Vaucluse

Vaucluse was a villa in Fairfax County, Virginia, three miles (5 km) from Alexandria and from Washington, D.C., on a hill near the Virginia Theological Seminary, that was owned first by Dr. James Craik, and later by the Fairfax family, the first being Thomas Fairfax, 9th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. Dr. James Craik Dr. Craik, surgeon in the Virginia Regiment, and the Continental Army, was persuaded, by Washington after the Revolutionary War, to move his practice to Alexandria, Virginia. Dr. Craik settled at Vaucluse, where he died on February 6, 1814. Thomas Fairfax Thomas Fairfax was the son of Bryan Fairfax. He oversaw his land holdings of forty thousand acres, and established his family at Vaucluse, where he died, on April 21, 1846. His grandsons were born at Vaucluse: Charles S. Fairfax, was born on March 8, 1829, and John C. Fairfax was born on September 30, 1830. Thomas Fairfax left a life interest in Vaucluse to his widow, who lived there until her death in 1858, with her two widowed daughters, Mrs. Hyde, and Mrs. Cary.