Belvoir (plantation)
William Green's 1669 patent for 1,150 acres encompassed most of the pennisula between Dogue Creek and Accotink Creek, along the Potomac River. Although this property was sub-divided and sold in the early eighteenth century, it was reassembled during the 1730's to create the central portion of William Fairfax's 2,200-acre plantation of Belvoir Manor. Fairfax's elegant new home was completed in 1741. Historic documents and archeological remains found at Belvoir Manor both attest to the elegant lifestyle enjoyed by the Fairfax family. The mansion itself, described in a 1774 rental notice, was spacious and well-appointed. Its furnishings consisted of "tables, chairs, and every other necessary article ... very elegant." Ceramics imported from Europe and the Orient graced its tables.
While the contributions of these eighteenth century leaders certainly were substantial, their lives must also be viewed in a broader perspective. Planters like William Fairfax comprised a very small portion of Fairfax County's population; most of their neighbors were smaller farmers who sometimes barely managed to make a living. Moreover, the affluence of these planters was based not only on land and imposing buildings, but on the number of slaves they held. Slaves too are in the records-as chattel passed from one generation to another, and as the probable users of the plain unglazed ceramics found in the outbuildings of Belvoir Manor.
When George William Fairfax left Belvoir for England in 1773, the estate was rented and its furnishings were sold. In 1783, the mansion and several of its outbuildings were destroyed by fire, and, as Washington noted, the plantation complex gradually deteriorated into ruins. Ferdinando Fairfax, who inherited the property, apparently did not live there. The bluffs below the former mansion site were quarried for building stone, but the house site itself was not developed. The subsequent history of the Belvoir estate was a microcosm of the fate of many of the large plantations that had graced southeastern Fairfax County during the eighteenth century.
Belvoir Plantation was devastated further during the War of 1812. In August 1814, as British land forces attacked and burned the City of Washington, a British naval squadron sailed up the Potomac River and forced the surrender of Alexandria. Loaded with loot, the fleet then began the 180-mile return trip down river. On September 1, the British attempted to run the deep-water channel below the Belvoir house site, a position that previously had been identified as a strategic defensive location on the river. Here, a hastily assembled American force, composed of Virginia and Alexandria militia under the command of U.S. Navy Captain David Porter, hurriedly began to mount a battery on the bluff above the river. For four days, British and American forces exchanged cannon and musket fire. The British fleet eventually passed the American positions, but British shells demolished what little was left of the old Belvoir Manor.
All of the great eighteenth century plantations in the Fort Belvoir area changed considerably in the years before the Civil War. Soil exhaustion and inheritance prompted the sale and sub-division of these formerly massive tracts of land. As a new generation of landowners took up residence in southeastern Fairfax County, patterns of land use and ownership were altered.
The association of Belvoir Plantation with the Fairfax family ended with the death of Ferdinando Fairfax in 1820. During the next decade, William Herbert of Alexandria acquired the property, which he quickly used as collateral for a loan. During the 1830s, Thomas Irwin, Herbert's creditor, operated the shad fisheries at White House Point. However, Herbert's continued inability to pay his debts eventually led to the sale of Belvoir at public auction in 1838.