[48] _Landmarks of Old Prince William_, 273.
After Colvil had settled with William Fairfax, he still held 16,290 acres along Catoctin Creek, to say nothing of 1,500 acres on Difficult Run, his plantation on Great Hunting Creek known as Cleesh and other lands in the Northern Neck. Born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, he was closely related to the Earl of Tankerville, through the latter's mother being his first cousin--a matter in which he took some pride and which was to be of even more moment to the Earl; for when Colvil came to make his will in 1755, he left his plantation Cleesh, then containing about 1,000 acres, to his own brother, Thomas Colvil, for life with remainder over "to the Right Honourable the present Earl of Tankerville and his heirs forever" and also "in consideration of my relation and alliance to the said Earl of Tankerville son of my father's brother's daughter," he left to him outright his 16,000 acres of land on the Catoctin, his 1,500 acres on Difficult and his interest in a certain nearby copper mine.[49] Thenceforth these lands remained in the Earl's family until after the Revolution. Thus originated the Earl of Tankerville's title to certain Loudoun lands, reference to which occasionally yet is heard.
[49] The will is on record in Fairfax County.
About 1739 Josias Clapham, of an ancient family of Yorkshire (which long has been associated with the Fairfaxes there) bought land near the Point of Rocks and before his death owned much land in the Northern Neck. He died sometime prior to the 27th December, 1749, when his will, dated the 29th October, 1744, was proven in Fairfax County. In that will he left
"to my brother's son Josias Clapham two hundred fourty three Achres of four hundred joyning to Madm. Mason commonly called the Flat Spring to him and his heirs forever."
"I leave my hole real Estate and Parsonable Estate to my brothers son Josias Clapham and if he dont come in, it is my desire that his brother Joseph should have it."[50]
[50] _Landmarks_, 502; also Fairfax County Wills A1, 309 and B1, 26.
Nicholas Cresswell, the journalist, as we shall see in Chapter XI, states that the younger Josias lived in Wakefield in Yorkshire and was much in debt. He decided to "come in" by emigrating to Virginia and soon appeared on his lands in the upper country. He became a great leader in Loudoun affairs. Toward the end of his long life he, in 1796, deeded to his son Samuel the estate later known as Chestnut Hill and the latter, soon thereafter, built the beautiful mansion which became another of Loudoun's outstanding and stately family seats and which still stands, in all its old-time charm, not far from the Point of Rocks, in one of the most fertile and captivating regions of Loudoun. Through the marriage of Betsy Price, a granddaughter of Josias Clapham, to Thomas F. Mason of the Gunston Hall branch of that family (and therefore cousin to that Thomson Mason of Raspberry Plain who we are about to meet) the house and estate, until very recent years, continuously was occupied by these Mason descendants of Clapham.[51]