General Thomas Posey: Son of the American Revolution

1. “… born of respectable parentage….” (1750-1774)

" CHAPTER ONE (1750-1774) born of respectable parenta1le. He was born of respectable parentage near the Potomack in Virginia in the year 1750 9th of July. In the year 1769 being a young man without fortune, but of tolerable english education he set out in quest of a situation in life that would better his fortune, and settled in the back parts of Virginia near the frontiers....' " When Indiana territorial governor Thomas Posey sat down at his desk near the end of his life to compose a detailed autobiographical sketch he chose, for whatever reasons, to devote only eighteen words to his birth, parentage, and his first nineteen years of life. Nowhere in his many surviving letters and other writings is any reference made to the existence or identity of his forebears, parents , brothers or sisters, nor to the circumstances and conditions of his childhood or youthful upbringing. No known birth, marriage, church, death or burial records provide any clue to this missing data, and his name never appears in the contemporary writings or official records of this early period of his life. The very totality of this void has itself become the basis of much speculation and conjecture . In short, his origin and family background constitute the least-known aspects of Posey's long and otherwise well-documented life. The great weight of scholarly authority holds that Thomas was a member of the household of one Captain John Posey, a colorful if General Thomas Posey: Son of the American Revolution somewhat irresponsible neighbor of George Washington. Captain Posey's home, called "Rover's Delight," was sited on land overlooking the Potomac River, directly adjacent to Washington's Mount Vernon estate in Fairfax County, Virginia. The capricious captain's twenty-five-year social and financial relationship with George Washington has exposed him and his family to unusually-close scrutiny by generations of historians, researchers and biographers of his more renowned neighbor and friend. The considered judgment of many highly respected scholars-among them Dr. J. M. Toner, John C. Fitzpatrick, Rupert Hughes, Nathaniel Wright Stephenson and Waldo Hilary Dunn, Charles W. Stetson, Elswyth Thane, and James Thomas Flexner-places young Thomas within the troubled Posey family circle at Rover's Delight for the first nineteen years of his life.2 Since, however, no authority has ever cited any documented evidence to support this view, it must still be considered a presumptive, if probable, hypothesis. An objective examination of what is actually known of Thomas Posey discloses many similarities to George Washington in character , personality and temperament. Perhaps it was these shared qualities that led these scholars and other observers to conclude that the young man's formative years were indeed spent in near proximity to Mount Vernon, where he would have been exposed almost daily to the outstanding example and benign influence of its high-principled squire. In Posey's mature years, the many interactions between the two men arguably support, and certainly do nothing to contradict, the presumption of a close early relationship. Furthermore, there is no known record of any other Posey family, fitting Thomas' autobiographical time and place specifics, from which he could have sprung. Accordingly, the consensus of the cited authorities that Rover's Delight was the household in which Thomas Posey was nurtured and grew to manhood, though admittedly conjectural, is too unanimous and credible to be seriously challenged. Infinitely more speculative, however, are stories which began to circulate more than a half-century after his death claiming that Posey had really been George Washington's son. These reports were based not only on the known contiguity of the Washington and Posey families in Fairfax County but also on real or perceived similarities in their physical appearance, personal attributes, characters , and achievements. Such startling assertions were unfailingly advanced with fanciful but plausible scenarios, usually supported by totally circumstantial evidence. This basic premise appears to have originated in the Midwest and later became imbedded in the 6 1750-1774 oral tradition or folklore of many of the states where Posey held high public offices in his later career. Such rumors spread throughout the nation and persisted for many decades in newspaper feature articles as well as in the biographical sketches of reputable publications . They were seriously discussed in at least three leading biographies ofWashington.3 The sources, substance and evaluation of these widespread accounts of a paternal relationship between George Washington and Thomas Posey...