PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, VA - HISTORY – “Cloverland” ----¤¤¤---- Source: Library of Virginia Digital Collection LVA Titled Files: Survey Report, Cloverland: 1936 Mar 24 Research made by Susan R. Morton Cemetery Location: 2.5 miles west of Haymarket, Virginia, on Route #55. South side of road. Prince William Co., Virginia DATE: About 1800. OWNERS: “Cloverland” which at present time (1936) contains about one thousand acres, was a grant from the Crown to Robert Carter and his brother. The grant was for 12000 acres. The original grant is in the possession of the present owners, Mrs. R.C. Williams and her sister, Mrs. Thomas Claggett, of Baltimore. It has always been in the Carter family, although not always in that name, but there has never been a transfer other than a deed of gift. DESCRIPTION: The trees at “Cloverland” are beautiful and interesting. The house is set in a grove of what were once very large and beautiful locusts, and although age and storms have defaced them, many yet remain. Two large and stately magnolias are the at end of the piazza and there is a flower garden at the rear of the house. To the south near the Run is a clump of large weeping willow trees which came from the grave of Napoleon Bonaparte, while a little over a quarter of a mile from the house, in a field to the south of the highway is a large oak tree under which Stonewall Jackson paused to pray that memorable August 29th, 1862. This tree is located near a tenant house that is at the entrance to “Cloverland”. (A complete description of the house and gardens has not been recanted in this space but can be located in the original document at the Library of Virginia. I have included some historical facts in regards to the home as I though them very interesting.) HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This house was begun in 1799, Edward Carter, the owner, then living in a frame house which stood some 500 yards to the west of the present house. This house has been gone for years, but it is still possible to trace where it stood. The brick for the new house were being burnt on the place, on the banks of Broad Run, and Edward Carter was superintending the work when the bank caved in burying him, and before he could be extricated he was dead. This happened in 1806. His young wife, who was a Miss Jane Turner, was so distressed by the accident that she would never live in the “big house” after its completion, but remained in a log house close by her husband’s grave. A short time after this she lost her mind, and her brother, Edward Turner, came to take charge of the place, and here the Carter children were raised. Mrs. Carter did not long survive her husband, and the son, John Hill Carter, married young and went to live at “Falkland” which belonged to him. His sister lived with him until her marriage to Mr. Dulaney, afterward Commodore Dulaney, when they came back to “Cloverland” to make their home. In the interval between the marriage of John Hill Carter and his sister, the place was rented for a short time, and then the house was empty for a time. To begin to describe the treasures that the old house holds would take much space. There are lovely family portraits, fine English prints and engravings, several pieces that are undoubtedly Sheraton, a tester bed, and in fact a house full of heirlooms. That they have remained all these years in a house which is closed for the greater part of the year is possibly due to the fact of the traditional “Cloverland” ghost, which acts as a sort of burglar insurance. There was a man killed over a card game in one of the small rooms upstairs, and the blood stains are still to be seen there. There are said to be lights which go off and on at certain times of the year, the sound of someone washing his hands can be heard in the room. There is also the story of the nocturnal visitor, a headless man. The story is told of John Hill Carter, who as a small boy came down the stairs one evening and met a man coming in with his head under his arm. As the boy yelled “I am not afraid”, his uncle, Mr. Turner, came out but the man had gone upstairs, and a careful search failed to reveal him. Several others claim to have had the same experience. There are several members of the family who have lived here happily, but that is said to have been the reason that Commodore Dulaney built himself a house on the other side of the Run, “Saints Hill” and left “Cloverland”. The Commission appointing Mr. Dulaney Captain of the Navy and signed by President Tyler hangs on the wall at “Cloverland”. Following is a copy of a letter now in possession of Mrs. Claggett, of Baltimore, a grand-daughter of Commodore Dulaney. The letter was written to Commodore Dulaney’s mother, Mrs. Benjamin Dulaney, who was Eliza Finch before her marriage. She was the ward of General Washington. He gave her a gold chain as a wedding gift which is now in the possession of Mrs. Claggett’s sister, Mrs. R. C. Williams. The Dulaneys were all Tories, and Daniel Delaney, Benjamin’s father, went to England during the Revolution, and most of his property was confiscated. Mrs. Eliza Delaney owned the hill in Alexandria where the Masonic Memorial now stands. She kept her husband with the Colonists, and at the outbreak of the war Mr. Dulaney lent General Washington a horse named “Blueskin” which he rode all through the war. This is the horse that General Washington is so often pictured with. After the war, and Mr. Dulaney’s death, General Washington sent the horse back to Mrs. Dulaney with the following letter: “Gen. Washington presents his best respects to Mrs. Dulaney with the horse Blueskin. Marks of integrity supply the place of those virtues with which this horse abounded in his better days, nothing but the recollection of which and his having been the favorite of Mr. Dulaney in the days of his courtship, can reconcile her to his meagre appearance now”. “Mrs. Washington presents her best respects to Mrs. Dulaney with these roots of Scacity”. The old graveyard is at the west of the house, in what is now a pasture. There are only two graves that have stones with an inscription on them and these stones are broken. John Hill Carter died January 21st, 1868 in the 60th year of his age. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Sacred to the Memory of Susan Baynton wife of John Hill Carter who departed this life the 25th day of February 1826 in the 26th year of her age Thus fled from us a dear angel, too pure, too lovely to flourish in this vale of tears. Oh, she was the dear object of our idolatry, the blessed saint whose Heavenly luster did make bright our dismal, gloomy prospects. But though she hath sunk beneath our moral horizon, though she hath left us in this dreary world, let us be comforted with the thought that she has ascended into the abode of infinite bliss, where she rests on the bosom of God. SOURCES OF INFORMATION: Informant: Mrs. R. C. Williams, Haymarket, Virginia Tombstone Inscriptions Visit by worker. ___________________________________________________________________ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Joan Renfrow NOTICE: I have no relationship or further information in regards to this family. ___________________________________________________________________