George Washington’s First Job: Land Surveyor

Alexandria History Tours
Oct 3
7 min read

George Washington’s First Job: Land Surveyor

Look at the four presidents on Mount Rushmore. They were all born at different times and different places. They dealt with different political issues and crises. Jefferson and Washington had diverging political points of view that manifested later in their lives when Washington was president. However, they all had one thing in common: Surveying. They were land surveyors or, in the case of Roosevelt, were involved in expeditions that involved surveying and exploration.

Parents, if you want your son or daughter to grow up to become President of the United States, perhaps shelling out six figures each year for college isn’t the clearest path. Historically, America’s great presidents were skilled surveyors. In fact, George Washington didn't go to college at all.

Despite a lack of formal higher education, Washington received a county surveyors commission from the College of William and Mary in 1749. However, Washington did not study at William and Mary. When he received his commission as a surveyor, there is no evidence that he went to Williamsburg to receive it in person. [1]

George Washington’s life was transformed by his work as a professional surveyor. He began the trade in 1748 when he was sixteen years old. Washington’s boss: Lord Fairfax, Sixth Baron of Cameron. Lord Fairfax was the owner of a vast tract of land in Virginia called the Northern Neck Proprietary. In total, Lord Fairfax claimed 5.2 million acres in Virginia! But who’s counting? Okay, it was actually 5,282,000 acres to be more precise. How did Fairfax come to own this vast quantity of land that was equivalent to 20% of Virginia’s land mass? Let’s just say that it is good to know people in high places. It is even better when those people stay loyal to King Charles II during the English Civil War. This was the case of Lord Fairfax’s maternal grandfather, John Colepeper, 1st Baron of Culpeper. [2]

Lord Fairfax was born in Leeds Castle in Kent, England in 1693. He moved to Virginia around 1735. He remained in the Old Dominion for the remainder of his life until his death on December 9, 1781. As Lord Fairfax made the move to Virginia in 1735, he also hired his cousin, William Fairfax, to act as his land agent. While the Fairfax’s were moving to Virginia in 1735, George Washington was three years old. George Washington’s father, Augustine Washington, had just built a simple home at Little Hunting Creek. He then uprooted his family from a small farmhouse on Popes Creek to the Little Hunting Creek property. [3]

Popes Creek, site of Washington's birthplace — Popes Creek: George Washington's Birthplace.

Eight years later, the Fairfax name and influence had grown in Virginia. By 1743, William Fairfax had moved to an adjacent property to the Washington home at Little Hunting Creek. The Fairfax’s had a plantation built on the Potomac River called Belvoir Manor. In 1743, Augustine Washington died. Upon his death, his son, Lawrence Washington (1718-1752) inherited the property at Little Hunting Creek. Lawrence was fresh from two years of service as a Captain in a Virginia Regiment that served under the flag of the British Empire during the War of Jenkins Ear. Lawrence’s commanding officer was Admiral Edward Vernon, whom he admired to the point of naming the Little Hunting Creek property in his honor. Thus, the property that would become the pride and joy of America’s first president became known as “Mount Vernon.” [4]

Lawrence Washington’s ownership of Mount Vernon meant that he was neighbors with William Fairfax, who was known as Colonel William Fairfax, which was an honorary title that spoke to his seniority as a leading citizen of Fairfax County. Colonel Fairfax served in the House of Burgesses (1742-1744) and then was a member of the Governor’s Council (1744-1757), which meant that he had significant influence in shaping government policy in the colony of Virginia. Lawrence Washington met and married his Colonel William Fairfax's daughter, Anne Fairfax, in the same year that he inherited Mount Vernon.

Lawrence’s marriage to Anne brought young George into the orbit of Virginia’s upper gentry. George Washington’s father, Augustine, died when he was eleven. Over the next 14 years, Colonel William Fairfax was a father figure to George Washington. When Colonel Fairfax died in 1757, George lost a patron and benefactor.

George Washington’s connections to the Fairfax family of Belvoir shaped the entire course of his life. In 1748, when George was sixteen, he began his first survey under the employment of Colonel William Fairfax. In fact, he undertook the survey with his boss’s son, George William Fairfax, who became George’s good friend.

