The Fitzhugh family
Fitzhugh family of Alexandria
Federal-era planter family centred on William Fitzhugh of “Chatham” and his Alexandria townhouse at 607 Oronoco Street — the building later occupied by Anne Hill Carter Lee and her son Robert E. Lee Robert E. Lee b. 1807 · d. 1870 United States Army officer who spent much of his childhood in Alexandria at the house on Oronoco Street before his West Point appointment, and who later commanded Confederate … , now preserved as the 607 Oronoco Street 607 Oronoco Street Federal-era house at 607 Oronoco Street rented by Anne Carter Lee from about 1812; principal childhood residence of her son Robert E. Lee before his 1825 appointment to West Point. … . The Fitzhughs married repeatedly into the Lee and Custis lines and shaped the composition of Alexandria’s early-nineteenth-century elite.
The Alexandria Fitzhughs descend from William Fitzhugh of Bedford (1651–1701), the English-born tobacco planter and provincial legislator whose Stafford County estates seeded the Northern Neck branches of the family. By the Federal era the line was anchored at “Chatham” plantation across the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg and at “Ravensworth” in Fairfax County. William Fitzhugh (1741–1809) of Chatham — Revolutionary delegate, Continental Congressman, and intimate of George Washington — built and owned the Federal-era townhouse at 607 Oronoco Street in Alexandria from its construction in 1795 onwards [1] Wikipedia, William Fitzhugh (Virginia statesman) Website .
The house was rented in 1812 by Anne Hill Carter Lee, widow of Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee III Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee III b. 1756 · d. 1818 Continental Army cavalry officer, ninth governor of Virginia, and father of . Sold the Oronoco Street property in 1784 to his cousin that became the . , who raised her son Robert E. Lee Robert E. Lee b. 1807 · d. 1870 United States Army officer who spent much of his childhood in Alexandria at the house on Oronoco Street before his West Point appointment, and who later commanded Confederate … there from age five until he left for West Point in 1825. It is now preserved and interpreted as the 607 Oronoco Street 607 Oronoco Street Federal-era house at 607 Oronoco Street rented by Anne Carter Lee from about 1812; principal childhood residence of her son Robert E. Lee before his 1825 appointment to West Point. … . William Fitzhugh’s daughter Mary Lee Fitzhugh married G. W. P. Custis G. W. P. Custis b. 1781 · d. 1857 Step-grandson of , raised at Mount Vernon, builder of Arlington House, and father-in-law of . in 1804, making her the mother of Mary Anna Custis Lee Mary Anna Custis Lee b. 1808 · d. 1873 Wife of , daughter of , and great-granddaughter of . Brought Arlington House and its Mount Vernon-derived collections into the Lee household. and the direct connecting figure between the Fitzhugh and Custis estates; Mary Anna’s son W. H. F. "Rooney" Lee W. H. F. "Rooney" Lee b. 1837 · d. 1891 Second son of and ; Confederate major general of cavalry; later U.S. Representative from Virginia. inherited the family Christian-name and the Ravensworth lands. Through these alliances the Fitzhughs interlocked the Lee, Custis, and Washington households at the moment of their greatest Alexandria visibility.
Sources
- 1.
Wikipedia, "William Fitzhugh (Virginia statesman)," accessed 2026.
Website https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Fitzhugh_(Virginia_statesman) →
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