The brick house known as Salona stands solidly on a portion of the original grant known as "Langley," a tract named by Thomas Lee for ancestral Lee lands in Shropshire, England.

Thomas Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1690, the fifth son of Richard Lee, II, a member of the King's Council and Naval Officer and Receiver of Customs for the Potomac. When Richard died in 1714, young Thomas succeeded his father as Naval Officer for the Potomac. Three years earlier, in 1711, he had been appointed resident agent along with his uncle, Edmund Jenings, for Lady Catherine Fairfax. She was proprietor of the Northern Neck grant of over 5,000,000 acres of land originally made by Charles II in exile to seven loyal followers, in 1649. She had become dissatisfied with the management of her agents Micajah Perry and Robert Carter. While his uncle was in England, Thomas Lee kept the books for the proprietary and visited most of the farflung Fairfax property. After his uncle returned to Virginia and took over the books, Lee used the knowledge gained from his work with the Fairfax estate to acquire grants of his own, among them, in 1719, the Langley tract of 2,862 acres on the Potomac River between Great Falls and Little Falls. Because of the strategic location of this tract, he hoped to benefit from the economic development of the western lands. While he never realized this dream, he did become president of the King's Council and, in 1749, acting governor of the Colony. [1]

After Thomas Lee's death in 1750, the Langley property went to his eldest son, Philip Ludwell Lee, who also was a member of the King's Council. A Royalist by preference he did not share the revolutionary enthusiasms of his younger brothers, Richard Henry Lee, and Francis Lightfoot Lee, signers of the Declaration of Independence. Moreover, Philip Ludwell Lee, as administrator of his father's estate, was responsible for paying their legacies to the younger children. These legacies were never paid in full, an omission which further widened the gap between him and his siblings. [2] In the tradition of his father who had envisioned development of the upper Potomac, Philip Ludwell Lee established the Town of Philee on 100 acres at the Little Falls of the Potomac. Although he actually built warehouses there, the town was doomed to failure. [3]

Philip Ludwell Lee died in 1775, and the Langley tract was divided between his two daughters: Matilda, who married Henry (Light Horse Harry) Lee, and Flora, who married Ludwell Lee of Belmont in Loudoun County. Matilda inherited the portion on which Salona was built. If any buildings existed on the tract at that time, it seems probable that Matilda, as the elder daughter, would have been given the section on which they were located. [4]

By an ironic twist of fate, in 1782, Matilda Lee, daughter of die-hard Royalist Philip Ludwell Lee, married Henry Lee, a dashing young officer in the American forces, whose brilliant military exploits at Brandywine, Monmouth, and Paulus Hook (now Jersey City) won him the esteem of General George Washington, the soubriquet of "Light Horse Harry," and, in 1780, promotion to the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

"Harry" Lee was the son of Henry Lee of Leesylvania, in Prince William County, and Lucy Grymes Lee. His father was a member of the House of Burgesses for many years and when the war with England began, was in charge of recruiting and equipping troops for Washington's army. After serving as a delegate to the Continental Congress of 1785-88 and the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1788, he was elected to the Virginia Legislature where he served until 1791. His wife, Matilda, died in 1790, leaving him a son, Henry. Matilda left the Langley tract to her son, with a life interest to her husband. [5]

Thomas Lee's 1719 grant, adjoining Turberville, showing the future 208-acre Smoot property at Salona.

