Extra Credit Questions

[L Verge]

Jim, you fooled me - I thought the musician was going to comment on how many homes of Presidents you can find in the Northern Neck. I think I can count Washington's birthplace, Madison, Monroe, Tyler, and probably some others. Speaking of Madison, we are all familiar with the village of Port Conway, where Booth and Herold hopped on the ferry to cross the Rappahannock into Port Royal. There is nothing left there now except a later home and charming Episcopal chapel on what was the Conway plantation. James Madison was born there - his mother being a Conway. A bit down the road, just past Cleydael, is Mason property. Thomas Jefferson's granddaughter married into the Masons and lived on that property, which was known as Mt. Alta.

Now back to Light-Horse Harry Lee so that I can confuse you with how the first families of Virginia and Maryland intertwined. Lee was a cavalry officer during the Revolution, and many historians claim that Washington's men could not have survived Valley Forge without his raiders' help in bringing food, medicine, and clothing to the forces there. He went on to serve his country in Congress and is the one who eulogized Washington in Congress in 1799 with the famous "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen" speech.

Betty filled you in on Harry's bad luck with money (brought on by too much land speculation in the new U.S.). He had to move his family closer to Washington to participate in the government. He bought land in Alexandria, Virginia, and the family moved there in 1811 when Robert was four years old. The family continued to live in the house after Lee fled bankruptcy charges, leaving his brother with a sizeable bond to forfeit. He fled to the West Indies in 1813, with the help of President Monroe. Five years later, he decided to come home, but died in 1818 en route from Georgia. His wife then left what is now known as the Lee-Fendall Home in Alexandria and moved across the street.

Now comes the inter-marriage. Most of us know that George Washington married the widow Martha Dandridge Custis and inherited two stepchildren. The stepson, John (Jacky) Parke Custis married into the Lords Baltimore of Maryland when he married Eleanor Calvert at Mount Airy Plantation (about three miles from Surratt House). One of their sons, George Washington Parke Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh. Only one child of that marriage survived - Mary Anna Randolph Custis, who became Mrs. Robert E. Lee.

Going back to the Calvert side of the family, one of the descending girls was Julia Calvert, who married into one of the richest families in Virginia at the time of the Civil War. Her husband was Dr. Richard Stuart of Cedar Grove Plantation with a summer home named Cleydael. He was descended from both the House of Hanover and the House of Stuart in England.

Julia Calvert Stuart attended Mary Custis at her wedding to Robert E. Lee. Her portrait and that of her husband used to be/may still be in the nursery at the Lee home of Stratford Hall. Ironically, the Calvert plantation at Mount Airy, near Surrattsville, was being probated at the time of the Lincoln assassination, and it was Julia's brother who was writing to Mary Surratt to get her to pay off the land that her husband had purchased from the Calverts in 1852. Ever heard of the Six Degrees of Separation?

There is also a story in Southern Maryland that Gen. Lee crossed the Potomac into Maryland to visit his Calvert relatives during the war.

The boyhood home of Lee in Alexandria is now a historic house museum. Old Town Alexandria is just about fifteen minutes from Mount Vernon, and is filled with old homes, nice restaurants, and pricey boutiques. It's worth a visit.