Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 15, 1993 TAG: 9312150152
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LONDON LENGTH: Medium
The letters were from Washington's friend and confidant George William Fairfax, whose wife, Sally, was rumored to be Washington's lover before he became the first president of the United States.
They were among about 5,000 letters, manuscripts and other papers from the archives of the Fairfax family, who were among the largest landowners in Virginia in the 18th and early 19th centuries.
The Fairfax family of West Yorkshire, in northern England, included a series of viscounts, barons, knights, writers and politicians since the 15th century, and many of the documents sold by Sotheby's auction house dated from the 17th century.
Virginia museums had said they did not plan to bid on the Washington letters and the maps, surveys and land records included with them, because they could not afford the estimated prices.
The largest group, described as "a source of major importance to the study of George Washington's early life and of the society that formed him," had been expected to sell for $150,000 to $180,000.
Other lots had been expected to sell for $9,000 to $27,000.
Sotheby's said it was selling the documents on behalf of the trustees of the present Lord and Lady Fairfax, and it was up to the sellers to determine what would become of the Washington papers.
John Riley, historian for Mount Vernon, Washington's home and library, said the future president sent Sally Fairfax numerous flirtatious, flowery letters over the years, but historians will never know more about the extent of their relationship.
"Washington was in love, or somehow definitely had a crush on this woman; but for a lot of reasons, I think that's as far as it went," Riley said in Virginia before the auction.
by CNB