William Fitzhugh (1651-1701)

He was born in Bedford, England, where his father had been mayor and a successful woollen draper before going bankrupt. William emigrated to Virginia in 1670 and practised law, becoming a Queen's Counsel and Justice of the Stafford County Court. He represented Stafford County (now King George County) in the House of Burgesses (1677-1684) and was Lt.-Colonel of the militia. By 1701, he had become the owner of several plantations amounting to some 54,000-acres making him the second largest landholder in the colony and a successful tobacco planter in his own right. In 1674, at Westmoreland County, Virginia, he married Sarah, daughter of Captain John Tucker, and they had six children (listed above) who survived to adulthood.