A History of the Town of Fairfax

by Jeanne Johnson Rust

While the rich progressed from rough shacks to Georgian homes, there was no such advance for the poor. There was not even any improvement in agricultural implements and the poor were finding it more and more difficult to compete with the large landholders and their scores of slaves.

They resented the tight band held over them by the mother country, who, they felt, neither understood their problems nor how to cope with them, as well as they did (e.g., the impractical way the English tried to fight the Indians during the French-Indian war).

Added to this was the constant pressure from the mother country for more money to exploit her domain, felt in the enforcement of the "Sugar Act", "Stamp Act", "Tea Act", and "Boston Port Act".

The smoldering embers of hate began to flare in the hearts of the radicals. The gentry hoped to keep the radicals under control for they felt the Virginia colony had less cause to fight than the other colonies. The colony of which they were a part was "the most populous, prosperous and important one of the thirteen." They had not felt the sting of taxes like their northern mercantile brothers nor the sting of poverty like their less fortunate southern brothers.

For example, when the "Stamp Act" was being considered. Richard Henry Lee applied for the position of stamp distributor. When a fight developed in the House concerning the "Stamp Act", Peyton Randolph, Edmund Pendleton, Richard Bland and George Wythe opposed Patrick Henry's resolutions bitterly.

The gentry in Fairfax seemed to be the exception for George Johnston, a prominent lawyer living between Alexandria and Mt. Vernon, backed Patrick Henry in his protest. George Mason wrote the Non-importation Resolutions in 1769, his Fairfax Resolves in 1774 and his famous Bill of Rights in 1776. George Washington, Fairfax planter, was, of course, Commander in Chief of the Continental Army and brought the country through to victory under the most difficult circumstances.

Large numbers of able-bodied citizens in the County served under Washington in the Revolution. An artillery company was formed out of the two militia companies in Fairfax and two later drafts took eighty-two more men. There were a few English sympathizers like the Fairfax family who did not take part but almost every influential family in the County fought on the side of Independence.

During this time Patrick Henry served as Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and in this capacity, appointed a Sheriff to serve the County of Fairfax. One of the most interesting documents in view at the Fairfax County Clerk's Office is the original of this command signed by P. Henry.