wife of William Fairfax, Esq. In the spring of 1894, writer W. H. Snowden visited the Belvoir ruins and family cemetery and described the site in "Some Old Historic Landmarks of Virginia and Maryland: A Handbook for the Tourist over the Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon Railway" (Third edition, 1902): In the wood near adjoining, rows of sunken mounds indicated the family burial place. A score of graves may still be counted, without stone or vestige of enclosure. The marble slabs which had marked the last resting places of William Fairfax and Deborah, his wife, the first master and mistress, and which had remained intact until a few years before the war, had been sacrilegiously broken up and carried away.
The inscription read as follows:
"Here rest the remains of Deborah Clarke Fairfax, who departed this troublesome life on the Fourteenth day of ____ 1747* in the sixty-seventh year of her age. She was the widow of Francis Clarke of New Salem, Massachusetts Colony, and the late wife of William Fairfax, Esq., collector of His Majesty's customs on the South Potomac, and one of the kings' honorable council of Virginia. In every station of life she was worthy of imitation. A faithful and loving wife. The best of mothers. A sincere and amiable friend. In all religious duties well instructed and observant, and has gone where only such virtues can be rewarded.
*the obelisk at the site gives Deborah Clarke Fairfax's death year as 1746.
From Zeta Wilson: Date on Headstone Disagrees with Record Date. Also, the text indicates that Clarke was her first husband’s name not her birth surname.
From MCole: I think your notes are confusing mother and daughter. Deborah Clarke daughter of Deborah (Gedney) Clarke, married William Fairfax. Deborah Gedney was born around 1677, so couldn't be the one buried here.
The inscription read as follows:
"Here rest the remains of Deborah Clarke Fairfax, who departed this troublesome life on the Fourteenth day of ____ 1747* in the sixty-seventh year of her age. She was the widow of Francis Clarke of New Salem, Massachusetts Colony, and the late wife of William Fairfax, Esq., collector of His Majesty's customs on the South Potomac, and one of the kings' honorable council of Virginia. In every station of life she was worthy of imitation. A faithful and loving wife. The best of mothers. A sincere and amiable friend. In all religious duties well instructed and observant, and has gone where only such virtues can be rewarded.
*the obelisk at the site gives Deborah Clarke Fairfax's death year as 1746.
From Zeta Wilson: Date on Headstone Disagrees with Record Date. Also, the text indicates that Clarke was her first husband’s name not her birth surname.
From MCole: I think your notes are confusing mother and daughter. Deborah Clarke daughter of Deborah (Gedney) Clarke, married William Fairfax. Deborah Gedney was born around 1677, so couldn't be the one buried here.
wife of William Fairfax, Esq. In the spring of 1894, writer W. H. Snowden visited the Belvoir ruins and family cemetery and described the site in "Some Old Historic Landmarks of Virginia and Maryland: A Handbook for the Tourist over the Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon Railway" (Third edition, 1902): In the wood near adjoining, rows of sunken mounds indicated the family burial place. A score of graves may still be counted, without stone or vestige of enclosure. The marble slabs which had marked the last resting places of William Fairfax and Deborah, his wife, the first master and mistress, and which had remained intact until a few years before the war, had been sacrilegiously broken up and carried away.
The inscription read as follows:
"Here rest the remains of Deborah Clarke Fairfax, who departed this troublesome life on the Fourteenth day of ____ 1747* in the sixty-seventh year of her age. She was the widow of Francis Clarke of New Salem, Massachusetts Colony, and the late wife of William Fairfax, Esq., collector of His Majesty's customs on the South Potomac, and one of the kings' honorable council of Virginia. In every station of life she was worthy of imitation. A faithful and loving wife. The best of mothers. A sincere and amiable friend. In all religious duties well instructed and observant, and has gone where only such virtues can be rewarded.
*the obelisk at the site gives Deborah Clarke Fairfax's death year as 1746.
From Zeta Wilson: Date on Headstone Disagrees with Record Date. Also, the text indicates that Clarke was her first husband’s name not her birth surname.
From MCole: I think your notes are confusing mother and daughter. Deborah Clarke daughter of Deborah (Gedney) Clarke, married William Fairfax. Deborah Gedney was born around 1677, so couldn't be the one buried here.
The inscription read as follows:
"Here rest the remains of Deborah Clarke Fairfax, who departed this troublesome life on the Fourteenth day of ____ 1747* in the sixty-seventh year of her age. She was the widow of Francis Clarke of New Salem, Massachusetts Colony, and the late wife of William Fairfax, Esq., collector of His Majesty's customs on the South Potomac, and one of the kings' honorable council of Virginia. In every station of life she was worthy of imitation. A faithful and loving wife. The best of mothers. A sincere and amiable friend. In all religious duties well instructed and observant, and has gone where only such virtues can be rewarded.
*the obelisk at the site gives Deborah Clarke Fairfax's death year as 1746.
From Zeta Wilson: Date on Headstone Disagrees with Record Date. Also, the text indicates that Clarke was her first husband’s name not her birth surname.
From MCole: I think your notes are confusing mother and daughter. Deborah Clarke daughter of Deborah (Gedney) Clarke, married William Fairfax. Deborah Gedney was born around 1677, so couldn't be the one buried here.
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