Francis Fauquier served as the lieutenant governor and acting governor of the Virginia colony from 1758 until his death in 1768. During his tenure, he managed economic consequences of the Seven Years’ War and mounting political tensions between colonists and Britain. In this role, Fauquier corresponded with George Washington, a colonel in the Virginia militia at the time. Born of elite status in London, Fauquier later championed education in Virginia and pursued scientific inquiry.
Early Life
Fauquier was born in London, England, to Dr. Jean-François Fauquier and Elizabeth Chamberlayne Fauquier. His father was an immigrant to England and a French Huguenot. He served as Director of the Bank of England (under Sir Isaac Newton). Fauquier’s education was typical of the gentry: Latin, literature, music, and the natural sciences. He had four siblings, three of whom lived to adulthood.
In 1726 Fauquier’s father died, bequeathing Francis £25,000 in stock, worth more than five million dollars today. Francis Fauquier sold these shares sometime during 1729-1730, and, within this same period, married Catherine Dalton. The couple had two sons.
Fauquier held leadership positions in the South Sea Company and the Foundling Hospital of London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London (1753) and, owing to his interests in science and art, became a corresponding member of the Royal Society of the Arts (1758).
As Lieutenant Governor and Acting Governor of the Virginia Colony
In 1756 Fauquier authored an Essay on Ways and Means for Raising Money for the Support of the Present War, without Increasing the Public Debt, proposing alternative suggestions to those of Parliament for taxing the Seven Years’ War. Although his ideas were not adopted, this essay and important friends earned Fauquier a lieutenant governor assignment in Virginia as Robert Dinwiddie was retiring.
Fauquier arrived to Virginia on June 5, 1758, to find that the colony ravaged by the Seven Years’ War and economic hardship as a result. Fauquier became the acting governor in place of absentee Royal Governor John Campbell. After a bad tobacco harvest, Fauquier controversially implemented the printing of paper money or treasury notes with the second Two Penny Act (the first of which was in 1755) to help pull Virginia. The Two Penny Act allowed taxes and public salaries to be paid at a rate of two pence per pound of tobacco instead of tobacco, which was more desirable to be paid in. Neither course of action was well-received by colonists.
The colony faced more conflict with the Cherokee nation on the frontier in 1759, and Fauquier assisted in brokering peace in 1761 as the colony struggled to maintain enlistments in the military to fight these conflicts. The 1763 Treaty of Paris formally ended the Seven Years’ War, but peace did not follow.
As political tensions rose, Fauquier was divided between loyalty to his king and responsibility to his Virginia constituency. Although Fauquier strived to foster a relationship with the Virginia elite, he supported the Proclamation of 1763. Small farmers already encroaching on lands past the designated barrier to settlement and elite land speculators alike disapproved of the measure. The Stamp Act of 1765 only furthered colonists’ disdain against the crown. Fauquier prevented resolutions by the House of Burgesses condemning the act authored by Patrick Henry from being printed in the Virginia Gazette.
While facing political scrutiny, Fauquier managed to remain popular. Fauquier championed education, befriending such notables as Virginia lawyer George Wythe and Professor Dr. William Small of the College of William and Mary. Along with Thomas Jefferson, then a student at the college, these four formed what Jefferson called "a partie quarrée,” gathering in the Williamsburg Governor’s Palace where Fauquier resided to exchange ideas and play music.
Relationship with George Washington
George Washington’s relationship with Fauquier was forged through extensive correspondence. Writing from Fort Loudoun, Virginia, on June 17, 1758, Colonel George Washington honored Francis Fauquier with best wishes for a successful tenure as the new lieutenant governor of the Colony of Virginia.1 In 1758, Washington was a colonel defending the Virginia frontier during wartime. His letters to the newly-installed lieutenant governor focus on the conditions his soldiers faced, issues that Fauquier could not always resolve but seemed willing to acknowledge and address.2 Washington wrote, “I endeavourd to make Mr President Blair and the Council, sensible of the great want of Cloaths for the first Regiment; and how necessary it is to send to England for a Supply. they declind doing any thing in the case at that time, because the Funds granted by the late act of Assembly were almost exhausted—But I hope it will not escape your Honrs notice if an Assembly shoud be calld.”3 Washington used Fauquier’s recent appointment as an opportunity to get supplies and funding allocated to his regiment.
Death
In 1767 Fauquier was unwell and incapable of working. He died on March 3, 1768, and was interred underneath American Marble, near the Royal Governors’ Pew, in the North Wing of Bruton Parish Church in Williamsburg. His will issued provisions for those he enslaved.4 Although he disapproved of slavery, he did not manumit anyone that he enslaved in his will. Instead, he directed that the twelve adult men that he enslaved could choose new enslavers, and that the adult women that he enslaved would not be separated from their children.
Fauquier’s fascination with the sciences outlived him. His will sought an autopsy of his body in case his doctors could not diagnose his cause of death. Fauquier’s 1758 writings on hailstones (in which he mentions using hailstones to freeze wine and ice cream) were recounted, posthumously, by his brother William, before the Royal Society.5
Cynthia Lynn Miller, Revised by Zoie Horecny, Ph.D. 30 June 2025
Notes:
1. “ George Washington to Francis Fauquier, 17 June 1758,” Founders Online, National Archives.
2. “Francis Fauquier to George Washington, June 25, 1758,” George Washington Papers, Series 4, General Correspondence, 1697-1799. Library of Congress: Call Number/Physical Location. MSS 44693: Reel 031.
3. “ George Washington to Francis Fauquier, 17 June 1758,” Founders Online, National Archives.
4. College of William and Mary. “Francis Fauquier’s Will.” The William and Mary. Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. 8, No. 3 (Jan., 1900), pp. 171-177.
5. Fauquier, Francis, and William Fauquier. “An Account of an Extraordinary Storm of Hail in Virginia. By Francis Fauquier, Esq; Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, and F. R. S. Communicated by William Fauquier, Esq; F. R. S.” Philosophical Transactions. 1757-1758, 50, 746-747, published 1 January 1757.
Bibliography:
Miller, Cynthia L., M.B.A. "William Small and the Making of Thomas Jefferson's Mind." Colonial Williamsburg (Autumn 2000): 30-33.
George Reese, George. "Portraits of Governor Francis Fauquier," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 76 (1968): 3–10
Wollaston, G. Woods. "The Family of Fauquier," Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of London 13 (1927): 340–348
Wanless, Mike. “Francis Fauquier.” Bruton Parish Church. Williamsburg, Virginia. August 30, 2017.