To assuage his grief, Harry Lee plunged deeper into politics and in 1791 was elected Governor of Virginia. Two years later he married again, this time to Anne Hill Carter of Shirley. One of their sons was Robert E. Lee, later commander-in-chief of the Armies of the Confederacy. After a two-year term in Congress, Harry Lee's star began to wane. His attempt to establish a town, Matildaville, at the Great Falls of the Potomac, had failed, and his other land speculations had gone sour. Eventually he spent two years in debtor's prison in Westmoreland County, where he had once sat as a justice. In 1810, he moved his family to Alexandria, and in 1812, was given a permanent commission as a major-general in the United States Army, but his failing health made it impossible for him to take part in the war against England. He spent his last days in the West Indies, in a vain attempt to recover his health. He died in 1818. [6]

Harry's brother, Richard Bland Lee, did all he could to keep economic ruin from devastating the former war hero, but managed only to get himself deeper in debt. In 1808, during the period of financial disaster, Harry Lee and his son sold the Langley tract to Richard Bland Lee for $25,000. William Maffitt was a witness. [7]

No records or correspondence have yet appeared to indicate that any of the Lees built a dwelling on the Langley tract. Thomas Lee had the money, but architectural historians do not believe the house was constructed during his lifetime. Philip Ludwell Lee could have built on the tract, especially because of his town, Philee, on the Potomac, but again the house does not appear to be old enough to have been built during his lifetime.

Light Horse Harry Lee might have built the house when he was involved with the development of Matildaville; estimated dates for the construction range from 1790 to 1810. But after 1803 both Harry Lee and his brother Richard Bland Lee were facing financial difficulties and probably would not have built a large brick house on the Langley tract at that time.

During Richard Bland Lee's ownership of Langley, the land was rented to tenants. [8] A Lee descendant wrote in 1969 that "no Lee ever resided at 'Langley.' During the Lee tenure, 1719-1839, the place was always rented out." [9] So far, no listing of these tenants has been discovered. The only person mentioned as a tenant is J. C. Scott. [10] Scott has not been satisfactorily identified, although he may have been John Caile Scott, grandson of Alexander Scott, owner of Strawberry Vale. [11] He could have leased a portion of Langley and even built a house on the property. That this was customary in those days is shown by the terms of a lease agreement between Richard Bland Lee and Henson Lewis, which reveals that Lewis leased 130 acres of Lee's Cub Run tract on which he consented to pay taxes, plant and maintain an apple orchard, and construct a brick or stone framed dwelling at least 16 feet square and a brick or stone framed barn. This lease clearly indicates that a tenant on the Langley tract might have built Salona under the terms of a similar contract. [12]

Advertisement for Salona, Alexandria Gazette, November 18, 1811.

A bible entry cited by Melvin Steadman in his book on Falls Church reports that Thomas Sandford Wren "was born at Salona" on May 19, 1808, to Richard and Susannah (Adams) Wren. [13] According to Steadman, Thomas Wren is buried in the El Nido Cemetery, but all of the tombstones, with one exception, have been destroyed. [14] Because the name "Salona" appears on a legal document for the first time in 1823, the reported entry seems still more curious. It is possible that Salona may have been built or at least designed by one of the Wren family. Susannah Adams Wren, Richard's wife, was a descendant of the Adams family which had a mill adjacent to the Salona tract, another tie to the area.[15]

Fairfax County tax records provide no clue to a possible date of construction. In 1790, the Langley tract was carried on the rolls as the property of the Ludwell Lee heirs and was so listed for more than 20 years. Only two significant changes appeared: one in 1792 when more than 500 acres were sold, and again in 1811 after the sale of a 466-acre tract to Herbert. When William Maffitt first appeared on the tax rolls as a landowner in 1813, the 466-acre tract was assessed at $880 and his smaller tract at $79.[16]

William Herbert, who took over the 466 acres in payment of judgments against Richard Bland Lee, had no apparent intention of living on the property or of keeping it. A house must have existed on the property when he bought it because when he advertised the property for sale in the Alexandria Gazette in November 1811, the copy mentioned "a comfortable dwelling house, and out houses, a young thriving orchard of the choicest fruit, a good garden paled in, and a spring of fine water that has never been known to fail in the driest season, near the house." There is no indication that the acreage was under cultivation at that time.[17]

On March 10, 1812, the Reverend William Maffitt bought the 466-acre tract from William Herbert. It was probably Maffitt who named the estate "Salona."