Lt.-Col. William Fitzhugh (1651-1701)
Q.C., of "Bedford" Stafford County, Virginia
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 promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 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, he married Sarah, daughter of Captain John Tucker, and they had six surviving adult children (listed).
