David Stuart (Virginia politician)

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David Stuart
David Stuart (Virginia politician).jpg
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Fairfax County
In office
October 17, 1785 – October 18, 1789
Serving with Charles Simms, George Mason, Roger West
Preceded byAlexander Henderson
Succeeded byLudwell Lee
Personal details
BornAugust 3, 1753
King George County, Virginia, British America
Died1819 (aged 63–64)
Prince George's County, Maryland, U.S.
Political partyFederalist
Spouse(s)Eleanor Calvert Custis
EducationCollege of William and Mary
University of St Andrews

David Stuart (August 3, 1753 – October 1814) was a Virginia physician, politician, and correspondent of George Washington. When Washington became President of the United States, he made Stuart one of three commissioners appointed to design a new United States capital city.

Early life and education[]

David Stuart was the eldest of four sons borne by Sarah Foote, heiress of the "Cedar Grove" plantation on the Potomac River,[1] and who in 1750 married Rev. William David Stuart (1723-1796), rector of St. Paul's Parish, King George County, Virginia.[2] Rev. Stuart had studied theology in London and was ordained there by Bishop Edmonds. He became known for his eloquence and with his brother in law Horatio Dade served on the King George County Committee of Safety during the American Revolutionary War.[3] His father (this man's grandfather), also named David Stuart, was descended from the royal house of Scotland and emigrated to Virginia in 1715, having become an ordained minister after unsuccessfully supporting the "pretender" James Francis Stuart, then married the daughter of the Governor of Barbados and after her death the daughter of Capt. Philip Alexander of King George County--all while serving as rector of the same parish (then in vast Stafford County, Virginia and now known as Aquia Church) until his death in 1749. Rev. Stuart's family also included six daughters, the eldest marrying Townsend Dade in 1769 and after his death, Richard Helm Foote of Fauquier County, all belonging to the First Families of Virginia.[4]

This man, his grandson, received a private education suitable to his class, then graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg before sailing to Europe to complete his education. He studied at the University of St Andrews and medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland, finishing his medical and language studies in Paris, France. Absence abroad may account for him not serving in the Revolutionary War.[5][6] His brother Richard in 1802 would marry the widow Margaret Robinson McCarty (whose husband held public office as well as operations plantations in Fairfax County) and his sister Ann in 1793 married William Mason, son of George Mason, whom Stuart in effect had replaced in the Virginia Ratification Convention described below.

Career and public life[]

Upon returning to Virginia, Stuart established a medical practice in Alexandria, Virginia, and mostly lived and farmed outside the city in Fairfax County, at first at (in an area which Virginia ceded to become the new federal city in 1790, which later became part of Arlington County and is now within Ronald Reagan National Airport). He and James Wright bought an Alexandria city lot in 1783, the year Stuart married Eleanor Calvert, widow of John Parke Custis, General George Washington's stepson who had died in 1781 leaving very young children as well as Abington.[7] In 1792, Stuart and his family moved from Abingdon to Hope Park further west in Fairfax County.[8] About ten years later, the family moved to Ossian Hall near Annandale, also in Fairfax County.[8] The Virginia General Assembly also named Dr. Stuart as one of Fairfax County's gentleman justices, normally a lifetime appointment, and he had a crucial role in relocating the courthouse from Alexandria further inland in Fairfax County in December 1789.[9]

Stuart also farmed in Fairfax County using enslaved labor. In the 1787 tax census he owned 13 adult slaves and nine enslaved children in Fairfax County, while his father owned 16 adult and 16 child slaves in King George County.[10] His minister father retired in 1796 and may have died in 1799. In the 1810 census, Stuart may have owned property, including slaves, in both counties.[11][12] His stepson G.W.P. Custis helped the widower Stuart advertise the sale of slaves in Alexandria in 1812.[13]

Fairfax County voters elected and thrice re-elected Stuart as one of their representatives to the Virginia House of Delegates, and he served in that part-time position from 1785 until 1789.[14]

Prince William District voters chose Stuart as an elector for the 1788-1789 Presidential election.[15] That District consisted of the Counties of Fairfax, Fauquier, Loudoun and Prince William, which cover the area south and west of present day Washington D.C.[16] Each of the ten Virginia electors cast one of their two votes for George Washington; though Stuart's second vote is unknown five of those electors cast their other vote for John Adams, three cast theirs for George Clinton, one cast his for John Hancock and one cast his for John Jay.[17]

