The Property

Historic Bel Air has 25 acres of open fields, gardens, and wooded areas. The property is a private, full time home for a family of four, plus two dogs, and a barn cat or two. If you would like to view the property as a possible wedding location please contact Maria via email or phone at 703-283-3029.

History

Bel Air is pre-Georgian brick house on a raised stone basement and was built by Captain Charles Ewell in 1740 as the family seat and tobacco plantation. Charles married his step-father’s daughter, Sarah Ball, first cousin of Mary Ball Washington, George Washington’s mother.

Charles and Sarah’s daughter, Mariamne, married physician James Craik at Bel Air in 1760. James Craik was George Washington’s personal physician and one of the three physicians who was with him at his death on Dec. 14th, 1799.

Charles Ewell died in 1747, Sarah died shortly after leaving their three children as orphans. Their oldest son, Jesse, inherited Bel Air and enrolled in the college of William and Mary in 1760, where he befriends fellow student, Thomas Jefferson. Jesse and Thomas remain friends for life and Thomas visited Bel Air several times. In 1767 Jesse married his cousin (common at the time), Charlotte Ewell and had 18 children. Jesse died at Bel Air in 1805.

The American Revolution war leaves many in the young country broke, including the Ewell’s. After Jesse’s death Charlotte borrows money from her son-in-law, Mason Locke “Parson” Weems, who married her daughter Fanny Ewell at Bel Air in 1795. Weems is the author of The Life of Washington, published the year after Washington’s death and is a bestseller for years. Weems moved into Bel Air in 1806. His home in Dumfries is sold to Benjamin Botts. It is now the Weems-Botts Museum. Charlotte Ewell died in 1823. Bel Air was sold to Weems at public auction in 1824 for $2212. He and Fanny are buried in the cemetery at Bel Air.

The rest of the century wasn’t kind to Bel Air. It was passed between several owners not related to each other. Dumfries declined as a port town and Bel Air became isolated. Bel Air was in the Ewell family for 85 years.

Bel Air was occupied by Union troops during the war between the states. In 1885, George Carr Round, an attorney in Manassas began a costly restoration of Bel Air. The following decades were depressing for the plantation with long periods of abandonment.

In 1948 the Florys purchased Bel Air as a weekend home. They began a historically accurate 30-year restoration in 1949. In 1970 Bel Air was added to the National Registry of Historic Places.

In 2012 Historic Bel Air was purchased by its current owners. They share the house and property with friends, family, and others who are interested by hosting several gatherings, parties, and historical presentations throughout the year.

An 1843 Wedding at Bel Air

Marine Lt. Robert Tansill and Frances “Fannie” Ann Weems were married at Bel Air in 1843. Robert was 34 years old at the time and his bride, the “beautiful Fannie Weems” was just 18 years old. Fannie was the granddaughter of Mason Locke “Parson“ Weems, the first biographer of George Washington. Parson Weems lived at Bel Air between 1805 and his death in 1825. He is buried in the cemetery at Bel Air. His wife was buried by his side, 18 years later.

Fannie and Robert had one son, Robert Weems Tansill on Aug. 20th 1844. Fannie Weems died in 1846, just three years after marriage at age 21 in the typhoid epidemic while Robert was fighting in Florida.

Robert Tansill remarried in 1849, to Anna Lucinda Bender, they had two sons, one in 1856 and 1860. Anna died in 1886 and was buried in Washington D.C.

Despite dying 44 years apart and Robert remarrying and having children with another woman, Robert and Fannie are buried next to each other in the Tansill Family cemetery, 2.4 miles south east of Bel Air.

Robert Weems Tansill, son of Fannie and Robert grew up to be a successful businessman selling cigars and is credited for inventing the cigar band. In the 1870s his “Tansill’s Punch” are well known. In 1888 he relocated to New Mexico for health reasons due to weak lungs and was a major fundraiser for the Pecos River Irrigation project that led to the development of Eddy County, NM. In 1902 he died of heart failure as a millionaire and is buried near Chicago, IL.

Historic Bel Air, Woodbridge, Virginia