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David Stuart (Virginia politician)

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David Stuart
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Fairfax County
In office
October 17, 1785 – October 18, 1789
Preceded byAlexander Henderson
Succeeded byLudwell Lee
1st Commissioner of the Federal City
In office
January 22, 1791 – September 12, 1794
Preceded byOffice created
Succeeded byWilliam Thornton
Personal details
BornAugust 3, 1753
King George County, Virginia, British America
DiedOctober 1814 (aged 61)
Alexandria, Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S.
Political partyFederalist
SpouseEleanor Calvert Custis
EducationCollege of William and Mary
University of Edinburgh

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

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Stuart was the eldest of five sons of Rev. William Stuart (1723-1798) and Sarah Foote (1732-about 1795).[1] Rev. Stuart and his wife received the "Cedar Grove" plantation on the Potomac River as a wedding present.[2] Rev. William Stuart was the rector of St. Paul's Parish, King George County, Virginia from 1749-1796.[3] Rev. Stuart studied theology in London and was ordained there by Bishop Edmund Gibson.[4] Rev. William Stuart was known for his eloquence, integrity, and virtue.[5] With his brother-in-law Horatio Dade, Lawrence Washington, and others, Rev. Stuart served on the King George County Committee of Safety during the American Revolutionary War.[6] Rev. Stuart's family also included seven daughters.[7]

Rev. William Stuart's father was Rev. David Stuart. Rev. David Stuart is said to have descended from the royal house of Scotland, and after unsuccessfully supporting the "pretender" James Francis Stuart, became a minister and emigrated to Virginia in 1715. Rev. David Stuart married Jane Gibbons.[8] Jane Gibbons brother was Sir William Gibbons, 1st Baronet Gibbons, Speaker for the House of Assembly in Barbados.[9] Rev. David Stuart served as rector of the same parish (then in Stafford County, Virginia and now known as Aquia Church) from 1722 until his death in 1749.[10]

Stuart 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.[11] He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh before finishing his medical studies in Paris, France.[12] He returned to the United States in 1778.[13] In 1802, his brother Richard married the widow Margaret Robinson McCarty, whose husband held public office and owned 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.[14]

Career and public life

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Upon returning to Virginia, Stuart established a medical practice in the city or county of Alexandria. Stuart lived and farmed mostly outside Alexandria in Fairfax County, Virginia. His first farmed at Abingdon (plantation) which was in an area that the Commonwealth of Virginia temporarily ceded to create the federal city of Washington in 1790. Abingdon later became part of Arlington County near what is now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

Stuart and James Wright bought an Alexandria city lot in 1783, the same year Stuart married Eleanor Calvert Custis, the widow of John Parke Custis.

Stuart also farmed in Fairfax County using enslaved labor. Several letters between the former president and Stuart, some of whose farming activities benefitted his stepchildren, as the residual beneficiaries of the dower slaves, discussed the gradual abolition of slavery, as well as white landowners who harassed free Black landowners, knowing that Virginia's law against allowing Blacks to testify meant that illegal actions could have no negative consequences.[15][16] In the 1787 tax census Stuart 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.[17] His minister father retired in 1796 and died in 1798.[18] His stepson George Washington Parke Custis later criticized the former president's testamentary manumission of his slaves,[19] helped the widower Stuart advertise the sale of slaves in Alexandria in 1812,[20] and at his own death freed many slaves.

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.[21]

Voters in the Prince William District chose Stuart as an elector for the 1788-1789 Presidential election.[22] 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.[23] Each of the ten Virginia electors cast one of their two votes for George Washington. There is no record of how the individuals of the Virginia delegation voted for Vice-President, but 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.[24]

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.[25] 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 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, where the U.S. Constitution was drafted. He vocally opposed ratification, leading Fairfax County voters to refuse 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.[26]

Federalist or ratification forces led by James Madison, John Marshall and Edmund Randolph, defeated the Mason/Henry resolution, 88—80.[26] 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.[26]

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.[27] In their first year, Stuart and the other commissioners named the capital the "City of Washington" in "The Territory of Columbia".[28] On April 15, 1791, he and Daniel Carroll laid the first boundary stone for the new District at Jones Point.

Stuart also was a founding trustee of the towns of Centreville and Providence (now Fairfax City), and of the Centreville Academy in 1808.[29]

Family

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On November 20, 1783, Stuart married Eleanor Calvert Custis, the widow of John Parke Custis. She was 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.[30] Contrary to modern myth, David and Eleanor were not cousins, as no connection between their families has been identified. Rev. David Stuart's ancestry is unknown; and the mother of Benedict Swingate Calvert, Eleanor's grandfather, is also unknown.

