At sometime prior to the incorporation of Winchester, Thomas Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cameron, and at one time a Justice of the County of Frederick, dedicated to the public uses of the square which is bounded by Court House Avenue and the streets known as Main, Water and Market. The northwestern quarter was adopted as the site of the first court house. Thereafter the market house and jail were erected upon the eastern half. At an early date the southwestern portion of the square was appropriated to the use of the established church and its burial ground.
The corporate limits of the borough of Winchester as defined by its first charter granted in 1752, embraced not only the original site laid out by Colonel Wood but also the large addition thereto laid off by Lord Fairfax, as shown by the survey and plat thereof made by John Baylis of record in Deed Book No. 24 of the county clerk's office.
His residence was at "Greenway Court," near White Post. Then in Frederick County, shortly after the surrender of Cornwallis in October 1781, he died and was buried in the church yard a few feet from the spot where this tablet is erected. About 1827, upon the removal of the Episcopal Church to its present site, his remains were carried there and now rest under the chancel of that church.
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