William Henry Fitzhugh was a prominent member of the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829–1830 and an officer of the American Colonization Society

American Colonization Society

The American Colonization Society , founded in 1816, was the primary vehicle to support the "return" of free African Americans to what was considered greater freedom in Africa. It helped to found the colony of Liberia in 1821–22 as a place for freedmen...

.

Fitzhugh was born at Chatham

Chatham Manor

Chatham Manor is the Georgian-style home completed in 1771 by William Fitzhugh, after about 3 years of construction, on the Rappahannock River in Stafford County, Virginia, opposite Fredericksburg. It was for more than a century the center of a large, thriving plantation. Flanking the main house...

, in Stafford County, Virginia

Stafford County, Virginia

Stafford County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a U.S. state, and just across the Rappahannock River from the City of Fredericksburg. As of the 2000 census, the population was 92,446, increasing to 128,961 in 2010.. Its county seat is Stafford. In 2006, and again in 2009,...

. His father, William Fitzhugh

William Fitzhugh

William Fitzhugh was an American planter and statesman who served as a delegate to the Continental Congress for Virginia in 1779. -Life:...

, was a member of the Continental Congress. His sister, the noted Episcopalian lay leader Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis

Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis

Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis was an Episcopal lay leader in Alexandria County...

, was the mother of Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee.

Fitzhugh owned a townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria, Virginia

Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...

, and a plantation called Ravensworth

Ravensworth (plantation)

Ravensworth was an 18th-century plantation near Annandale in Fairfax County, Virginia. Ravensworth was the Northern Virginia residence of William Fitzhugh, William Henry Fitzhugh, Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis, and William Henry Fitzhugh Lee...

 in Fairfax County, Virginia

Fairfax County, Virginia

Fairfax County is a county in Virginia, in the United States. Per the 2010 Census, the population of the county is 1,081,726, making it the most populous jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with 13.5% of Virginia's population...

.

At the Virginia constitutional convention of 1829–1830, Fitzhugh joined Richard R. Henderson, Charles Fenton Mercer, and James Monroe

James Monroe

James Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...

 in representing the district comprising Fairfax County and Loudoun County. He generally supported democratic reforms and voted against final adoption of the new constitution because in his view it did not go far enough in instituting needed reforms.