Sally Fairfax

Family, early life and marriage

Sally Cary, as she was born, came from one of Virginia's oldest and wealthiest families. Her forefather, Miles Cary of Bristol, England, first came to America in the mid-17th century and established himself as a Virginian nobleman. Colonel Wilson Cary, Sally’s father and a member of the House of Burgesses, inherited one of Virginia’s largest fortunes and the family estate, Ceelys on the James. Little is known about his wife and Sally’s mother, Sarah, on account of an 1826 fire that destroyed many of the family’s records. Out of Colonel Cary’s four daughters, the eldest Sally was the most sought-after and a grande belle in Virginian society. Although she had many suitors, George William Fairfax eventually won Sally’s favor, and in records found by Wilson Miles Cary, a writer and family historian, their marriage was announced in The Virginia Gazette in December 1748. After their marriage, Sally and George William moved into the Belvoir estate that had been established in the early 1740s, by his father Col. William Fairfax.

The Fairfax family, as the Carys, was a living remnant of European feudalism and English aristocracy. Fairfax family members generally held the reins of social and political power in Virginia.

Relationship with George Washington

George William's sister, Anne Fairfax, married Lawrence Washington soon after George William's marriage to Sally. Lawrence’s adolescent half-brother, George Washington, began visiting Belvoir frequently. Wishing to advance his brother’s fortunes, Lawrence introduced George to George William. A friendship grew between the two men, who were close in age. Yet a relationship also blossomed between Sally Fairfax and George Washington. Sally had been well-educated under the Colonel’s supervision, and as a young man with limited education and inexperienced in climbing the social ladder, Washington was impressed with this attractive, popular, and intelligent woman—arguably viewing her as the ideal of womanhood. She was a key inspiration for the future President to elevate himself to a higher social, cultural, and intellectual sphere, which is clear in the increasing level of refinement in his letters to her.

While serving in the Forbes campaign in September 1758, Washington wrote a particularly famous letter to Sally, telling her that “Tis true, I profess myself a Votary to Love…I feel the force of her amiable beauties in the recollection of a thousand tender passages that I wish to obliterate, till I am bid to revive them – but experience alas! Sadly reminds me how Impossible this is.” In another letter, he makes an allusion to the literary characters Juba, prince of Numidia, who loves Cato's daughter Marcia, in the play Cato, by Joseph Addison. This ambiguity makes the question of the relationship’s consummation frustrating to historians, and the answer is still unknown.

Despite any feelings he may have felt for Sally Fairfax, Washington married the wealthy Martha Dandridge Custis, perhaps to heighten his social status, but their marriage appears to have been strong. Sally and George William were, in fact, the most frequent visitors to Mount Vernon, implying that any inkling the spouses had of previous indiscretions (or flirtation) was politely ignored.

Later years

The happy foursome separated in 1773 when the Fairfaxes repaired to England to attend to family matters. Thereafter, George William’s fortunes were crushed. As a Loyalist, he had every intention of returning to America after the 1776 insurrection was over, but the success of the Revolution prevented either of them from ever returning. He died in 1787 and Sally then lived alone in Bath until her death in 1811.

There were signs of regret on Sally’s part in the end. She wrote to her sister-in-law in 1788: "I know now that the worthy man is to be preferred to the high-born who has not merit to recommend him…when we enquire into the family of these mighty men we find them the very lowest of people." Washington, too, confesses to Sally in a letter that she was the passion of his youth and told her that he had "never been able to eradicate from my mind those happy moments, the happiest in my life, which I have enjoyed in your company."