Captain Daniel McCarty

Captain Daniel McCarty (ca. 1725 - 1792) was a man invested in his 18th-century Fairfax, Virginia, community. McCarty was raised by his parents Dennis and Sarah (Ball) McCarty along with his two brothers and two sisters. Once Daniel turned 21, Dennis's will (1742) left Daniel the entire McCarty family estate, along with 7 enslaved individuals (George, Frederick, Nan, Lottie, Sarah, Phill, and Will). In 1748, Daniel married Sinah Ball, daughter of Major James Ball of Lancaster County, Virginia. Daniel and Sarah had five children: Sarah, Sinah, Anne, Daniel, and Mary. McCarty lived until 1792, and passed his property along to his children, primarily his son, Daniel.

The original McCarty family estate was located on present-day Fort Belvoir. Today, Fort Belvoir commemorates much of this land as the McCarty loop hiking trail, bordering Accotink Bay. 

In 1760, Captain Daniel McCarty owned a sizable amount of land (approximately 3,000 acres) compared to the rest of the Fairfax community, including 24 enslaved individuals; he was in the top 15 of land owners in the county, with even more land in the county than George Washington. The original McCarty lands were known as Cedar Grove, and sometimes confused with the adjacent Mount Air which was across Accotink Creek. The house at Cedar Grove was likely built by McCarty’s grandfather, Daniel, sometime after 1714 when the land was acquired by patent.  Also on the land was a tobacco warehouse established by the General Assembly in 1744 (originally authorized in 1732, but not built).

Daniel McCarty was an important figure in the history of Truro Parish and the Pohick Church. Daniel’s father, Dennis, served the church as a vestryman from 1732 to 1741, and on October 9, 1749, Daniel followed in his father’s footsteps. Vestrymen served as legal representatives of the parish, and they helped deal with the exchange of property and goods through the church. Found throughout the first Vestry Minutes book for Truro Parish (1732 - 1785), Daniel McCarty was involved in various ways with the church for 35 years (1749 - 1784). McCarty was the second-longest serving vestryman of anyone in Truro Parish, and in 1751 was appointed churchwarden for the first time (to serve as such in 1752); churchwardens were appointed from within the vestry to oversee the financial responsibilities of the church (like collecting tithes) and served one year terms. McCarty went on to serve the church as a churchwarden nine additional times, the most out of anyone in Truro Parish as found in the minutes from 1732-1785. Daniel McCarty’s long-lasting work for the Truro Parish solidified him as a prominent figure in the 18th-century Fairfax community.

Just as important as his role with the Truro Parish, Daniel McCarty was an original trustee in the formation of the town of Colchester on the Occoquan River. In 1753, the General Assembly authorized the establishment of a new town on the property of Peter Wagener. Five gentleman, including McCarty, were responsible for laying out the twenty-five acres into a lots available for sale, as well as land for a market place and public landing. An early business in Colchester was the a general store run by Alexander Henderson on behalf of the Glasgow firm of John Glassford & Company and McCarty opened an account at the store within months of its opening. His account can be found throughout all the surviving Colchester ledgers (1758-1769), as well as at the firm's store in Alexandria. Some years, McCarty made few purchases, likely sending for supplies directly from England. Other years, his purchases were extensive (1764) - fabrics, thread, buttons, ribbon, pins, and tape; powder and shot; gallons of rum, pounds of sugar, tea and canisters, pepper, ginger, nutmeg, indigo, alum, coffee, and molasses; hinges, tacks, nails, and locks; combs, hats, gloves, penknives, hose, and handkerchiefs. His accounts also show his connections to the community for the men and women who purchased against his account or made deposits to it: Henry Boggiss, Smith King, Abraham Barnes, Bryan Fairfax, Hector Ross, George Fling, Bennet Hill, James Ewil, William Gladden, Mrs Barnes, James Simons, Mrs Fairfax, Thomas Ewil, John Hough, Jacob Marshall, Thomas Marshall, George Johnston, William Veale, Richard Chicester, Thomas Bosley, William Weston, William Linton. Some of these men may have been tenants on McCarty's lands, friends (like the Fairfaxes), or individuals who used the store as a way to be paid or repay McCarty for goods and services. Members of McCarty's household purchased against his account as well: his son, daughter, wife, and an unnamed enslaved man made several purchases too.

Prior to his death, Daniel McCarty's son, Daniel, and his wife, Sally Mason McCarty, took up residence at Cedar Grove where they raised their family. The Cedar Grove family cemetery remains not far from where house stood - several of its headstones having been relocated to the churchyard of Pohick Church. In 1994, a secondary cemetery was identified that may have been the remains of a cemetery for the enslaved of Cedar Grove. The house survived until World War I when it was demolished as the army took over the area and created Camp Humphreys, later renamed Fort Belvoir.

The Truro Parish Colonial Vestry Book, Pohick Church. Accessed March 15th 2021. http://members.nova.org/~heintzer/pohick/vestrybook.html.

McCarty Family Cemetery at Cedar Grove (Removed), Fairfax Genealogical Society, Inc.. Accessed April 21st 2022. https://fxgs.org/cemeteryRecords.php?cid=179.

Unnamed Cemetery - Fort Belvoir, Fairfax Genealogical Society, Inc. Accessed April 21st 2022. https://fxgs.org/cemeteryRecords.php?lv=C&cid=189&sortCol=lna.

Daniel, Christopher. Mount Air: Former homestead tied to Fort Belvoir history, U.S. Army. February 1st 2010. Accessed March 15th 2021. https://www.army.mil/article/33827/mount_air_former_homestead_tied_to_fort_belvoir_history.

Henderson, et al, Alexander. Colchester Store Ledgers (Volumes A - J). John Glassford & Company. Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, 1758-1769.

Hening, William Walter. Laws of Virginia, September 1744, Hening's Statutes at Large. July 19th 2009. Accessed April 21st 2022. http://vagenweb.org/hening/vol05-13.htm#page_233.

Mitchell, Beth. Fairfax County, Virginia in 1760: An Interpretive Historical Map. Fairfax County, VA. Office of Comprehensive Planning, 1987.

Sprouse, Edith. Mount Air, Fairfax County, Virginia. Fairfax, Virginia. Fairfax County Office of Comprehensive Planning, 1970.