U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: ------------------------------------------------------------------- Colston, Rawleigh (d. 1823) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Aler's History of Martinsburg and Berkeley County, West Virginia by F. Vernon Aler, 1888 Printed for the Author by The Mail Publishing Company, Hagerstown, MD. CHAPTER VIII. Historical Pen Sketches of the Early Residents of Berkeley County by the late Hon. Chas. James Faulkner. Pages 90-91, RAWLEIGH COLSTON Was born in England; married Elizabeth Marshall, sister of Chief Justice John Marshall; purchased a large estate upon the Potomac River in the County of Berkeley, upon which he erected a handsome mansion. He, in conjunction with his brother-in-laws, John and James Marshall, purchased from the devisees of Thomas Lord Fairfax, all their proprietary rights in the Northern Neck of Virginia. Lord Fairfax being an alien at the period of our revolution, and the State of Virginia treating him as such, and alien creditors and landlords having acquired rights under the treaty of peace of 1783, and Jay's treaty of 1764, much perplexity and difficulty existed in this and other counties embraced in the Northern Neck as to their land titles. These difficulties were adjuted by a compromise between those purchasers and the Commonwealth of Virginia, made on the 10th of December, 1796, by which the State confirmed the title of all persons claiming under Fairfax to the lands which had been specifically appropriated or reserved by Lord Fairfax or his ancestors for his or their use; the purchasers relinquishing their title to all the waste and unappropriated lands in the Northern Neck. Under this compromise, patents were issued without controversy for all lands not then covered by patents from Lord Fairfax. Mr. Colston was a man of literary tastes, and of large commercial information, and took an active interest in the cause of religion. On the 13th of June, 1814, he was elected president of a Bible Society then organized in the County of Berkeley, and his address to the public in support of that cause, published in the Martinsburg Gazette, of that period, is a document marked by literary ability and deep Christian feeling. He died in 1823, and was buried at Honeywood, his county seat, in this county. He left a large family of sons and daughters, among whom were Edward Colston, a representative in Congress from this district; Mary, a lady of extraordinary beauty and accomplishments, married to John Hanson Thomas, of Maryland, a lawyer of great genius and promise, who died in early life, and Susan, married to Benjamin Watkins Leigh, one of Virginia's distinguished sons. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other biographies for Berkeley County, WV by going to the following URL: http://www.us-data.org/wv/berkeley/bios.html -------------------------------------------------------------------