Stuart ended his state legislative career by representing Fairfax County in the Virginia convention of 1788 that considered the ratification of the United States Constitution.[18][19] Stuart served alongside Alexandria lawyer Charles Simms, also a staunch Federalist and multi-term Fairfax County representative in the House of Delegates; George Mason had often represented Fairfax County in the House of Delegates (and also served in the Philadelphia convention drafting the Constitution), but he vocally opposed ratification, so Fairfax county's voters refused to elect him to the Ratification Convention. Thus Mason instead represented Stafford County at the convention, where he and Patrick Henry led the anti-Ratification forces. Westmoreland County southeast of Fairfax County also elected federalist or ratification advocates: Henry Lee III (Light-Horse Harry Lee) and General Washington's nephew (and eventual heir), Bushrod Washington.

In the near final vote after extensive debate, the convention considered the following resolution:

Resolved, That previous to the ratification of the new Constitution of government recommended by the late Federal Convention, a declaration of rights asserting and securing from encroachment the great principle of civil and religious liberty and the unalienable rights of the people, together with amendments to the most exceptional parts of the said Constitution, ought to be referred by this Convention to the other States in the American Confederation for their consideration.[20]

Federalist or ratification forces led by James Madison, John Marshall and Edmund Randolph, defeated that Mason/Henry resolution, 88—80.[20] Stuart, Simms, Lee, Washington, Madison, Marshall, Randolph and others then voted in favor of a resolution to ratify the constitution, which the convention approved on June 28, 1789 by a vote of 89-79, with Mason and Henry voting in the minority.[20]

In 1791 President George Washington appointed Stuart to serve as a commissioner of the new Federal City to oversee the surveying of the new capital and construction of the public buildings. He served on the commission until 1794.[21] In their first year, Stuart and the other commissioners named the capital the "City of Washington" in "The Territory of Columbia".[22]

Private life[]

In 1783 Stuart married Eleanor Calvert Custis, the widow of Washington's stepson John Parke Custis and a descendant of Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who had received the charter for the Maryland colony. A number of letters from Washington to Stuart about family matters and Virginia politics have been preserved.[23]

Stuart operated the property that Custis wanted his children to inherit when they came of age, and also helped raise John Parke Custis's and Eleanor's children. Daughters Elizabeth Parke Custis Law and Martha Parke Custis Peter lived with the Stuarts, while Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington Parke Custis spent considerable time with George and Martha Washington, both at Mount Vernon and his governmental residence in Philadelphia.[8] As mentioned above, the Stuarts and their growing family discussed below resided at three estates in Fairfax County: Abingdon, Hope Park and Ossian Hall.[24][8] Dr. Stuart employed Dublin-born Thomas Tracy to tutor the children, and also allowed him to conduct classes for slave children in a different building.[25] Dr. Stuart also was a founding trustee of the towns of Centreville and Providence (now Fairfax City), and of the Centreville Academy in 1808.[26]

Eleanor and David had 16 children of their own before her death on September 28, 1811, including:[27][28][24]

  • Ann Calvert Stuart Robinson (born 1784), married William Robinson[28][24]
  • Sarah Stuart Waite (born 1786), married Obed Waite[28][24]
  • Ariana Calvert Stuart[28][24]
  • William Skolto Stuart[28][24]
  • Eleanor Custis Stuart (born 1792)[28][24]
  • Charles Calvert Stuart (1794–1846), married Cornelia Lee[28][24]
  • Rosalie Eugenia Stuart Webster (1796–1886), married William Greenleaf Webster[28][24][29]

Death and legacy[]

Stuart's exact date and place of death is unknown, as it occurred late in the War of 1812, possibly shortly after the British burned Washington, D.C. Although his brother Richard Stuart appears buried in King George County, Virginia, a memorial marker to Stuart and his wife has existed since 2008 near the Calvert family vault in St. Thomas Church in Croom, Prince George's County, Maryland. Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart had died at her daughter's house in Georgetown, District of Columbia and was originally buried at "Effingham" plantation in Prince William County.[30] Stuart's cousin Sisismunda was married to William Alexander, a prominent patriot also from the First Families of Virginia from a wealthy King George County. In fact, Alexandria was named for that Alexander family, but King George County and the Tidewater region were plagued by British ships impressing local sailors and another war seemed likely, in which case Effingham was safer infland. Following the War of 1812 and her husband's death, she was reinterred with him at that church, which her father Benedict Calvert had erected and her brother helped maintain from his Mount Airy plantation which is now Rosaryville State Park.[31]

