Biography
Captain Thomas Fitzhugh
Captain Thomas Fitzhugh of Boscobell, Overwharton Parish, was born July 16, 1725 at Bedford, Saint Pauls Parish, the son of Colonel Henry Fit Hugh (1687-1758) and Susanna Cooke (1693-1749), his wife. He married first on October 18, 1746 Catherine Booth, his first cousin, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Cooke) Booth of Gloucester County; she died childless on February 26, 1748 and her tomb is in the family cemetery at Bedford. Thomas Fitzhugh married secondly on June 19, 1750, Sarah Stuart (February 21, 1731-November 1783), daughter of the Reverend Mr. David Stuart, rector of Saint Pauls Parish and had two children. He built Boscobell, renowned for generations as a place of generous hospitality. This mansion was completely destroyed by fire in 1915 and from the ashes was recovered the fire-back from the enormous parlour fire place, marked: T.F. 1752
Captain Thomas Fitzhugh died on December 1, 1768 and his last Will and Testament was recorded in now lost Stafford County Will Book N (1767-1783), page 78. His only two children were:
(1) Susanna Stuart Fitzhugh (1751-1823) who married William Knox, Esq., (1729-1805), a native of Scotland, and a wealthy merchant and planter. For reasons unknown to me, Major Peter Hedgman and his son William Hedgman (see page 216) disinherited their only heir and bequeathed the major part of their handsome estates to William and John Knox, brothers, merchants of Falmouth. On Monday night the 29th of May 1769 Mr. John Knox was most barbarously murdered in his own house in Stafford, notes William Allason, another Falmouth merchant, in his ledger. William and Susannah Knox resided many years at Windsor Lodge in Culpeper County. After his death their son Doctor Thomas Fitzhugh Knox (1772-1835) purchased Belmont near Falmouth and his widowed mother resided there 1808-1823 and is buried in the Falmouth cemetery. A descendant has handsome portraits of Mr. and Mrs. William Knox which were painted by John Hesselius at Windsor Lodge in 1771.
(2) Thomas Fit Hugh (1754-1820) succeeded his father at Boscobell and married on January 4, 1778 Ann Rose, daughter of Colonel John Rose of Amherst County, Virginia. This couple had numerous children who are mentioned in his last Will and Testament and Boscobell remained in the Fitzhugh family for several generations.