George William Fairfax

George William Fairfax (January 2, 1724April 3, 1787) was a planter in colonial Virginia who represented then-vast Frederick County and later Fairfax County in the House of Burgesses before the American Revolutionary War, by which time he had returned to England (where he was a Loyalist). A mentor and good friend of George Washington, Fairfax made opportunities for the younger Washington through his powerful British family, and Washington assisted him afterward by arranging for the sale of his Virginia property after he returned to Britain. Early life and education Fairfax was born in 1724 on the island of New Providence in the Bahamas. He was the son of Sarah (née Walker), and her husband Sir William Fairfax, a British colonel who had served as an English Customs agent in Barbados, as well as a justice and Governor of the Bahamas. At his son's birth, William was working as the Customs Collector in Marblehead. Sarah's father Thomas Walker was Chief Justice of the Bahamas. In addition to George, the Fairfaxes had two daughters, Anne and Sarah. The father William was first cousin to Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. George William's mother Sarah died January 21, 1731, when he was only seven years old. At Lord Fairfax's request, the widower William Fairfax was reassigned to the colony of Virginia as customs agent. There he became a lieutenant of the County of Fairfax, and member and president of the council in Virginia (equivalent to lieutenant governor). William Fairfax also assisted his cousin as his land agent, managing his extensive holdings in northern Virginia known as the Northern Neck Proprietary. Genealogists disagree about whether George William Fairfax's mother, Sarah Walker, might have possibly been of mixed race. In a letter to his mother, William Fairfax appeared to have worried about the reception of the boy by the London Fairfax family when he sent him to England.