Fowke, Robert D.

Robert Dinwiddie Fowke was born on 20 September 1746 in Stafford County, Virginia, to Gerard Fowke III and Elizabeth Dinwiddie. Fowke had four sisters and five brothers. He married a woman named Elizabeth Peake, who was referred to as Peachy. The couple had at least one daughter, Sarah Fowke. It is unclear what Fowke did for a living or when he moved from Stafford County to Loudoun County, where he died in 1795.

Fowke’s father, Gerard, died in 1770. After Gerard’s death, his cattle and enslaved people were split among his children and his wife Elizabeth. This division of property, however, excluded Robert, citing that he had already received his portion of his father’s estate. After his father’s death, Robert Fowke was indebted to his mother because he had apparently squandered his inheritance. On 17 September 1777, Fowke and his mother entered into a new agreement that granted him five enslaved people, thirteen cows, a feather bed, and various furniture.

In 1777, Fowke’s brother John died in Middlebrook, New Jersey, while serving as adjutant in the 10th Virginia Regiment of Continentals in the Revolutionary War. Robert Fowke was listed as John’s heir at law. In April 1785, Robert petitioned the Virginia House of Delegates requesting that he be granted the lands his brother would have been given by the state for serving in the war. Robert received John’s allotted land on 16 October 1785. The location of this land is unknown. Fowke, however, immediately signed it over to his brother-in-law, Colonel William Phillips, the husband of his sister Eliza.

Robert Fowke served as a witness for his brother William Fowke when he married Mary Mason Bronaugh (Stevens Thomson Mason’s second cousin) in 1792, attesting that Mary was over twenty-one. This marriage created the connection that most likely led to Robert’s inclusion in the Mason family manuscript account book. Robert Fowke’s entry in October 1799, approximately three and a half years after his death, recorded a fee that was paid to William F.T. Jones, who worked for the district court. Robert’s brother had married into the Mason family, so it is possible that Stevens T. Mason paid this fee as a favor for William.

When Robert Fowke died in 1795, he did not leave a written will. This prompted Loudoun County officials to complete an inventory and valuation of his property and assets. His possessions included typical household items such as tables and beds, and property associated with farming, such as enslaved people and livestock. Fowke owned a total of nine enslaved people: six men and three women. The county seized Fowke’s property after the completion of the appraisal to pay his debts. Fowke likely rented the land that he farmed in Loudoun County, because no land was listed in the county’s appraisal of his property.

By Rachel Whyte