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complying with his part of the sales contract, which required periodic payments. Thus, Bushrod
Washington took Atkinson to court, and when he died in 1829, his executor continued the process, as well as tried to resell the property to Benjamin Dyer and Richard Stonnell. Eventually, Atkinson paid for the property in 1842, but died two years later, so his son Richard Atkinson inherited the property. On his death in 1855 his underage son George Atkinson inherited it, but when he came of age after the conflict, operated it on a much reduced level, and the buildings also deteriorated. About a decade after George Atkinson's death in 1901, Rippon Lodge was acquired by the retired Marron brothers, who in 1924 sold it to
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Bushrod
Washington Blackburn. Other than bequests to the three remaining daughters, his son Thomas Blackburn inherited the remainder of the estate. Blackburn and his widow are buried in the family graveyard on the site, although the exact location is unknown. Only a handful of gravestones (including those of his mother and father, erected by local burgess John Baylis) remained by the early 20th century when the graveyard was restored as described below, but memorial tablets were erected in that era and modern times.
347:, who could trace his descent to Richard Blackburn, and who between his work for the U.S. Department of Justice and private legal practice in Washington D.C. and Cincinnati, Ohio, during the 1930s restored and expanded the old house in the Colonial Revival style. Ellis also restored the graveyard (which has at least 35 and possibly more than 60 gravesites) and relocated several gravestones from endangered places in Prince William County (including those of burgess
290:). Thus, in the 1787 Virginia tax census, Col. Thomas Blackburn was responsible for taxes in both the county's tax assessment lists. That for the Yorkshire plantation showed Blackburn as owning 19 enslaved adults and 8 slaves younger than 16, as well as 12 horses and 37 cattle, all managed by John Dudley; in the other he owned 10 adult and 3 younger slaves, as well as eight horses, 19 cattle and a four-wheeled carriage.
248:, the nephew of President George Washington who became an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court as well as inherited his uncle's Mount Vernon plantation. Her eldest sister Mary Elizabeth (a/k/a Polly) died at age 15 of tuberculosis in Bermuda. The other daughters referred to in this man's will were Catherine (Kitty) who married Henry Smith Turner of
220:(d. 1757) was born at Rippon Lodge, the plantation house which his English-born father had built around 1745, and which he inherited because his elder brothers died before their father. His elder half brother was among the six people who died in a boating accident on the Potomac River in 1752. His sister Alice married Col. Thomas Ellzey of nearby
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administered the county, in addition to handling judicial cases that could be appealed to higher courts. In 1771-72 the
General Assembly named him as one of the commissioners responsible for disposing of water-damaged tobacco in state warehouses, and providing relief for those who had entrusted tobacco to those warehouses.
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Thus, in 1811, Bushrod
Washington sold Rippon Lodge to George R. Atkinson, who had emigrated from England to Virginia, fighting to defend Richmond during the War of 1812, then moving to Fairfax County. Atkinson's family would occupy and operate the property through the Civil War, despite Atkinson not
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Col. Blackburn died at Rippon Lodge after drafting a last will and testament. He bequeathed Rippon Lodge to descendants of his eldest son, who died three years previously, subject to a debt he owed to his son-in-law
Bushrod Washington. He also bequeathed two slaves to his grandson (by R.S. Blackburn)
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The family also included four daughters (Mary
Elizabeth, Catherine, Sarah and Julia Ann) and took in the widow of his son Richard (Ann Blause) and four granddaughters. Accounts of their names have become confused, possibly because of confusion between the generations of men named Thomas Blackburn, as
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before accepting a commission as captain in the U.S. Army by 1800, and was promoted to major before dying while on duty in
Georgia in late 1803. His younger brother Thomas Blackburn Jr. served under his brother in the local militia as a private before accepting a lieutenant's commission in the U.S.
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and Rose Peters, who died in 1649 or 1670). The Ellis' had no children and the property was sold to
Admiral Richard Blackburn Black, an antarctic explorer, who submitted the paperwork which placed the property on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. Prince William County acquired the
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on
October 4, 1777. The lead bullet made riding a horse painful and caused him to walk with a limp; it would not be removed from his body for many years, due to its placement and surgical limitations at the time. Thus, while Lee's service continued, Blackburn returned home to Rippon Lodge. He
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Both Lee and
Blackburn had been militia officers and volunteered to serve under General George Washington. His troops elected Blackburn lieutenant colonel on December 20, 1776, but he resigned that commission the following June when the colonel retired and another man was promoted instead of
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In 1764, Blackburn began his public career by accepting the office of justice of the peace for Prince William County, and would continue as one of the county's justices until 1770. In that era, legal training was not required to hold such office, and the justices of each county collectively
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Blackburn. Blackburn then volunteered to become an aide de camp to the commander in chief, but was probably conveying messages from the 13th Virginia Regiment (in which Richard S. Blackburn served) or his former colleague Gen. Peter Muhlenburg when he received a serious thigh wound at the
192:(January 15, 1742 – July 8, 1807) was a Virginia officer, planter and politician who represented Prince William County, Virginia in the last sessions of the House of Burgesses and in most of the Virginia Revolutionary Conventions alongside future general and Virginia Governor
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As relations with Great Britain became strained, Blackburn became a member of Prince William County's Committee of Safety. In 1774, he was elected as one of the county's two representatives in the House of Burgesses, alongside fellow planter and veteran legislator
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Like his father, Blackburn operated his plantations using enslaved labor. As his father's executor, he was responsible for settling his father's estate, which had debts as well as various properties from Prince William County westward to the
302:. When Virginia's last royal governor, Lord Dunmore, suppressed (prorogued) the colony's legislature, Prince William County voters elected Blackburn and Lee as their representatives to four of the six Virginia Revolutionary Conventions.
