With the French and Indian War brought to a successful conclusion, with the problem of currency inflation settled, with the Stamp Act repealed, it seemed that Fauquier might look forward to a period of harmony and prosperity. But fate soon struck a cruel blow. In the summer of 1767 the Governor became ill with a very painful disorder. And though, under the care of Dr. Matthew Pope, of York, he became better, he never fully recovered his health.[54] He died in the early hours of March 3, 1768. In his will he directed that if the nature of his illness should not be understood by his physicians, an autopsy be held on his body, so that he might become more useful to his fellow creatures in death than he had been in life. He desired, also, that he be buried "without any vain funeral pomp."[55]
Francis Fauquier was an able, just, tactful Governor, who tried to do his duty both to the King and to the colony. His was an extremely difficult task. His sympathies seem to have been with the people. Living among them, knowing their views, he must have deplored the policy of the Ministry in trying to deprive them of the cherished right of self-government. Great Britain's strongest link with America was not the link of government, not even the economic link, but the link of affection. And nothing tended more to strengthen it than the appointment of such a man as Fauquier to be Lieutenant Governor of the largest of the colonies. It would have been a lasting grief to Fauquier had he lived to see the final separation of mother country and colonies.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The writings of Thomas Jefferson, ed. A. A. Lipscomb, 14:231.
[2] CO5-1329, June 11, 1758.
[3] CO5-1329, Blair to Lords of Trade, June 20, 1758.
[4] Official records of Robert Dinwiddie 1: 375.
[5] CO5-1329, June 28, 1758.
[6] Charles Campbell, History of Virginia, 508.
[7] Journals of the House of Burgesses, 1761-1765: xlii-xlvi.