The first husband of Eleanor Calvert Custis of Maryland was John Parke Custis of Virginia. He was the son of Daniel Parke Custis and Martha Dandridge Custis. He became then-General George Washington's stepson when his mother Martha Dandridge Custis married the general. John Parke Custis died of disease in 1781 after the Battle of Yorktown. His survivors included his wife Eleanor Calvert Custis and four children. They lived at the Custis family's Abingdon at the time.[31]

Stuart was the step-father and legal guardian of John and Eleanor's children, including George Washington Parke Custis and Eleanor (Nelly) Custis, even while they lived with their grandmother Martha Dandridge Custis Washington and her husband, George Washington at Mount Vernon, Virginia.

In 1791, Stuart and his family moved from Abingdon to Hope Park, further west in Fairfax County.[32] In 1804, the family moved to Ossian Hall near Annandale, also in Fairfax County.[33] The Virginia General Assembly also named Stuart as one of Fairfax County's gentleman justices, normally a lifetime appointment. Stuart had a crucial role in relocating the courthouse from Alexandria further inland to Fairfax County in December 1789.[34]

As Eleanor's husband, Stuart became the administrator of the estate of John Parke Custis, and in 1806, secured a judgment against the administrators of the estate of George Washington for 2,100 L Virginia currency.[35] Stuart managed the property that Custis wanted his children to inherit when they came of age, and also helped raise the children of John and Eleanor Custis. 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.[36]

During their lifetimes, David and Eleanor Stuart, with their children, lived at three different plantations in Fairfax County: Abingdon, until 1791; Hope Park, until 1804; and Ossian Hall. Stuart employed Dublin-born Thomas Tracy to tutor the children, and also allowed him to conduct classes for slave children in a different building.[37]

Eleanor and David had 16 children, including:[38]

  • Ann Calvert Stuart (1784–1823), married William Robinson
  • Sarah Stuart (1786–1870), married Obed Waite
  • Ariana Calvert Stuart (1789–1855)
  • William Sholto Stuart (1792–1820)
  • Charles Calvert Stuart (1794–1846), married Cornelia Lee Turberville
  • Eleanor Custis Stuart (1796–1875)
  • Rosalie Eugenia Stuart (1801–1886), married William Greenleaf Webster

Death and legacy

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Stuart's exact date of death is unknown, but he wrote a codicil to his will on October 7, 1814, and his will was filed on Oct 17, 1814, so it was between those dates.[39] His daughter stated he died at "Howard," the residence of his son-in-law Mr. Robinson” (Anne Calvert Stuart’s husband), in Alexandria.[40] It's also unclear where he was buried, but it is likely he was buried at the cemetery on his property at Ossian Hall.[41] Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart died at her daughter's house in Georgetown, District of Columbia, in 1811, and was originally buried at "Effingham" plantation in Prince William County. Her body was later moved to Page's Chapel in 1848, part of St. Thomas Church in Croom, Prince George's County, Maryland.[42]

