Chichester Family Cemetery

Here follows an excerpt from Donald Hakenson's "This Forgotten Land" tour guide:

The Chichester cemetery is hidden in the backyard of the home at 6720 Newington Road behind a clump of trees and bushes and is surrounded by a chain link fence. A granite monument that reads: "Chichester Family Cemetery/Newington, Virginia 1796 -- 1972 Restored June 15 1991" is located directly in front of the gate. The cemetery is clean and well maintained. Buried in the family cemetery are various members of the Chichester families.

THE CHICHESTER LEGEND.
Richard Chichester, who held civil office in the county, is buried in the old cemetery. Tales have passed down about his cruelty to his slaves, who nicknamed him "Hard" Chichester. When Richard Chichester died at Mount Air, the slaves said that the Devil ran out from under his bed in the form of a red rabbit. According to one of the owners of the house, that during a severe storm in the 1920's, lighting struck Chichester's tombstone and broke off a fragment of his name. The epitaph on the stone in the cemetery now reads "___hard Chichester."

TWO CONFEDERATE VETERANS ARE BURIED AT THE CHICHESTER FAMILY CEMETERY.
Dr. James C. Hill, a surgeon in Weatherly's Battalion from Louisiana, and Captain Alexander Innis, who also served in a unit from Louisiana, in the Confederate Army are buried in the cemetery.

DEATH OF DR. JAMES C. HILL.
The Alexandria Gazette on July 2, 1875 had this to say about Dr. Hill:

"This gentleman died suddenly at his residence, on Columbus Street, about five o'clock this morning, after a brief illness. Up to the time of his sudden demise he was supposed to be in a convalescent condition, and the evening before he took considerable exercise by walking on the verandah of his house. This morning he arose at an early hour, and whilst passing along the porch, was seized with a fainting spell that prostrated him to the floor. Mrs. Hill immediately hastened to his assistance, when he requested a pillow to be brought, which being placed under his head, he put his hand on his side and exclaimed, "My heart, my heart," and immediately expired. Dr. Hill was a native of Louisiana, a graduate of medicine, and a surgeon in the Southern army, but gave up the practice of his profession at the close of the war, and has ever since resided in this city, where he has been engaged in various pursuits. Dr. Hill was well known as a politician, and, in the election for President of the United States in 1867, he was a Presidential Elector on the Seymour and Blair ticket, was a candidate for nomination before the Conservative Convention, in this District, to the Forty-Third Congress, and was, quite recently, a candidate for the position of City Sergeant. He wrote much upon political subjects, and was contributor to several Medical Reviews. Dr. Hill possessed much and varied information, and was conspicuous for his frank and open nature, kindly disposition, and generous qualities, which attracted around him a large circle of friends, who, in common with his bereaved family, will deeply lament his death. His funeral will take place tomorrow from his late residence, and his remains will be interred in the family burying ground at Newington, in Fairfax County."

(Miss Anna Innis Slaughter, great-granddaughter of Alexander Innis, told Edith Sprouse that Dr. Hill was "a trifling man whose main accomplishments were fathering 15 children, spending all of his wife's money and two-thirds of that of her sister, then climaxing his antebellum career by running up so many gambling debts in Alexandria that the Mount Air estate had to be sold to pay them off.)

SUDDEN DEATH OF CAPTAIN INNIS.
The Alexandria Gazette on December 10, 1880 had this to say about Captain Innis:

"Captain Alexander Innis died suddenly at his residence on Seminary Hill yesterday evening. He was attempting to carry a ten gallon milk can from one point to another when he fell, dying shortly after his removal to his house. It is supposed death was caused by the breaking of a blood vessel in the region of his heart. He was a native of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, and served gallantly in the Confederate service during the war... He leaves a wife and several children."


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fairfax Genealogical Society website:

CHICHESTER FAMILY CEMETERY
Between 6716 and 6724 Newington Road
Lorton, Virginia USA

Original Information from Volume 5 of the Gravestone Books

The Chichester Family Cemetery is situated between 6716 and 6724 Newington Road, about 200 feet west of the intersection of Accotink and Newington Roads. The cemetery is associated with the McCarty plantation “Mount Air” (q.v.) which still stands down Accotink Road in the midst of a new subdivision of single-family homes, also called “Mount Air.” The plantation came into the Chichester family with the marriage of Sarah McCarty, daughter of Daniel and Sinah Ball McCarty, to Richard Chichester whose nearby plantation “Newington” gave the neighborhood its name.

In a presentation prepared for a ceremony commemorating the Revolutionary Services of Richard Chichester, John D. Sinks, Chairman, Revolutionary Graves for the Sons of the American Revolution, described the financial and political sacrifices Chichester made for the Revolution. He served on the Fairfax County Court and was a supporter of George Mason’s efforts to make the Bill of Rights a part of the U.S. Constitution.

There was evidently another side to Richard Chichester, however. A newspaper article in the Chichester Cemetery file in the Virginia Room, Fairfax City Regional Library, quotes a sketch of Chichester by one of his descendants in an 1876 issue of Harper’s Monthly Magazine. Described as a “wealthy gentleman” who put on “extra airs of piety,” Chichester, the article states, “was known to ‘devote himself to that matchless wine’ then called ‘Corn Madeira’ and to have a fondness for ‘flirting with a wench.’” According to the article, as well as local tradition, Richard Chichester was called “Hard” Chichester behind his back, particularly by his slaves. Around 1920, his gravestone in the Chichester Family Cemetery was struck by lightning, a portion of the gravestone was broken off, leaving the inscription “...hard Chichester,” described by one surveyor as “poetic justice.”

The cemetery was surveyed in 1976, 1989, 1997 and 1998. Set back from the road, this nicely maintained cemetery is surrounded by a chain link fence with a locked gate. When surveyors visited the site in 1988, the cemetery was so overgrown it could not be checked. It was still very overgrown at the time of the 1989 survey. The cemetery was cleaned up and gravestones repaired and remounted by interested neighbors in 1991. A rededication ceremony was held at the site on 15 June 1991, with many Chichester descendants attending. A granite marker which sits just inside the cemetery gate reads:

Chichester Family Cemetery
Newington, Virginia
1796-1972
Restored June 15, 1991


No Updates from Volume 6 of the Gravestone Book