References[]

  1. ^ https://www tpl.org/our-work/cedar-grove-farm
  2. ^ Hardy, Stella Pickett (1958). Colonial Families of the Southern States of America. Southern Book Co., Baltimore. pp. 492–494.
  3. ^ Myron E. Lyman, Genealogical, Burial and Service Data for Revolutionary War Patriots Buried in Virginia (Virginia Society Sons of the American Revolution, 2016) p. 196
  4. ^ Hardy p 493
  5. ^ Hardy p. 494
  6. ^ "Washington to Dr. Stuart: Some Unpublished Letters of the First President", The New York Times, March 14, 1880, p. 4
  7. ^ T. Michael Miller, Merchants and Artisans of Alexandria 1780-1820s (Heritage Books Inc. 1991) vol. 1 p. 159
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Templeman, Eleanor Lee (1959). Arlington Heritage: Vignettes of a Virginia County. New York: Avenel Books, a division of Crown Publishers, Inc. pp. 12–13.
  9. ^ Netherton, Nan (1978), Fairfax County, Virginia: A History, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, ISBN 0-9601630-1-8 p. 42
  10. ^ Netti Schriener-Yantis and Florene Speakman Love, The 1787 Census of Virginia (Springfield, Virginia: Genealogical Books in Print 1987) pp. 1068. 567
  11. ^ 1810 U.S. Federal Census for King George County, Virginia p. 29 of 36 indicates owned 26 slaves and brother Richard owned 50
  12. ^ 1810 U.S. Federal Census for Fairfax County, Virginia p. 78 of 91
  13. ^ T. Michael Miller, p. 91
  14. ^ Cynthia Leonard Miller, Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library) pp. 156, 160, 164, 168
  15. ^ The Documentary history of the first Federal elections, 1788-1790, by Gordon DenBoer, Volume 2, page 303
  16. ^ http://elections.lib.tufts.edu/aas_portal/view-election.xq?id=MS115.002.VA.1789.00026[permanent dead link]
  17. ^ The Documentary history of the first Federal elections, 1788-1790, by Gordon DenBoer, Volume 2, pages 304-5
  18. ^ Leonard p. 172
  19. ^ Netherton pp. 132-133
  20. ^ Jump up to: a b c Grigsby, Hugh Blair (1890). Brock, R.A. (ed.). The History of the Virginia Federal Convention of 1788 With Some Account of the Eminent Virginians of that Era who were Members of the Body. Collections of the Virginia Historical Society. New Series. Volume IX. 1. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Historical Society. pp. 344–346. OCLC 41680515.. At Google Books.
  21. ^ https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-15-02-0074
  22. ^ Crew, Harvey W.; Webb, William Bensing; Wooldridge, John (1892). "IV. Permanent Capital Site Selected". Centennial History of the City of Washington, D.C. Dayton, Ohio: United Brethren Publishing House. pp. 87–88, 101. Retrieved 2011-06-01.
  23. ^ John C. Fitzpatrick (ed.). "The writings of George Washington from the original manuscript sources". U. S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
  24. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i National Genealogical Society (1917). National Genealogical Society Quarterly. National Genealogical Society. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  25. ^ Netherton pp. 234-235
  26. ^ Netherton pp. 220, 240
  27. ^ Johnson, R. Winder (1905). The Ancestry of Rosalie Morris Johnson: Daughter of George Calvert Morris and Elizabeth Kuhn, his wife. Ferris & Leach. pp. 16–17, 29–30. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
  28. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Edmund Jennings Lee (May 2009). Lee of Virginia, 1642-1892. Heritage Books. ISBN 9780788421037. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  29. ^ James Edward Greenleaf (1896). Genealogy of the Greenleaf Family. F. Wood. Retrieved 2008-03-01.
  30. ^ https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/076-0006/
  31. ^ "Application: St. Thomas' Episcowarpal Parish Historic District" (PDF). Maryland Historic Trust. Retrieved 14 May 2018.
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