Rippon Lodge is one of the oldest houses remaining in Prince William County, Virginia, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1971.

It played a vital role in the American Revolutionary War, in part because colonial troops marched on this section before defeating the British at Yorktown.

1706-1757) who had emigrated with his brother from Ripon in Yorkshire, England in 1720, it managed land holdings which stretched from Neabsco Creek westward to near what is now I-95 and amounted to about 21,000 acres (85 km2).

[5] The property featured its own port on Neabsco Creek and is close to the town of Dumfries, once the county seat until the Quantico River silted up early in the 19th century.

Sometime after buying Rippon Lodge, Ellis discovered Richard Blackburn was his ancestor, but it remains unclear at what point during his tenure this became known and how much it influenced the preservation efforts.