfather) before the county's creation. His family traced its descent from Bardolph, Lord of Ravensworth in Richmondshire in the time of William the Conqueror. His great grandfather, also William Fitzhugh (1650-1701), immigrated from England to Virginia from England about 1671, became a successful lawyer and tobacco planter as well the first member of the family to sit in the House of Burgesses (in 1677). He established "Bedford" plantation as his family's seat (which was destroyed in the American Civil War) and by the time he died in 1701, owned 54,000 acres (220 km2) mostly in the Northern Neck of Virginia, most of which this man inherited. His brother Henry Fitzhugh would also serve in the House of Burgesses and became high sheriff of Stafford County in 1715. William Fitzhugh's son (also William Fitzhugh, sometimes distinguished as "of Eagle's Nest"), also served as a burgess before his death in 1714.</p>

<p>The second William Fitzhugh's eldest son, Henry Fitzhugh, studied at Oxford University and also served in the House of Burgesses in 1738, 1740 and 1742 representing Stafford County. In 1730, he married Lucy Carter in 1730 and became the father of two daughters and this man, who was a baby when his father died in 1742. Henry Fitzhugh's eldest daughter could not inherit land by primogeniture, but married Benjamin Grymes of Spotsylvania County, who served in the House of Burgesses as did their descendants in the Virginia General Assembly. This man's mother, the widow Lucy Carter Fitzhugh, a daughter of Robert "King" Carter (the largest landowner in Virginia in his lifetime, but who also provided for several other children) remarried to the widower Colonel Nathaniel Harrison of "Brandon" in Prince George County, Virginia, who would serve in the Virginia Senate even though the couple had no additional children. William Fitzhugh of Chatham received a private education suitable to his class. He lost an eye in a childhood accident, hit by one of his Harrison stepbrothers with a horse riding crop. Fitzhugh owned 38 slaves in Fairfax County in 1810.</p>