The history of Innisfail is about more than a stone house on a hill, it is a story of people and their lives entwined with the land, gardens, and numerous buildings which have risen and fallen over the 300+ years of its recorded history. Willoughby Ions who grew up there in the late 1800's may have said it best:
There is a gracious charm about old places;
The gnarled bent apple trees, the shrubs, the
flowers.
Moss covered stones, the different kinds of grasses,
Quaint flowers of another day than ours.
There is a benediction in old places,
Together with a patient tolerance;
A sort of pity for the for our hurly burly,
They are well bred, accepting circumstance.
There is a poignant beauty in old places;
And yet – the new made garden on the slope,
Eager as an expectant mother waiting
Her heritage of life, contains a hope
Which they who planted the seeds in those old places
Felt, and knew faith and patience made things
grow.
Their gardens were as young as mine, and eager
In garden golden springtimes long and long ago.
-- Poems by Willoughby Ions
Yes, there is a poignant beauty in old places, but that beauty differs from the beauty of a garden, that lasts a season or two. This bit of land in Northern Virginia was deeply entwined in the history of the state and nation of which it is a part. We intend to tell both the story of the families who called Innisfail home and provide some insight into the events that shaped those stories.
As much as we can, we will tell the stories of all those people. For 150 years the stories of some of the people that lived at Innisfail were never documented beyond being listed as property on a tax form or in a will. In those case we may only be able to list a first name and perhaps not even that. But we cannot ignore their stories because many of the buildings which have risen and fallen over the centuries were built by or for enslaved people. Also, many resident's stories did not start or end at Innisfail. Where possible and relevant we will share their expanded stories.
Finally, some stories we can't tell at all due to both the lack of written records and the intentional erasure of pre-colonization history. The land was probably used in some way by people for thousands of years. If any of the Doeg spent time here, we will probably never find any evidence of it. That being said prior to the invention of mercantile agriculture it seems unlikely that anyone would have chosen to spend more than a few days here. There is no good clay for making pots or stone for making tools. The shorelines of the nearby rivers in the surrounding area would have been better suited for permanent dwellings. However, given its location between the Occoquan and Potomac rivers and vicinity to the paths which would become Ox and Colchester roads it probably would have seen some occasional occupancy.
The written records we do have start with a Northern Neck Grant. The Northern Neck Proprietary was bounded by the Rappahannock and Potomac Rivers and had a different system that the rest of Virginia for acquiring title to land because much of it had been granted to the Culpepper family in September 1649 by King Charles II of England.
The land that would one day be called Innisfail was granted to David Waugh (son of the infamous Parson John Waugh) by the Northern Neck Proprietor, Margaret Lady Culpepper, on 24 September 1710 (NN 3:270). This original grant consisted of 600 acres located north of Pope's Head Creek and east of Piney Branch. Although in the ensuing centuries both streams have meandered a little here and there, that description still fits the 10 acres that remain. The story of those 600, or as it will turn out more acres, is what we will explore on this site.