Autographs
George Washington’s Survey Mentioned by Lord Fairfax!
(GEORGE WASHINGTON). THOMAS, LORD FAIRFAX, Proprietor of Northern Virginia.
May 4, 1754-Dated Manuscript Document Signed, “Fairfax”, 1 page, measuring 13” x 11.25”, on Vellum, Fairfax County, Virginia, Fine. Some expected tone, several scattered minor holes affect two words of text, 2” vertical centerfold separation at bottom, chipped lower left corner, well written in brown ink with the signature “Fairfax” at bottom right. It’s original Paper and Wax Embossed Seal is intact at the upper right. This Document conveys a tract of land in the Shenandoah Valley to Hugh Hughes of Frederick County. It reads, in part;

“The right Honorable Thomas Lord Fairfax - Proprietor of the Northern Neck of Virginia... Know ye that for good causes, and in consideration of the Composition to me paid and for the annual rent hereafter reserved I have given, granted and confirmed... unto Hugh Hughes of Frederick County a certain tract... on Great Ceapchon (river) and bounded as followeth by a Survey thereof made by Mr. George Washington... Containing 480 acres together with all rights, members and appurtenances thereunto belonging, Royal Mines excepted. And a full third part of all lead, copper, tin coal... and ore that shall be found there. The fee of one shilling sterling money for every 50 acres of land hereby granted...”

George Washington’s association with the Fairfax family was fortuitous. His half-brother, Lawrence, married Anne Fairfax, who was the daughter of Colonel William Fairfax, cousin and agent of Thomas, Lord Fairfax. William’s son, George William, and George Washington became friends, and in 1748, George was allowed to accompany George William as part of a surveying party to the remote south branch of the Potomac. George Washington had learned the rudiments of surveying in 1747, using instruments which had belonged to his father. Thus began a long association with the important Fairfax family.
Colonel GEORGE WASHINGTON

The Battle of Fort Necessity (also called the Battle of the Great Meadows) took place on July 3, 1754, in what is now the mountaintop hamlet of Farmington in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The engagement was one of the first battles of the French and Indian War and George Washington's only military surrender.

During the French and Indian Seven Years’ War, the 22-year-old Lieutenant Colonel in the Virginia militia begins construction of a makeshift Fort Necessity. The fort was built to defend his forces from French soldiers enraged by the murder of Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville while in Washington’s custody. One month later, the French, led by Jumonville’s half-brother, won Washington’s surrender and forced confession to Jumonville’s murder.

The Ohio Valley had long been a contested territory among French Canadians, various Indian groups and the British colonies of Pennsylvania and Virginia. When the French began to establish fortifications along the river and refused Virginia’s written demand that they depart, Virginia’s governor, Robert Dinwiddie, dispatched Washington to complete and defend a Virginian fort at the forks of the Ohio.

Upon their arrival, Washington discovered that a scouting party led by Jumonville was nearby. Fearing that the French were planning an attack, Washington struck first, successfully ambushing the small party. In one of history’s murkier moments, Jumonville was murdered by Washington’s Indian ally, Tanaghrisson, while the monolingual Washington struggled to interrogate the French-speaking Canadian.

Jumonville’s murder in captivity incited a strong French response, and Washington was unable to defend his makeshift Fort Necessity from French forces led by Jumonville’s half-brother. Washington surrendered and on July 4, 1754 and signed a confession—in French, which he could not read—to Jumonville’s assassination.

Benjamin Franklin had drafted his Albany Plan for Union earlier that spring, in the hope that united colonies could better orchestrate their own defense and governance. Colonists voted down the proposal everywhere it was presented.

After Washington displayed his incompetence on the Ohio, the British decided it was time to save their colonies from themselves and dispatched two regiments of Redcoats under General Edward Braddock to America. Braddock too suffered a humiliating defeat at the forks of the Ohio; it took the British and their colonists seven years of world war to redeem themselves. The Seven Years’ War would go on to strip the French of their American empire and test the bonds of the British empire in America.