References

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  1. ^ Ancestry.com. North America, Family Histories, 1500-2000 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016, Foote History and Genealogy, page 553
  2. ^ Eubank, H. Ragland. Touring Historyland, The Authentic GuideBook of the Historic Northern Neck of Virginia. Whittet & Shepperson, Richmond, VA, 1934, page 17.
  3. ^ King, George Harrison Sanford. The Register of Saint Paul’s Parish, 1715-1796. Fredericksburg, VA, 1960, pages XXII-XXIII.
  4. ^ "Ordination Record, ID 74301".
  5. ^ Old Churches, Ministers, and Families of Virginia, By Bishop William Meade, J.B. Lippincott & Co, Philadelphia, 1861, Volume 2, pages 20, 187-190, and 440.
  6. ^ Virginia Gazette, No. 429, July 28, 1774, https://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/DigitalLibrary/va-gazettes/VGSinglePage.cfm?issueIDNo=74.R.29&page=2&res=LO
  7. ^ “Public Member Trees,” database, Ancestry.com ( http://www.ancestry.com: accessed 23 June 2024), “Fords” family tree by David William Ford, profile for Rev. David Stuart (1687/1690-1748/49) data updated June 2024.https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/82748995/person/432125782329/facts
  8. ^ Webster, Mrs. Rosalie Eugenia Stuart, The Stuart Family in America, A Genealogical Record of the Descendants of the Rev. David Stuart of Inverness, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, page 2.
  9. ^ "Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slavery".
  10. ^ King, page XXI.
  11. ^ William & Mary College Quarterly, Vol. 13, 1905, Richmond, VA, Google Books, pages 155, 157, 231, and 234
  12. ^ EUA IN1/ADS/STA/2, Matriculation Album 1762-1785, 1762-1785, and Edinburgh Medical Graduates, 1705-1845, Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh. http://archives.lib.ed.ac.uk/alumni/ld.php?view=ld&subview=image&image=119&year=1777
  13. ^ The Virginia Gazette, Williamsburg, VA, October 16, 1778, page 3
  14. ^ "Virginia Marriages, 1785-1940", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XR29-59F : 6 January 2021), Anne Stuart in entry for William Mason, 1793
  15. ^ Thompson, Mary V. (2019). The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret: George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon. Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press. ISBN 978-0-8139-4184-4. pp. 307-309
  16. ^ Ragsdale, Bruce A. (2021). "Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-24638-6.
  17. ^ Netti Schriener-Yantis and Florene Speakman Love, The 1787 Census of Virginia (Springfield, Virginia: Genealogical Books in Print 1987) pp. 1068. 567
  18. ^ Virginia, King George County, Will Books, Volume 2.
  19. ^ Thompson p. 316
  20. ^ Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political, Alexandria, VA, December 11, 1811, page 1, fourth column.
  21. ^ Cynthia Leonard Miller, Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library) pp. 156, 160, 164, 168
  22. ^ The Documentary history of the first Federal elections, 1788-1790, by Gordon DenBoer, Volume 2, page 303
  23. ^ Lampi, Phillip, Virginia 1789 Electoral College, District 5, A New Nation Votes, The American Antiquarian Society and Tufts Archival Research Center, https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/8336h284n
  24. ^ The Documentary history of the first Federal elections, 1788-1790, by Gordon DenBoer, Volume 2, pages 304-5
  25. ^ Netherton pp. 132-133
  26. ^ 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. Vol. 1. Richmond, Virginia: Virginia Historical Society. pp. 344–346. OCLC 41680515.. At Google Books.
  27. ^ "Founders Online: From George Washington to David Stuart, 20 January 1794".
  28. ^ 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.
  29. ^ Netherton, pp. 220, 240
  30. ^ "Correspondence and Other Writings of Seven Major Shapers of the United States". Founders Online.
  31. ^ T. Michael Miller, Merchants and Artisans of Alexandria 1780-1820s (Heritage Books Inc. 1991) vol. 1 p. 159
  32. ^ To George Washington from David Stuart, 18 November 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-09-02-0114. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 9, 23 September 1791 – 29 February 1792, ed. Mark A. Mastromarino. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000, pp. 197–205.]
  33. ^ Fairfax County, VA Deed Book, E2, 1803-1805, pages 289-291; and Annandale History at Ossian Hall Historic Home,” Annandale Chamber of Commerce, https://www.annandalechamber.com/ossianhall.rhtml
  34. ^ Netherton, Nan (1978), Fairfax County, Virginia: A History, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, ISBN 0-9601630-1-8 p. 42
  35. ^ Eugene Prussing, The Estate of George Washington, Deceased, pp. 376, 386
  36. ^ Templeman, Eleanor Lee (1959). Arlington Heritage: Vignettes of a Virginia County. New York: Avenel Books, a division of Crown Publishers, Inc. pp. 12–13.
  37. ^ Netherton, pp. 234-235
  38. ^ Johnson, R. Winder (1905). The Ancestry of Rosalie Morris Johnson: Daughter of George Calvert Morris and Elizabeth Kuhn, his wife. Ferris & Leach. pp. [https://archive.org/details/ancestryrosalie00johngoog, pages 29–30. Retrieved 2011-05-20.
  39. ^ Fairfax County, Virginia. Deed Book, K1, page 238-243.
  40. ^ Webster, page 50.
  41. ^ Stuart/Custis Family Cemetery, https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library_cemeteries/Cemetery.aspx?number=FX117
  42. ^ Young, Emma K. PG:86A-59, St. Thomas’ Episcopal Parish Historic District, National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, 2011, section 8, page 6. https://apps.mht.maryland.gov/nr/NRDetail.aspx?NRID=1609
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