FRANCIS FAUQUIER.
Francis Fauquier, born in 1703, was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of
Virginia to succeed Dinwiddie, February 10, 1758, and arrived in the
Colony on June 7th following. He was generous and elegant in his
manners and an accomplished scholar, but brought with him the frivolous
tastes and dissipated habits of a man of fashion; he was addicted to
gaming and by his example diffused in the Colony a passion for gaming.
Notwithstanding these charged frailties, he was, in the opinion of Mr.
Jefferson, the ablest of the Governors of Virgnia. It is noteworthy that
the odious and portentous stamp act was attempted to be enforced
during his administration, a measure which had the happy effect of encouraging
domestic manufactures in Virginia and of inducing an abstinence
from luxuries. Governor Fauquier died March 3, 1768, and
until the arrival of Botetourt in October following, the government
devolved on John Blair, President of the Council. Fauquier was the
author of a pamphlet: "Raising Money for the Support of the War,"
8vo, published at London in 1757. Fauquier County, Va., was named
in his honor.
