A bible entry cited by Melvin Steadman in his book on Falls Church reports that Thomas Sandford Wren "was born at Salona" on May 19, 1808, to Richard and Susannah (Adams) Wren. [13] According to Steadman, Thomas Wren is buried in the El Nido Cemetery, but all of the tombstones, with one exception, have been destroyed. [14] Because the name "Salona" appears on a legal document for the first time in 1823, the reported entry seems still more curious. It is possible that Salona may have been built or at least designed by one of the Wren family. Susannah Adams Wren, Richard's wife, was a descendant of the Adams family which had a mill adjacent to the Salona tract, another tie to the area.[15]
Fairfax County tax records provide no clue to a possible date of construction. In 1790, the Langley tract was carried on the rolls as the property of the Ludwell Lee heirs and was so listed for more than 20 years. Only two significant changes appeared: one in 1792 when more than 500 acres were sold, and again in 1811 after the sale of a 466-acre tract to Herbert. When William Maffitt first appeared on the tax rolls as a landowner in 1813, the 466-acre tract was assessed at $880 and his smaller tract at $79.[16]
William Herbert, who took over the 466 acres in payment of judgments against Richard Bland Lee, had no apparent intention of living on the property or of keeping it. A house must have existed on the property when he bought it because when he advertised the property for sale in the Alexandria Gazette in November 1811, the copy mentioned "a comfortable dwelling house, and out houses, a young thriving orchard of the choicest fruit, a good garden paled in, and a spring of fine water that has never been known to fail in the driest season, near the house." There is no indication that the acreage was under cultivation at that time.[17]
On March 10, 1812, the Reverend William Maffitt bought the 466-acre tract from William Herbert. It was probably Maffitt who named the estate "Salona."
II
SALONA AND THE MAFFITTS
The first occupant of record of the house at Salona, William Maffitt, is surrounded by legends. Supposedly, Maffitt built Salona in 1801. Maffitt was from South Carolina. Maffitt went to Princeton. Maffitt preached the funeral sermon for George Washington. Maffitt had a boys' school at Salona. Maffitt lived at Salona with his wife Harriotte Lee Turberville Maffitt, who deserted her three children by her first marriage. Dolley Madison spent the night with the Maffitts at Salona when she fled from the White House during the English invasion of Washington.
The available documents give a different picture.
William Maffitt was born in Cecil County, Maryland, in 1769, eldest son of Samuel and Ann Strawbridge Maffitt.[18] His father was a justice of the peace, elder in the Presbyterian Church, owner of a flourishing farm and a mill, and was a major under George Washington during the American Revolution.