Huntley Part 2

Location and Site

Huntley, 6918 Harrison Lane, near Woodlawn Plantation, Fairfax County, Virginia, is currently owned by Colonel and Mrs. Ransom G. Amlong. It is located off the Jefferson Davis Highway (U.S. Route 1), in the Groveton community, on Harrison Lane, between Lockheed Boulevard and Kings Highway (Route 633).

The house is on a plateau, overlooking Hybla Valley, at 150 feet above sea level. To the south, or in front of the house, the ground level drops in three terraces to 130 feet above sea level. To the north or rear there is a sharp rise to 200 feet.

A church and several houses are located directly in front of Huntley, but the vista from the house toward the Potomac River, especially in summer, is relatively undisturbed. The general area is one of intense commercial and residential development. Hybla Valley, through which Barnyard Creek flows from Huntley, const.i.tutes the major part of the view from the house, and much of this land is owned by the U.S.

Government.

The Huntley complex consists of:

1. The mansion house.

2. Necessary with flanking storage rooms.

3. Root cellar.

4. Ice house.

5. Spring house.

6. Tenant house.

All the buildings are brick. The house itself is a significant Federal period structure, built during the owners.h.i.+p of Thomson F. Mason, c.

1820, and believed to have been influenced by George Hadfield, architect of Was.h.i.+ngton's first City Hall and first superintendent of the Capitol's construction.

Origin of the Name

The first known use of "Huntley" as a place name for the Harrison Lane house appears in an 1859 deed of the property by Betsey C. Mason, widow of T.F. Mason, to her sons John Francis and A. Pendleton Mason. The property is described as:

... all that certain tract of land in the County of Fairfax and state of Virginia called "Huntley" and containing about one thousand acres....[16]

It is probable that the plantation was named Huntley before Thomson F.

Mason died in 1838, although his will of that year mentions no real estate, or personal property specifically.

If he followed the Mason tradition, the house may have been named after an ancestral home in England, and probably after the home of a maternal ancestor. In writing of Gunston Hall, Helen Hill Miller says:

They called their home "Gunston Hall." The name had come down through several generations of Mason's maternal ancestry: his grandmother was Mary Fowke of Gunston Hall in Charles County, Maryland, and her grandfather was the Gerald Fowke of Gunston Hall in Staffords.h.i.+re who emigrated to Virginia at the same time as the first George Mason. The habit of naming new homes in America after the old ones in England was general among the planters of the Virginia Tidewater. Mason conformed to this tradition for a second time when he made a gift of a nearby plantation to his son Thomson and called it "Hollin Hall," after the home of his mother's people near Ripon....[17]

If Thomson F. Mason had followed the same procedure he could have used the name "Huntley," which might at any point have had an "e" added. His father was General Thomson Mason of Hollin Hall, who was married to Sarah McCarty Chichester.[18] Sarah was the daughter of Richard McCarty Chichester, whose first wife had been Ann Gordon.[19] The ancestral Gordon home in Scotland was called "Huntley."

In these lands of Strathbogie Sir Adam (Adam the V) fixed his residence, and was the first of the Gordons who removed from the south of Scotland to the North. He obtained from the parliament holden at Perth anno 1311, that his new estate should be called _Huntley_, as it is still called in writings and public instruments, altho' amongst the vulgar it retains the old name of Strathbogie.[20]

OWNERS AND OCCUPANTS

Mason Owners.h.i.+p

The will of General Thomson Mason of Hollin Hall was written on April 15, 1797, and probated, after his death, on November 21, 1820.[21] That will does not specifically mention real estate, but does:

... give and devise unto my Son Thomason Mason my gold watch and I confirm unto him his right and t.i.tle to a mulatto boy named Bill, given him by his Grandfather Mr. Richard Chichester and I also give and devise unto him my interest in the Potomack Company....

One reason no real estate is specifically mentioned may be cleared up by a later deed (1823)[22] in which other heirs of General Mason deed to:

Thomson F. Mason of the Town of Alexandria in the District of Columbia, ... a certain tract of land situate in the County of Fairfax and State of Virginia known and called by the name of Hunting Creek Farm....

This deed reaffirms settlements made by General Mason during his lifetime on January 1, 1817, and includes the land on which Huntley is located.