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from his childless uncle, but whose husband died while their children were still young. Thus, she effectively served as that plantation's mistress for decades (but for most of that time chose to live at another historic plantation,
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Blackburn also had considerable debts, and his main creditor was his son-in-law Bushrod Washington. Several times, his heirs petitioned Congress for compensation and bounty land for his revolutionary service, but never succeeded.
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In the 1790s, Blackburn, his wife and daughter spent about two years in Bermuda, vainly hoping the climate would cure their daughter's tuberculosis. Following her death, they returned to Prince William County.
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well as another Blackburn family who lived in southwest Virginia and descended from Archibald Blackburn (who emigrated from Ireland). All agree that this man's youngest daughter Julia Ann Blackburn married
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continued to support the war effort and one winter quartered a regiment of Continental troops on his property, feeding as well as clothing them before they resumed military operations in the spring.
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in 1780 offered Blackburn a position on the Governor's Council, but Blackburn declined, citing his deafness. He also hosted and corresponded with his former commander and U.S. President
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Army in 1799, but he resigned and become a planter ("Yorkshire" plantation being on both sides of Bull Run in Prince William County and Fairfax County) before dying in 1813.
256:. Jane Charlotte Blackburn (probably their niece, daughter of Richard Scott Blackburn) married Justice Washington's nephew, John Augustine Washington II, who inherited
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196:. He may today be best known as a correspondent with Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, as the father of two women who married owners of
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204:, the remnants of which were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971 and are now operated as a Prince William County park.
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Alicea and McDonald, pp. 17-19, also notes that the 1782 tax census and Blackburn's will named individual slaves, at least by first name.
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Netti Schreiner-Yantis and Florene Speakman Love, The 1787 Census of Virginia (1987, Genealogical Books in Print) vol. 2, pp. 889 and 898
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would continue his father's political career by twice winning election to serve as one of Prince William County's representatives in the
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Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library 1978) pp. 104, 106, 110, 113, 115, 118
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Jessica Maria Alicea and John Nathan McDonald, Memory of Time: The History of Rippon Lodge in Woodbridge, Virginia (
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On January 21, 1759/60, Thomas Blackburn married Christian Scott (1745-1815), the daughter of Rev. James Scott of
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was in the eastern portion. The "Yorkshire" plantation was in the west (partly on the other side of Bull Run in
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Wesley E. Pipperger, Marriage and Death Notices from Alexandria, Virginia Newspapers (2005), vol. 1, p. 54
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property in 2000 from Admiral Black's' granddaughter, restored it and opened it to the public in 2007.
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The youngest son born to the former Mary Watts (d. 1775; widow of Col. Henry Ashton of
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404:"The Blackburns of Rippon Lodge" 4 William and Mary College Quarterly (1896) p.
486:"Founders Online: To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Blackburn, 4 May 1780"
370:"Colonel Thomas Blackburn Grave At Rippon Lodge Honored by DAR"
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Louisa D.F. Hogue, The History of the Blackburn Family" in
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498:Thomas Blackburn will online at pwcva.gov
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549:Continental Army officers from Virginia
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265:in what later became West Virginia).
130:planter, military officer, politician
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413:Virginia Gazette April 24, 1752 p.2
200:plantation, or for his plantation,
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104:, Prince William County, Virginia
254:Prince George's County, Maryland
507:Alicea and McDonald, pp. 25-27
466:Alicea and McDonald, pp. 20-21
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393:Prince William Reliquary
395:(Jan. 2003) vol.2 no. 1
233:Richard Scott Blackburn
99:July 7, 1807 (aged 65)
208:Early and family life
168:2nd Virginia Regiment
148:Years of service
50:Serving with
308:Battle of Germantown
194:Lighthorse Harry Lee
178:Battle of Germantown
214:Westmoreland County
314:Virginia governor
246:Bushrod Washington
229:Overwharton Parish
35:House of Burgesses
437:978-1-7338720-3-4
320:George Washington
276:Shenandoah Valley
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258:Mount Vernon
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174:Battles/wars
121:Rippon Lodge
102:Rippon Lodge
70:Succeeded by
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37:representing
529:1807 deaths
524:1742 births
109:Nationality
60:Preceded by
518:Categories
378:2023-09-11
356:References
159:Lt.Colonel
127:Occupation
300:Henry Lee
151:1776–1777
117:Residence
52:Henry Lee
48:1774–1775
44:In office
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263:Blakeley
112:American
20:Colonel
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269:Career
373:(PDF)
433:ISBN
164:Unit
156:Rank
96:Died
88:Born
74:n/a
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