The original White House Mansion was built by Colonel John Lightfoot III just before 1700 and while he was Counselor of State.

Daniel Parke Custis would unexpectedly die in 1757, leaving the White House Plantation to his wife.

[2][3] After the death of her first husband, Martha Dandridge Custis would later meet George Washington and on January 6, 1759 would hold their wedding ceremony in one of the rooms of the White House Mansion.

[1] After fulfilling the requirements he was granted a patent for the 600 acres of Rickahock (including Fort Royal and any buildings within), on March 14, 1649.

After leaving for England, the two tracts of land were later conveyed to Captain William Bassett on January 23, 1670 through his correspondence with Colonel Henry Norwood.

[1] While the deeds had been lost due to a fire that destroyed New Kent County records, it is thought that Colonel John Lightfoot III purchased the lands from the William Bassett Estate around 1686, after he arrived from England with his wife Anne (Goodrich) Lightfoot.

[1] According to the diary of Col. William Byrd, there he mentioned Sherwood Lightfoot resided at Rickahock (the southern portion and originally part of Fort Royal) and his younger brother, Goodrich Lightfoot, at the White House Plantation (the northern portion) where the White House Mansion was located.

[1] John Lightfoot III's total landholdings included acreage he had acquired from William Bassett’s estate.

Specifically Anthony Langston’s plantation, Gen. Hammond’s Fort Royal tract, and land to the east of Manquin Creek.

[2] Shortly thereafter, he resigned his Virginia military commission and they moved to his farm at Mount Vernon in Fairfax County overlooking the Potomac River.

Arlington House later became the home of his daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, born in 1807, who in 1831 married Robert E.

[8][9] In 1846, most of the area of the District of Columbia south of the Potomac River was retroceded to Virginia, including the land occupied by Arlington House and the surrounding plantation.

When the U.S. Civil War broke out in 1861, Virginia joined the newly formed Confederate States of America.

As a career U.S. Army officer, Lee was offered command of all Union forces by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

Unfortunately, Mary Ann Randolph Custis Lee suffered from rheumatoid arthritis that became increasingly debilitating with advancing age.

Her son, William Henry Fitzhugh "Rooney" Lee had inherited the White House plantation from her father, George Washington Parke Custis.

Union troops under the command of General George B. McClellan took White House Landing to use as a supply base during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862.

[12] General McClellan then made arrangements for Mrs. Robert Lee's safe passage through the Union lines to Richmond, where she lived at 707 E. Franklin Street (still-extant house) for the rest of the War.

During the Peninsula Campaign, Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York City's Central Park among his many accomplishments, served as Executive Secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, a precursor to the Red Cross in Washington D.C. which tended to the Union wounded during the Civil War.

The original White House Mansion built by Col. John Lightfoot III had been removed to "make way for the structure which stood on the same site and burned on June 27, 1862".

[11] Nearby, his younger brother Rob lived at Romancoke Plantation across the river in King William County.

After his mother died in 1873, Rooney inherited the Ravensworth Estate, the old Fitzhugh family property (near present-day Springfield) in Fairfax County with 563 acres (2.28 km2) of land.

"[1] Martha Dandridge Custis took care of George Washington at her house when he was suddenly ill before they began courting.