A Year With George Washington
On March 11, 1748, sixteen-year-old George Washington set out on a land survey expedition with George William Fairfax, who was eight years his senior.
Below is his diary entry:
“Fryday March 11th. 1747/8. Began my Journey in Company with George Fairfax Esqr.; we travell’d this day 40 Miles to Mr. George Neavels in Prince William County.”
The reader will note the curious way in which George dates his diary entry, recording the year as both 1747 and 1748. This is explained by England’s stubborn adherence to the Julian Calendar, referred to as “Old Style.” The Julian Calendar, based on the solar year, was established by the Roman Dictator Julius Caesar to replace the flawed Roman version. The Julian calendar was itself flawed in that it did not adequately account for an extra six hours in the yearly trip around the sun.
By the time of Washington’s journal entry, the date was known to be off by some 11 days. Everyone in England and the English colonies was aware of this, but nonetheless refused to switch to the more accurate Gregorian Calendar instituted in 1582. The English, who had a longstanding tradition of opposing decrees of the Catholic Pope, resisted the change for 170 years until 1752, four years after young George made the above entry.
Great Britain, along with its colonies, marked the beginning of the year as March 25th, the day on which the Annunciation of our Lord to the Blessed Virgin Mary was revealed. The day commemorates the moment when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, announcing that she would give birth to the Son of God. George knew that the year according to the Gregorian Calendar was 1748, but, as a loyal English subject at the time, he also recorded 1747 as the year. 1748, according to the Julian Calendar, had not yet arrived.
His traveling companion and supervisor was George William Fairfax, a scion of the Fairfax family, the enormously wealthy and powerful Virginia clan into which Washington’s brother Lawrence had the good fortune to marry. The Fairfaxes resided at the splendid estate known as Belvoir, just four miles downstream from Mount Vernon. The younger, somewhat priggish Fairfax, thought the brick Georgian Mansion a “tolerable cottage” set in a “wooded world.” Young Washington thought it was “one of the most beautiful seats on the river” and was transfixed by the trappings of Fairfax’s wealth.
The two traveled an impressive 40 miles in the saddle that first day and made their way to the ordinary (tavern) of George Neville, a planter and land speculator, much like Washington would later become. After a long journey on horseback, an ordinary was a welcome sight. In addition to a bed and a bite to eat, it was a place to hear the latest news, transact business, or be forewarned of any dangers ahead. Washington would take on a new client in Neville, who would later contract him to survey some 400 acres in 1750.
Washington maintained a close but somewhat tortured relationship with Fairfax, for soon the young man would develop romantic feelings for his friend’s wife, Sally. It appears she, too, was charmed by the young lad, as their letters reveal a more intimate relationship than mere friends. There is no evidence, however, that they acted upon their affections for one another.
Washington’s feelings must have waned, as he would marry Martha Custis Dandridge in 1759, and the two couples would remain close friends until the Fairfaxes departed for England in 1773. Sad as it was for both of them, by waging war against the mother country, Washington foreclosed any opportunity for their return.
