WASHINGTON'S NEIGHBORS

Meet the Fairfaxes
Learn more about Washington's consequential relationship with his neighbors and friends, the Fairfaxes.
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George Washington's first career was as a surveyor.
As a surveyor, Washington gained an intimate knowledge of Indian country and a small fortune in land.
Surveying represented a respectable profession in 18th-century America and held the promise of social and financial advancement. Over the course of 50 years, Washington completed numerous surveys, many documenting the settlement of the territory along Virginia's western frontier. Others laid out the boundaries and agricultural fields of his continually expanding Mount Vernon estate.
During Washington’s early teenage years, he completed many school exercises in penmanship, comportment, and mathematics. Some exercises, such as the Art of Surveying and Measuring Land, provided instruction for practice surveys and included samples taken directly from William Leybourn's The Compleat Surveyor of 1657. Washington must have considered Leybourn's volume an important reference since the inventory of his library included a later edition of it. The formal training Washington received in surveying was complemented by practical experience in the field.
Robert Paulett, Associate Professor of American History at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, explores 18th-century maps.