Map: Eighteenth Century Land Ownership

Map: Eighteenth Century Land Ownership

This map of local land ownership in the eighteenth century in the Braddock District area shows the original buyer's name for each land patent or grant. Ravensworth was the single largest land grant in Northern Virginia. William Fitzhugh, son of an English middle-class woolen draper purchased the roughly 22,000 acres in 1685. Although he lived in nearby King George County, he turned Ravensworth into one of the largest tobacco plantations in Northern Virginia, importing slaves and hiring overseers to work the property. Six generations of his family farmed there.

Map by George Mason University's Department of Geography GIS Center of Excellence, based on the companion map to Beginning at a White Oak...Patents and Northern Neck Grants of Fairfax County, Virginia by Beth Mitchell, circa 1977.

Copyright 2006 County of Fairfax. All rights reserved.