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قراءة كتاب Salona, Fairfax County, Virginia
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
Washington had coaches of higher value than his and their vehicles were evaluated at $500 each.
By the year of his death, 1828, only 13 slaves and 3 horses were listed, and the total evaluation of his personal property was listed at $150. The inventory of William Maffitt's estate did show that he had 116 head of livestock on the place including horses, oxen, sheep, hogs and cattle. He was growing turnips, corn, rye, oats, hay and orchard grass. The long list of household furnishings included three desks and two bookcases of high evaluation, indicating there were books in them. (See appendix for full inventory.) The fortunes of his widow, Ann Carter Maffitt, declined further, until by 1835, she was dropped off the county's personal property tax rolls. [78]
For many years, William Maffitt had continued to serve as guardian to his first wife's Turberville children. Although Cornelia Turberville continued to live with her aunt in Alexandria until her marriage in 1817, her two brothers seem to have lived at Salona. In June 1815, Richard Turberville drowned in the Potomac while visiting his cousin Matilda Lee Love at nearby Rokeby.[79] Maffitt's accounts for June 23, 1815, report the expenditure of $37.50 for Richard's coffin. He may have been buried in the graveyard on the Salona property. [80]
The other brother, George Turberville, at some time in childhood became a deaf mute as the result of typhoid fever. Maffitt's accounts do not reveal the date of the onset of this affliction, but they do show that in April 1818 George entered "The Asylum" in Hartford, Connecticut. At that time, Maffitt advanced George $100 for board and tuition and $100 for travel.[81] George still returned to Salona for vacations, because in July 1819, Harriotte Maffitt wrote to him:
It is now my time to write to you my Dear Brother. We are glad the time is so near when we expect you. When you come home we will go to George Town to meet you. Dr. Muir has been here and he preached here. Aunt Whann and Aunt Sally Maffitt have been here. Uncle Whann has gone to travel. I hope you will be well acquainted with the History of the Bible and particularly the life and miracles of our Blessed Saviour. We have not heard from Chantilly for some time, I hope we will go up soon. Cousin Sally Lee is there. We expect Aunt Edmund Lee will come here very soon. Sister Cornelia expects Mrs. Mary Tollaver, your Cousin up to see her this summer. Do you know Mr. Harrison of Alexandria? He is coming here to preach for us in August. Do you love me? I pray to God to bless and preserve you. Old Mrs. Randle is very well we went to see her yesterday. When you come home you must go to see her with us. I saw Miss Betty Jones last Sabbathe. She asked me when I had heard from you answer my letter very soon if you please. Tell me how the deaf and dumb are and if they improve. You must love and obey your teachers. Papa Mama and all the girls send their affectionate love to you.
I am your affectionate sister.
Harriotte Maffitt. [82]
P.S.
All the Boys send their
respects to you.
Another letter, this one from William C. Woodbridge to the Reverend William Maffitt from "Asylum," was dated February 21, 1820, and referred to a fight between George Turberville and another student. Woodbridge wrote:
It seems he was ridiculed & resented it & was then challenged. He says he was wounded in the knee & his antagonist the same. We learned it from his boasting of it to our pupils. He now expresses entire disapprobation. He made the question to you by my request.
Woodbridge refers to George's independence and pride which must be checked. Obviously, this letter was one of many exchanged between Woodbridge and Maffitt regarding George's progress [83] and is evidence that George wrote home to his stepfather as well as to his sisters.
Although William Maffitt died before the Lewinsville Presbyterian Church was founded, church historians claim him as a founding father, saying that he was appointed by the Washington Presbytery to preach and set up a mission near Langley. [84] Harriotte's letter may lend credence to this, although there is no report of such an assignment in the Minutes which list Maffitt only as "without charge" after 1800. [85]
One reason for this belief may have arisen because of a bequest in the will of Elizabeth Lee Jones, the "Miss Betty Jones" of Harriotte's letter. Daughter of Lettice Corbin Turberville and Catesby Jones of Westmoreland County, Miss Betty lived at "Sharon" on part of the George Turberville grant. Her will, dated April 16, 1822, left four acres of her property "as a site for a church and churchyard ... dedicated to the uses and purposes of divine worship in such manner and subject to such rules as shall ... be prescribed by the Rev'd William Maffitt" and eight other ministers: —Carnahan, Wells Andrews, William Hill, John Mathews, J. B. Hoge, William C. Walton, M. Baker, and Samuel D. Hoge, all representatives of the Presbyterian Church. William Maffitt was a witness to this will. Apparently, this was Maffitt's primary connection with the establishment of the Presbyterian Church at Lewinsville. [86]