Newsletter

Message from the President General

Dear Family,

Thank you for expressing interest in the Spotswood Family Descendants society.

First, our goal of our lineage society is to gather, document, and record the Spotswood/Spottiswoode ancestry reaching back to the Reverend John Spottiswoode, Sr., [1510 to 1585] of Scotland. John was the Superintendent [head] of the Scottish Church and lived in Midlothian, Scotland, south of Edinburgh, where he produced two sons: Archbishop John Spottiswoode of Scotland [1565 to 1639] and Bishop James Spottiswoode [1567 to 1644] of Ireland. Both sons served the established churches in Scotland and Ireland under James I and Charles I of England, until the English Civil War of the mid-1600s.

The Lord Lyon of Scotland during the 17th century recognized the Rev. John Spottiswoode, Sr., as the legitimate heir of the Spottiswoode name and entitled to the Barony of Spottiswoode, located twenty miles south of Edinburgh. At their death, both John's sons were buried by order of King Charles I near the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Second, our goal as a lineage society is to eventually publish the many ancestral Spotswood/Spottiswoode lines from which descend many famous Americans: Robert E. Lee; a Revolutionary War General, Alexander Spotswood [1751-1818] and his wife, Elizabeth Washington, niece of George Washington; etc.

Third, we seek to identify descendants from other Scottish/Irish/English descendants of Spottiswoode who came to America later, or earlier, than did Governor Spotswood of Virginia in 1710.

Fourth, our society will travel to England, Scotland and Ireland where we will explore actual sites and areas important to the Spotswood ancestry. These sites include: the family's restored Dairsey Castle and chapel near St. Andrew's, Scotland; Spottiswoode, site of the ancient Spottiswoode Barony; Lamberth Palace in London, residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury where both Bishop James and Archbishop John Spottiswoode died in the 1640s; Westminster Abbey and the Spotswood tombs; the Diocese of Southwest Ulster, taking most of Fermanagh and Monaghan and parts of Cavan, Leitrim, Ennsiklillen, and Donegal, where James Spottiswoode was bishop in the 17th century; and many other sites of interest to our family.

You do not have to attend the reunions or go to Europe with your Spotswood cousins in order to join the Spotswood Family Descendants society and explore its roots.

To be considered a Member of this society, you must complete your Application with appropriate documentation and have it approved . To expedite your application, there is a list of Qualified Ancestors to which you can attach, and whose documented ancestry is accepted as proven.

I hope you will read this Spotswood News, complete an Application, and return two signed copies as soon as possible. We will send you a Certificate of Membership suitable for framing, and more information on the Virginia Heritage Weekend of the Spotswood Family Descendants.

More information on the family’s American Heritage Weekend will follow.

Warmest Regards,

Michael D. Frost, PhD
President General

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Salubria is located some seven miles east of the town of Culpeper and is thought to be the oldest brick house in Culpeper County. It was constructed in formal Georgian style at a time when Culpeper County was still close to the frontier. Although the precise date of construction is not certain, Salubria was built in the mid-1740's by the Reverend John Thompson, whose first wife was the widow of Lt. Governor Alexander Spotswood.

Salubria's exterior is distinguished by unusually tall, corbel capped chimneys, enclosed at each end of a hip roof. The house has identical front and rear facades and is built of brick laid in Flemish bond. Three sides of the house are stuccoed in a manner simulating rustication, though for some reason the east end never received this treatment.

The interior of the house follows the familiar center hall plan on all three levels with two rooms on each side of a very wide hallway. All the first and second floor rooms have corner fireplaces. One room in the basement has a large fireplace and probably served as the original kitchen.

The location of early outbuildings is not known, except for an icehouse off the southwest corner that was still visible in the 1950's. A 19th century frame kitchen wing on the east end of the main house was removed about 1950 when basic repairs were made to keep the house structurally sound. Covered porches, which were not original and had deteriorated, were replaced by simple wooden steps.

Outside the house, at the foot of the south steps, is a curious geometric design made by bricks and small stones. The large oval box bushes on this side were set out in the 1950's; the terraces beyond, date from the early period of the house.

The Reverend John Thompson was the rector of St. Mark's Parish from 1740 until his death in 1772. In November 1742, he married Lady Spotswood who lived at Germanna, seven miles east on the Rapidan River. She died about 1758, and a few years later the Reverend Thompson married Elizabeth Rootes. When the minister died in October 1772, he left Salubria to his wife and at her death to their son, Phillip Rootes Thompson.

In 1792, the property was sold to Mordecai Barbour. Ten years later, the Barbour family sold to James Hansbrough. A small Hansbrough family graveyard lies on a wooded knoll about 100 yards northeast of the house. James Hansbrough is said to have given Salubria its name, which comes from the Latin adjective meaning healthful.

In 1853, Salubria was acquired from John Calhoun Hansbrough by Robert 0. Grayson. His mother, Sarah Mason Cooke Grayson, gave surety for the purchase. She was the granddaughter of George Mason of Gunston Hall. The property in 1865 was divided between Robert 0. Grayson and his brother, Dr. John Cooke Grayson, who was living in the house after the Civil War. His son, Admiral Cary T. Grayson, who was Presidential Physician to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, as well as both Presidential and personal physician to President Woodrow Wilson, was born at Salubria in 1878. He later headed the American Red Cross. His parents and infant sister are buried at the end of the garden terrace directly south of the house.

After the death of Nellie Pettus Grayson, John Cooke Grayson remarried to a Mrs. Walton, a widow who was born a Taliaferro. When the second Mrs. Grayson died in 1893, rather than leave the estate to the children of Dr. Grayson, she left it to her nieces Miss Alice Taliaferro, and Miss Nannie Taliaferro Fry. Alice died in 1933, and Nannie died in 1937.

The house was then inherited by Miss Maria Julia Grayson, of Charlottesville, a niece of Admiral Grayson, who sold it in 1942 to Mr. George L. Harrison, of Washington D.C. who purchased it for his stepsons, the sons of Admiral Grayson, whose widow he had married. Beginning in 1950, the renowned architect, Washington Reed of Warrenton, Virginia, began extensive stabilization of the house. At the same time Reed was stabilizing the White House for President Harry S. Truman. Reed removed all of the modern additions to the house as well as the outbuildings, returning the house to its original 1742 design.

In October 2000, Laura N. Grayson, widow of J. Gordon Grayson, son of Admiral Cary T. Grayson, donated Salubria to the Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies in Virginia, Inc.