William Fitzhugh

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William of Chatham Fitzhugh (August 24, 1741 – June 6, 1809) was an American planter and statesman who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress for Virginia in 1779. He was the great grandson of Immigrant William Fitzhugh who came to VA in about 1671 and owned 54,000 acres of Virginia when he died in 1701. William of Chatham inherited most of the land. He and his wife, Anne Maria Randolph (1747-1805), built Chatham Manor on property across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg between 1768 and 1771. It still stands today as the National Park Service Headquarters for the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. They lived a lavish life there that included experimental farming and horse racing. After the Revolutionary War as the economy floundered he sold Chatham Manor and 1,288 acres to Major Churchill Jones for $20,000.

About 1799 William of Chatham Fitzhugh bought the house in Alexandria which has become known as "The Boyhood Home of Robert E. Lee". The house was built in 1795 by John Potts, Jr. By the time that it was rented to the Lee family, William of Chatham Fitzhugh had been dead for about 3 years. It then belonged to William Henry Fitzhugh, his only son. William of Chatham had built another mansion (Ravensworth) in 1796 where North Springfield, VA is now located. This was his country home with the Alexandria one being his town house. Ravensworth existed till about 1925 when it mysteriously burned one night.

Mary Lee Fitzhugh (daughter of William of Chatham Fitzhugh and sister of William Henry Fitzhugh) was married in 1804 in the parlor of the Alexandria house to George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington and adopted grandson of George Washington. In 1831 their daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, married Robert E. Lee at the Arlington mansion of GWP and Mary Lee (Fitzhugh) Custis.