John Fairfax

John Scott Fairfax (December 10, 1762 – December 25, 1843) was an early American planter and politician in western Virginia, who twice served in the Virginia House of Delegates but may be best known for six years he spent as one of the overseers for former President George Washington. Early and family life John Fairfax was born in Charles County, Maryland in 1763, to the former Elizabeth Buckner (1746–1793), the second wife of William Fairfax (1722–1793), whose family had long settled in Charles County, Maryland and were distant relatives of Lord Fairfax, who received a large land grant in the Northern Neck of Virginia. He had two elder half brothers, both sons of his father's first wife, the former Benedicta Blanchet (1722–1760): Jonathan Fairfax (1744- ) and Hezekiah Fairfax (1755–1840). His parents had married in Prince William County, Virginia and his sister Ada was born there in 1769. However, the family lived in Charles County Maryland until circa 1790, when his father moved across the Potomac River to Prince William County, where he died in late 1793. John Fairfax also had a brother William Fairfax (1773–1811), three half-sisters and four sisters. Career John Fairfax accepted a position as overseer for George Washington in the fall of 1784, as the former President's longtime manager, Lund Washington left to work his own farm nearby. Following Washington's advice, following six years at Mount Vernon, in 1790 Fairfax moved westward in Virginia, across the Appalachian divide to the Ohio Valley. He never reached Kentucky, but after hearing of problems with Native American raids there, instead bought land from Philip Doddridge, employed Amos Hawley as his overseer, and ultimately settled at what was then known as the "Monongalia Glades" and after 1818 as the "Preston Glades". His father-in-law had planned to join the journey, but died. His widow (or this man's mother-in-law) Clarissa Byrne and her children Samuel, Peyton, Sarah and Elizabeth joined the westward move.