door to John Harper on
the west. Captain Harper's house is now known as 209 Prince Street and
today bears, erroneously, a plaque to the memory of Dr. Dick. This is
the house in which Dr. Craik was living in 1790-93. Incidentally, no
record viewed in a search of hundreds mentions Dr. Dick as occupying 209
Prince Street. On the contrary, Dr. Dick in 1796 was paying insurance on
his dwelling on Duke Street.

In his old age Captain John Harper built two brick houses on the east
side of Washington Street, south of Prince. In one of these he died in
1804, aged seventy-six years. Dr. Dick attended John Harper in his last
illness and was paid sixty-five dollars by the executors for this
service. Wine for the funeral was eleven dollars, the coffin and case
cost twenty-six dollars, and the bellman received one dollar for crying
property to be sold. Captain John Harper lies buried in the cemetery of
the old Presbyterian meetinghouse near two of his daughters, Mrs. John
C. Vowell and Mrs. Thomas Vowell.

Captain Harper was an ancestor of Mrs. Mary G. Powell, author of _The
History of Old Alexandria_. She tells of his patriotic action in
procuring ammunition from Philadelphia for the independent companies of
Prince William and Fairfax Counties: "Eight casks of powder, drums and
colors for three companies."[140] His religion prohibited his taking
part in combat, but his sympathy was manifested in a very practical
fashion. John Harper was a member of the first city council in 1780 and
of the congregation of the old Presbyterian meetinghouse. He was one of
General Washington's Alexandria agents for Mount Vernon produce, doing
an extensive business with the General in the matter of "Herring." At
Washington's death he took part in the Masonic ceremonies at the
funeral, and his son, Captain William Harper, commanded the artillery
company on that eventful day. This son took an active part in the
Revolution at the battles of Princeton, Monmouth, Brandywine, and Valley
Forge, and crossed the Delaware with Washington. He succeeded to the
business at Prince and Union. John Harper's third son, Robert, was a
lawyer and married a daughter of John W. Washington, of Westmoreland
County. John Harper, Jr., married Margaret West of West Grove, daughter
of John West, and while acting as foreign agent for the Harper firm in
the West Indies, was drowned in 1805.

Alexandria's Malmaison, or the Harper-Vowell house, listed as 123 Prince
Street, was the