Holtzclaw, Mrs.

The Holtzclaws were a large family of German origin who settled in Fauquier County in 1714. In 1710, Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood ran advertisements in German publications inviting German miners to come live and work in his newly founded colony of “Germanna,” near his iron works in Northern Virginia. Members of the Holtzclaw family (along with eleven other families) formed part of the first wave of Germans who emigrated from the Nassau-Siegen region of northwest Germany to Northern Virginia in the early eighteenth century. They agreed to serve as indentured servants for four years until they paid off their travel and settlement debts. After being unable to secure land nearby for themselves, in 1724, these German families moved to nearby Licking Run in Fauquier County to farm, settling an area they aptly named “Germantown.” The Holtzclaws became farmers and founding members of Carter’s Run Baptist Church. 

The Mason family manuscript account book lists a “Mrs. Holtzclaw” in an 1801 entry. Though there were multiple Mrs. Holtzclaws living in Northern Virginia at the time,  it is likely this “Mrs. Holtzclaw” was a widow; otherwise, under the common law of coverture that limited married women’s property rights, the accounts would have likely been under her husband's name. Thus, Mrs. Holtzclaw is likely Catherine “Caty” Holtzclaw, who was born Catherine James in 1740 and married Joseph Holtzclaw in 1761. Catherine and Joseph had seven children before his death in 1786. His last will and testament shows that the family owned six enslaved people at their home, Ashlawn, the plantation Joseph had inherited from his father. 

As both a wife and later a widow, Catherine took on many responsibilities at Ashlawn. While Joseph was fighting in the French and Indian War, Catherine likely took over operations at their plantation. Records also show that Catherine sold brandy—likely homemade peach brandy—to the Fauquier County militia during the Revolutionary War in 1780.  After Joseph died, Catherine was appointed guardian of their young children. The family remained at Ashlawn, as the property was inherited by her son Eli. Caty Holtzclaw died in 1810. 

Mrs. Holtzclaw’s inclusion in the Mason family manuscript account book illustrates how southern widows took on the role of “deputy husband” by managing the plantation and helping keep the family farming business intact for the next generation. 

By Jayme Kurland