His grandfather, also Henry Fitzhugh, had represented then-vast Stafford County, Virginia in the House of Burgesses several times before his death in 1743.
[2] Henry Fitzhugh of Bedford owned several plantations in Fairfax County, Virginia, totaling about 12,585 acres, which he mostly leased to tenants in his lifetime, and in his will divided among his sons Nicholas, Richard, Mordecai, Battaile and Giles.
[5] In 1804, following his federal judicial appointment, Fitzhugh sold Ossian Hall to David Stuart, who had also represented Fairfax County in the Virginia House of Delegates, and was also known as a friend of the late President George Washington as well as husband of his stepson's widow and who helped raise John Parke Custis' children.
On November 21, 1803, President Thomas Jefferson nominated Fitzhugh to a seat on the United States Circuit Court of the District of Columbia vacated by Judge James Markham Marshall.
The United States Senate confirmed Fitzhugh on November 25, 1803, and he received his commission the same day, serving thereafter until his death on December 31, 1814, in Fairfax, Virginia.