Alexandria was laid out, John Dalton purchased, on
July 13, 1749, the first lot put up for sale (No. 36) for the sum of
nineteen _pistoles_. The lot faced the Potomac River and was bounded by
Water (now Lee) Street, Fairfax Street and lot No. 37. When the latter
lot, which lay on Cameron and Fairfax, was put up later in the day, it
was purchased by Dalton for sixteen _pistoles_.

Within three years Dalton had finished a small frame-and-brick cottage,
neatly paneled, in which he is purported to have lived and died. The
house faced on Cameron Street, standing about the middle of lot No. 37,
with an extensive garden running the depth of the premises to the river,
surrounded by outbuildings, orchards, wells, and so on, as was the
custom of the times. His will mentioned the fact that he lived on this
lot and left to his daughter, Jenny Dalton (later Mrs. Thomas Herbert),
his new brick building on the corner of Fairfax and Cameron. His will
further stated that the house must be finished out of his estate. To his
daughter, Catherine (later Mrs. William Bird), he left the remainder of
the lot which included his dwelling and another house on that same lot,
at the time occupied by John Page.

On February 27, 1750, John Dalton succeeded Richard Osborn as a trustee
of the town. His appointment was the first after the original selection
of trustees by the assembly in Williamsburg.

John Dalton was a partner of John Carlyle in the firm of Carlyle &
Dalton, which for many years acted as agent for the Mount Vernon
produce. He was a pew owner with George Washington at Christ Church,
which he served as vestryman. With his wife and daughter, he was a
frequent visitor at Mount Vernon and a later chronicler has asserted
that he barely missed becoming the General's father-in-law. A fox-hunter
and horse-lover, in a company of Alexandria gentlemen or alone, he
hunted with Washington and bred his mares to the blooded Mount Vernon
stud.

[Illustration: The old Clapboard House on the John Dalton property and
believed to have been his original house. (_Courtesy of Mr. Frank
McCarthy_)]

On January 12, 1769, Washington went up to Alexandria to "ye Monthly
Ball." He lodged with Captain Dalton and the next day being very bad he
was "confined there till afternoon by rain."[78] Sometimes when
attending court he "lodged at Captn. Dalton's."[79]

John Dalton's bequest to his daughter, Catherine, included the home
place. On April 24, 1793, Catheri