User talk:Dave Cavanaugh

Vaucluse was not a plantation, it was country home. The original property built in 1800 was only 50 acres. When originally built the Virginia Theological Seminary had not relocated to its current site.. Vaucluse was subsequently enlarged and in 1827 Thomas Fairfax bought the 112 acre property.

Dr. James Craik did not own the property. The country home was built to celebrate the marriage of Ann Randolph Fitzhugh, the daughter of William and Ann Bolling Fitzhugh. William Fitzhugh had sold his Chattam Estate near Fredericksburg and had built his new mansion home at Ravensworth in the 1790s. He also purchased a winterhome at 607 Oronoco Street in Alexandria. Through a series of untimely deaths, deaths of Ann Fitzhugh, her husband William, William's brother George Washington Craik, James Craik the two year old son of George Washington Craik ended up inheriting the property. After the death of his two sons, Dr. Craik and his wife moved to Vaucluse to help raise his namesake, the young James Craik. After the death of Dr. Craik in 1814, Vaucluse was sold.". The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 46.2 (1938): 135-145. Web...The young James Craik became an attorney and later a rector at a church in Kentucky.

See Boyhood Memories of Dr. James Craik, D.D.,L.L.D. Rector of Christ Church, Louisville, Ky, 38 Years

Vaucluse plantation Virginia Vaucluse was a plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia, three miles (5 km) from Alexandria and 10 miles (16 km) from Washington, D.C., on a hill near the Virginia Theological Seminary, that was owned first by Dr. James Craik,[1] and later by the Fairfax family, the first being Thomas Fairfax, 9th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. Thomas Fairfax acquired the 112 property from Francis Peyton in 1827 (Fairfax County Deed Book X2, Page 274)

The illustration by Meeker was for a Civil War publication that included an article by Constance Cary. It gives a misleading impression of a plantation, a slave watching over a child with an overseer with a shoulder rifle.

There is a sketch of Vaucluse in the collection of the Wilson Miles Cary Memorial, 1820-1914, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Virginia. Accession#1455. The sketch was made by Reginald Hyde, son of Eugenia Hyde who lived at Vaucluse with Monimia, Constance Cary and her brother.The sketch is consistent with other descriptions of the property.

I have a copy of the sketch and have releases for educational purposes, but unsure it it would be okay for Wikipedia. I can check.

Missing from the write-up is mention the families living at Vaucluse owned and relied on slaves. Dr. James Craik owned several large tracts of land and had 34 slaves in 1810.

Contents [hide] 1	Dr. James Craik 2	Thomas Fairfax 3	Constance Cary 4	References 5	See also Dr. James Craik[edit source | edit] Dr. Craik, surgeon in the Virginia Regiment, and the Continental Army, was persuaded, by Washington after the Revolutionary War, to move his practice to Alexandria, Virginia. Dr. Craik settled at Vaucluse, where he died on February 6, 1814.[2] He moved to Vaucluse after the death of his son George Washington Craik to help his daughter-in-law care for young James Craik, his namesake.

Thomas Fairfax[edit source | edit]

Fairfax family Silver Thomas Fairfax was the son of Bryan Fairfax. He oversaw his land holdings of forty thousand acres, and established his family at Vaucluse, where he died, on April 21, 1846. His grandsons were born at Vaucluse: Charles S. Fairfax, was born on March 8, 1829, and John C. Fairfax was born on September 30, 1830.[3] Thomas Fairfax left a life interest in Vaucluse to his widow, who lived there until her death in 1858, with her two widowed daughters, Mrs. Hyde, and Mrs. Cary.[4] That is incorrect. By will she had the choice of inheriting the townhouse in Alexandria or Vaucluse. She chose the townhouse. After Thomas's death, Vaucluse was put up for public auction they executors of his will. In 1850, Reginald Fairfax, Thomas's youngest son, was the successful bidder, buying it for $3980. Reginald was an officer in the U.S. Navy, gave up his commission and joined the Confederate Navy. He became ill while on duty on the James River, taken to Richmond for care, died and is buried at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

Thomas Fairfax was related to Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, who emigrated to America, and settled at Belvoir (plantation) and later Greenway Court, Virginia, where he actively managed his Northern Neck Proprietary, a land grant of more than a million acres (4,000 km²) in the northern neck of Virginia, which he inherited from his mother, Catherine Colepeper.

Constance Cary[edit source | edit]

Fort Worth and Vaucluse map At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Thomas Fairfax's granddaughter, Miss Constance Cary was living at Vaucluse with her mother, Monimia Fairfax.[5] Her mother, Monimia, moved back to her childhood home, Vaucluse, after the death of her husband Archibald Cary. She lived there with Monimia's sister Eugenia Hyde and her family. Also staying at Vaucluse were two aunts.

Momimia had married Archibald Cary (1815–1854), and they had three children: Falkland Cary, who died aged 16, Constance Cary, and Clarence Cary.[3] The family moved to Richmond, Virginia during the war, where Miss Cary wrote under the pen name Refugitta.

The mansion was destroyed during the American Civil War to make place for Fort Worth, in the defenses of the city of Washington. Fort Worth was on the adjacent property. Vaucluse and Fort Worth were both on hills, separated by jagged ravines. Fort Worth was built on the property of Arthur Herbert who served in the Confederate Army as an officer throughout the Civil War--beginning to Appomattox. In December 1861, Captain J. Howard Kitching marched with four regiments to occupy the fort.[6] The Fairfax family silver was buried there until recovered after the war.[7] The residence at Vaucluse was never referred to as a mansion. It was an old country home. In her book Recollection, p. 22 she writes: "So the old white stucco dwelling with its wings to the right and left. . ." In a letter written to her sons she describes Vaucluse as an "old rambling structure of brick and stucco. . ."