Figure of the Week

George Washington Conway (1818-1880) was the son of John Moncure Conway (1779-1864) who was clerk of the circuit court in Stafford for nearly  half a century.  The 1871 land tax records list George as owning 286 1/2 acres on Chappawamsic Run, but he also inherited from his father land near the courthouse.  In 1842 he was first lieutenant of a cavalry unit in the 45th regiment of Virginia militia and in 1845 was captain of an artillery company.  George had a family with Charlotte M. Clark (c.1829-after 1906), an African American woman he purchased out of slavery.  During the early 20th century, Charlotte worked as a midwife around the Stafford Courthouse area.  She and her family lived on property now occupied by Paradise Mobile Home Park just south of the courthouse, possibly the property George had inherited from his father’s estate.