As an update to my post on the new book, "Fairfax of Virginia: The Forgotten Story of American's Only Peerage, 1690-1960" by Hugh Fairfax, we have learned the book is on sale on line at the Fairfax of Virginia website.
I am really enjoying this book. I knew about the Fairfax footprints in Virginia, but not in Maryland. Northampton, the plantation home which John Contee Fairfax, 11th Lord Fairfax (he did not use the title) purchased after the Civil War, was yet another victim to the mid 20th-century tsunami-like wave of suburban development that spread all around Washington.
I need to get over to its site near Largo, which has interpretive marking. I also need to visit the Fairfax Memorial Bell Tower at the nearby St. Barnabas Church. John Contee Fairfax, the author's great grandfather worshipped there, along with his wife and family members, as well as Albert Kirby Fairfax (12th), the author's grandfather.
As he notes, the sale of Northampton in 1959 "brought the curtain down on the story of the Fairfax family in America."
I would respectfully disagree. Hugh Fairfax's trip here is a most welcomed and most appreciated continuation of the story.
Hugh Fairfax, Remaining Lectures
Friday 13th Blenheim, Fairfax. 7pm
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