George Washington's 1748 Survey Map (Image Source: Library of Congress)

During the year in which Washington did his first survey for the Fairfax family, his brother, Lawrence, and Colonel Fairfax, petitioned the Virginia House of Burgesses to create a town north of Great Hunting Creek at the site of several tobacco warehouses. One warehouse became known as “Hunting Creek Warehouse” and was described by the Virginia General Assembly by that name when the town was formally voted into existence on May 11, 1749. The town became known as Alexandria in honor of the Alexander family, who owned 6,000 acres out of which 60 acres were authorized for the establishment of the new town. [5]

George Washington drew two survey maps of Alexandria. Washington drew the first survey map in 1748 when he was sixteen. He drew the second survey map in 1749 when he was seventeen. The second is arguably the more famous of the two as it depicts in clear detail the lots that were sold beginning at an auction on July 13, 1749, which is Alexandria’s birthday. George Washington’s brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, Jr., purchased lots in the early auction. It is believed that George Washington copied the survey map from the lead surveyor, John West, Jr., and that the map was for the benefit of Lawrence, who could not attend the auction in person. [6]

George Washington's 1749 Survey Map of Alexandria (Source: Library of Congress)

One week after the auction in Alexandria, George Washington appeared at the Culpeper County Courthouse and received his commission as surveyor of the county on July 20, 1749. It was rare for a seventeen-year-old to be a county surveyor. However, Colonel Fairfax was firmly backing young Washington and saw to it that his young protégé was established in the trade. Furthermore, Washington’s work as an assistant surveyor to Alexandria helped him get more work as a surveyor beyond Culpeper. In fact, Washington benefited from the fact that Lord Fairfax allowed him to survey lands far beyond Culpeper. This enabled Washington to take on multiple surveying projects for different clients. Between July 22, 1749, and October 25, 1752, Washington completed 190 surveys. [7]

Even though the Northern Neck of Virginia is the peninsula between the Potomac River and Rappahannock River in the Virginia Tidewater, much of Washington’s land surveys were in the Piedmont region of Virginia as well as the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley. Washington had a lot of experience on the frontier of Virginia in Frederick County in part of what is now West Virginia. Most of his survey assignments came directly from his boss, Colonel Fairfax, at Belvoir. Washington earned over £400 between 1749 and 1752. This was an impressive sum of money for a young man in his late teens. Surveying was a respectable field and Washington earned a salary that was higher than other trades and even most planters. Moreover, as a surveyor, Washington was able to acquire his own land grants. In his late teens, he acquired 2,315 acres of land through purchase and grants. [8]

The Great Falls. Washington surveyed land around the Potomac River and saw the Potomac as the gateway to the western part of the United States.

George Washington stopped surveying professionally in 1752. However, he would survey throughout his life in a personal capacity. This included western land that was promised as part of his service during the French and Indian War and land that he would acquire as part of Mount Vernon as well as his Mount Vernon property that he inherited in 1761.

The end of Washington’s formal career concluded after his brother Lawrence died from Tuberculosis. Lawrence succumbed to the effects of the illness in July 1752. After Lawrence died, Washington sought to replace Lawrence as Adjutant General of the Northern Neck, which was one of four military districts in Virginia. Washington was appointed Adjutant General, but it was for the southern district of Virginia. With the appointment, Washington was paid an annual salary of £100 which was comparable to an annual surveyor’s salary. [9]

Washington, the military officer — George Washington in his blue and buff uniform. (Source: Mount Vernon)

In 1753, Washington began his military career with his first deployment to the Ohio Country on a mission that was both a diplomatic and intelligence gathering assignment. Washington’s five years as a professional surveyor prepared him for the mission. As a surveyor, he knew and understood how to read terrain. He gained experience in the field, enduring hardship on the frontier. Furthermore, he had early interactions with Indian tribes on the frontier. All these qualities made him highly qualified to assume his commission as Major in the Virginia militia.

Finally, Colonel William Fairfax was highly influential in the selection of Washington as Major. Since he served on the Governor’s Council, he would have talked directly to Virginia’s Governor Robert Dinwiddie about George Washington’s skills and abilities.

Thus, the first part of Washington’s career as a surveyor ended. However, the second part of Washington’s professional life as a military officer was beginning with the coming hostilities between France and Great Britain. The next phase of Washington’s life and his military service would be equally formative. But he could not have arrived there without his work as a land surveyor and connections to the Fairfax family.