w state to which it was reduced during the war years.

Hannah O'Brien's interest in the farm enjoyed the special protection
of a deed which specified that the land should be free from debts,
liabilities, and control of her husband, Matthew O'Brien, and that she
had power to dispose of the property by deed in her own right.[44]
Subsequently, however, through ignorance or bad advice, she signed as
guarantor of a note issued by her husband; and, when default on the
note occurred, she lost the farm through court proceedings which
ordered it sold for the debt.[45] Thus, in 1878 the farm was bought by
Fountain Beattie.

I. GENTLEMEN FREEHOLDERS: THE MOSS FAMILY (1770-1835)

[1] Mrs. Don Ritchie, Arlington, Virginia, Moss family genealogist;
Vernon Lynch, Annandale, Virginia, a lifelong resident of
Fairfax County, now in his eighties; interviews.

Walter Macomber, interview on July 16, 1968, at Green Spring
Farm. In the opinion of Mr. Macomber of Washington, D.C., who
planned and supervised the 1942 renovation of the mansion
house, the original part of the house was built between 1750
and 1775.

[2] _The Journal of John Littlejohn_, MS., Louisville, Kentucky,
April 29, 1778.

[3] Elmer T. Clark, J. Manning Potts, and Jacob S. Payton (eds.),
_The Journal and Letters of Francis Asbury_ (Nashville:
Abington Press, 1958), I, p. 531.

[4] Fairfax County Deed Book R-1, p. 413, contains a deed in 1789
from William and Mary Bushby to John Moss, William Adams,
William Waters, Samuel Adams, James Morrison, William Rhodes,
and William Hickman, and their survivors, in trust, conveying
a lot in the town of Alexandria, northward from the
Presbyterian meeting house, westward parallel with Duke
Street, southward parallel with Fairfax Street, and eastward
parallel with Duke Street to Chapple Alley "to build and
forever keep in good repair a house for the worship of God for
the use of the Reverend Thomas Cooke and the Reverend Francis
Asbury for the time being of the Methodist Episcopal
Church...."

[5] Fairfax County Will Book I, p. 150.

[6] Fairfax County Deed Book AA-2, p. 29, a lease for three lives to
John Moss, dated May 29, 1798.

[7] Fairfax County Deed Book R-1, p. 397.

[8] Mrs. Don C. Ritchie, letter dated Octobe