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I'm not in a law library right now, but tried to sort the proprietary cases somewhat, since other obligations may prevent me from finishing this sort for a while. Clearly, these issues are a lot more complicated than this article's original non-footnote from a 1950s-era source indicated. I also have not yet searched for the 1970 University of Virginia PhD dissertation referenced (with two earlier published accounts) in a footnote in the Marshall papers. While I could base further revisions on the cited (very old) Supreme Court cases, I tried relying on what I thought fairly thorough published research about Chief Justice Marshall. The Doherty book written in the 1970s may not be dispositive, but he said the confiscations began in 1779 (2 years before Lord Fairfax's death), and the extensive notes in the multi-volume Marshall papers (published a decade later) seem to indicate the litigation began two years after Lord Fairfax's death. Smith's 1996 biography is the most detailed of the post-Marshall-papers biographies, and relied on by more recent bios, but it is also the one specifically criticized by Paul Finkelman. For what it's worth, I don't believe Virginia litigation vanished in the 5 years after Fairfax v. Hite, and can well believe it started in 1779. For what it's worth, the Leeds Manor tract lies in Fauquier, Loudoun, Frederick and Shenandoah counties and the South Branch Manor Tract in Hampshire and Hardy Counties (now in West Virginia).
Complicating matters, no wikipedia articles exist for some of the contributing personalities. In particular, Rawleigh Colston has only a wythopedia article, since he (like Nelly Custis' husband Lawrence Lewis also often mentioned in Marshall's papers and George Washington's papers) never served as a Virginia legislator. In particular I don't know whether Colston meets wikipedia's notability criteria, only that his actions on behalf of the Continental Army in the West Indies may also have relied on contacts developed by his English (great?) uncle Edward Colston, whose statue in Bristol was toppled but again placed on public display recently. Isaac VanMeter and Abraham Hite represented parts of that area numerous time in the Virginia House of Delegate in this era, but have no wikipedia articles. Alexander Campbell who was an attorney prosecuting the escheat cases, also easily qualifies for a wikipedia article, since he represented Stafford as well as King George and Westmoreland counties (at least the latter still considered the Northern Neck) in the state Senate.Jweaver28 (talk) 19:51, 30 August 2021 (UTC)[reply]
