e beginning or the culmination of the romance, none
now can tell, but by 1774 Miss Scott was already Mrs. Brown, and the
mother of two very small sons, William Jr. being born that year. The
young family was doubtless residing in General Washington's town house,
and for this there is the authority of the General himself. In a letter
to his nephew, Bushrod, dated November 1788, he writes, "If you could
accomodate yourself to my small house in Town (where Doctr. Brown
formerly lived) you shall be very welcome to the use of it rent
free."[117]

Previous to this, in 1785, Lund Washington's ledger reveals that he had
received L40 from Dr. Brown on account of Gen^l Washington for "Rent of
House in Alexandria."[118] In the General's own account ledger he refers
to Dr. Brown's rent as having been fixed by "M^r L^d Washington at L60 a
year for My House," and the sum is cancelled due to advances made by Dr.
Brown and for professional services.[119]

In July 1783, Dr. Brown purchased from John Mills the white clapboard
house that has been identified as his Alexandria home. He purchased
twenty-six additional feet south on Fairfax Street adjoining his
dwelling house, from Robert Townshend Hooe and Richard Harrison,
merchants, on July 10, 1790. This property became his garden.

[Illustration: Dr. William Brown's clapboard residence]

An Alexandria tradition and the Brown family belief is that the house
was built by him prior to the Revolution. It is, indeed, very old and
probably dates between 1757, when the property was mortgaged by William
Ramsay to John Dixon of White Haven, England, and 1783, when the
property was sold to Dr. William Brown by John Mills, for the sum of
L280, indicating a substantial structure. There was at least one house
on lot No. 65, and Dr. Brown's house is the only one standing on that
lot today at all indicative of a pre-Revolutionary dwelling. If the
house was not built by Ramsay, the probability is that it was built by
Mills between 1777 and 1783, which is doubtful, as building during the
Revolution was so difficult as to make it almost impossible.

The home of the young Browns was the gathering place for the elite of
Alexandria and the countryside. The Washingtons dined and passed the
evening frequently. The Blackburns came often from Rippon Lodge, the
Brown cousins from Port Tobacco, and of course Dr. Craik from around the
corner. Colonel Fitzgerald, Colonel Swope, and Colonel Lyles were all
near ne