Thomson F. could have begun Huntley at any time after January 1, 1817.

On the 29th of January 1818, he paid Alexander Baggett $37.79-1/2 for, among other things:

40 Ft. Double Architrave 18 Ft. Jamb lining 1 Carpet strip 2 pr hinges put on 1 mortice lock put on 2 Flush Bolts 135 Ft 4/4 clear boards locks, hinges, bolts, nails, and Springs....[23]

Also included is one item labeled "folding doors" (double doors). No double doors have been located at Huntley, although Mason is not known to have been building elsewhere at this period. During the latter part of 1819 he was still building and paid $28.00 for:

Sept 20--20 bushels plaster Sept 22--20 bushels plaster Oct 10--10 bushels plaster....[24]

There was probably a structure at Huntley by 1823, for in February of that year Mason sent "to his farm by surry ten bushels shoots and six bran...."[25]

By 1826 the house must have been substantially finished, for in that year Mason's Grandmother Chichester wanted:

to spend a few days at Mr. T.F. Mason's farm, but was deterred from doing so by the apprehension that, as Mr. Mason resided in Town, and there was no other white person on the farm but the overseer ... she would not be secure.[26]

By implication there was a dwelling at Huntley ready for her occupancy.

Another letter written to Mason on August 18, 1827, now incomplete and in poor condition, suggests finis.h.i.+ng some construction work and notes that the writer, whose name is missing:

... had understood you had only rented the place by the month, tho the man has a little crop on the land growing and if the season proves good at the end of the year may be worth ... [the rest is missing][27]

Almost a year later the _Alexandria Gazette_, on Thursday morning August 5, 1828, had an advertis.e.m.e.nt offering:

$25 Reward/ran away from the farm of Thompson F. Mason/Fairfax County on the night of 2d instant negro/BOB. He is about 6 feet high, stout made, very black/and about 45 years of age; has a stammering in his/speech; his right leg sore. Had on when he eloped,/brown linen s.h.i.+rt and trowsers and took with him/blue coat, white linsey trowsers, and black fur hat-/I will give $10 for taking him so I get him again if in the County. If taken out of the County/or District of Columbia, $25./Slighter Smith, Agent for Thompson F. Mason/Fairfax County, State of Virginia/August 5.

Mr. Smith had been replaced as Overseer at Huntley by 1832 for in that year Price Skinner wrote:

... being moved to your house last friday--we are in a bad fix--I want you if you please to ride out to see what you will have don--if I was you I wood have the floor layed down with the plank not used--the whole of the cappenders work may be made in less than one day--and I ast John Parsons what the cappenders work wood be worth--he said about fourty dollars--and forty cents I believe wood be anough there is but three suns [?] worth--to lay the floor and weather bord the shed Sir you will please to ride out....[28]

Mason had already acquired Colross, in Alexandria (see Appendix A.), by 1833, for in March of that year an estimate was submitted by Thos. Beale for:

Labour and Materials, for repairs on the large Building North of the Town of Alexandria....

The estimate included plastering, painting, brickwork, erection of porches and porticos, and fencing of the property.[29] It is Colross with which Thomson F. Mason's name is normally linked. He died December 21, 1838, and was buried there.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 3. Detail from =Map of Eastern Virginia and Vicinity of Was.h.i.+ngton=, Arlington, January 1, 1862, Bureau of Topographic Engineers, Record Group 77, National Archives. Copy by Stuart C. Schwartz.]

His will was probated on February 4, 1839,[30] with Mrs. Mason as executrix, though it was not recorded until February 18, 1839.[31] Seven days before his death Mason had written in his will:

... I devise all my estate real and personal in possession remainder or reversion or in expectancy to my beloved wife B.C.M.

for her maintenance and support of our children during her life and widowhood.... For any aid or a.s.sistance which my wife may require in the management of my estate, I recommend her to my brother Richard C. Mason, and my most excellent friends Benjamin King and Bernard Hooe....

Though Thomson F. Mason had built Huntley, it never served as his permanent residence. It was occupied by a succession of renters, overseers and farmers. Mason's "excellent friend Benjamin King," a doctor, was to have a more personal connection with Huntley, however.

King Owners.h.i.+p