A Modern Day Poscript to The Proprietor's of the Northern Neck

Old Dominion's Landed Gentry; Lord Fairfax and Consort Stop In for a Spot of Tea

By Sarah Booth Conroy
14 Jun 1992
The Washington Post; FINAL; Page f01

Nicholas John Albert, Lord Fairfax of Cameron, and his consort, Annabel, Lady Fairfax of Cameron, like Fairfax County very much, thank you. However, at tea at Woodlawn Plantation, they would not admit to a plot to reclaim his ancestral 5.3 million acres.

"Not much chance," he said, recalling that the Pentagon is, for a Fairfax invasion, inconveniently located.

Well, maybe so. However, to celebrate this, its 250th-anniversary year, Virginia might just be considering reestablishing its original ruling house.

The Fairfaxes' triumphant tour as guests of the county last week included teas, receptions, speeches, luncheons and breakfasts, with politicians, storekeepers and landed gentry. Their celebrity appearances culminated with the Fairfax Fair at George Mason University yesterday and Pohick Church this morning and complimentary tickets to Kings Dominion tomorrow (alternative in case of rain: Air and Space Museum).

"It is a busy schedule," said Lord Fairfax, with the proper deprecatory air. The Fairfaxes - he's 36, she's 35 - despite a disappointing lack of coronets - have the distinctive look of being to the manner and manor born. He is a maritime lawyer, now working with Sedgwick Group insurance brokers, with the countries of the former Soviet Union as his territory. He also sits on the Conservative side of the House of Lords. Lady Fairfax, a former model, is an interior designer, a painter and an illustrator. With them were their heirs, the Honorable Edward and the Honorable Johnnie, aged 7 and 5 (the Honorable Rory, 1, didn't come along).

"How much land do we still have?" my-friends-call-me-Nicholas said. "Well, we still had an 800-acre tobacco plantation farm a few years ago, but my father {the 13th Lord of Fairfax} sold it."

What about Leeds Castle in Kent, England, perhaps the most beautiful residence in the world (where the Chronicler once stayed overnight)? The fortification came to the Fairfax Lord by marriage with Catherine Colepeper. The Virginia lands also were actually Catherine's holdings.

"Oh we sold Leeds at least 200 years ago," said Milord.

No more vast plantations? No more moated castles?

"Our 1754 house on the Isle of Wight does have a large garden," Lord Fairfax said.

In their 20th-century London house, the Fairfaxes also have a remarkable library, assembled by the 12th lord. The grandson said it includes five letters from George Washington to his friend Bryan, the eighth Lord Fairfax.

That brought up the question: What of Sally Fairfax? The beautiful Sally holds the honor of being the first woman rumored to be involved with a president.

"We only know they were great friends," Lord Fairfax said.

Sally, daughter of a Virginia magistrate, married George William Fairfax, George Washington's best friend. The Fairfaxes lived at Belvoir, but two miles from Mount Vernon. Washington and Mrs. Fairfax corresponded discreetly when he was fighting Indian campaigns.

But her husband returned to England in 1773, and she with him. Belvoir manor burned shortly after the Revolution. Years later, just before his death, Washington wrote her that he had never been able to "eradicate from my mind, the recollection of those happy moments, the happiest in my life, which I enjoyed in your company."

Lord Fairfax, on his third trip to his family's Old Dominion, had his facts down pat. The Lords Fairfax, eighth through 12th, lived in Virginia for 150 years. The 12th, Albert Kirby Fairfax, a New York banker, was "summoned to Queen Victoria's funeral," and in 1908 had his title confirmed by the Committee of Privileges of the House of Lords. His son, Thomas Brian McKelvie, the 13th Baron Fairfax of Cameron, was "not as interesting as grandfather," said Lord 14. But the 13th was lord in waiting to Queen Elizabeth II, and an assistant whip in the House of Lords.

To begin at the beginning, this lordship graciously explained that by 1719, Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax, had completed his acquisitions, by grant and purchase of all of the northern neck of Virginia between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers.

Fairfax County was incorporated by the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1742. Since then, not only the Pentagon, but Woodlawn and Mount Vernon's multiple plantations, along with Alexandria, Falls Church and the counties of Fairfax, Arlington and Loudoun, have sprung up like so much Queen Anne's lace on the ancestral acres of the Lords Fairfax.

Last week, in deference to the coming of the lord to tea, Linda Goldstein, director of the historic Woodlawn Plantation, brought out the house's sterling - including a punch bowl for Nellie Custis's lemonade that would have held enough to quench the thirst of at least a small army. Mrs. Custis, the house's original chatelaine and step-granddaughter of George Washington, would not have been ashamed of the victuals provided to go with the tea.

Brigadier Gen. Clara L. Adams Ender, commander of Fort Belvoir, named for the Fairfax ancestral seat; neighborhood ladies resplendent in 18th-century dress and learned in 18th-century chatter; Woodlawn trustees such as Fredona Marie Gartlan, Robert Montegue and Willard Scott (not the weatherman); and other landed gentry from the neighborhood were in attendance.

Oh yes, the air conditioner in the Woodlawn dining room had been removed to paint the windows, the temperature soared to over 100 despite electric and ivory fans, the Chronicler considered pouring Nellie's lemonade over her head. And the Fairfaxes, keeping their cool with noble aplomb, never once perspired.