Merchant and Planter.

William Fitzhugh was born in Bedford, England, the son of a wealthy woolen draper. Little is known of his early life. Already a lawyer when he immigrated to Virginia in 1670, he acquired a large estate and proved successful as a tobacco grower and exporter. By 1672 he became the Stafford County representative to the House of Burgesses and gained a reputation as an expert on the colony's laws.

Beverley.

In 1682 Fitzhugh served as defense attorney for Maj. Robert Beverley, the clerk of the House of Burgesses. The governor and the council (the upper house in Virginia) asked the major for copies of the Burgesses' journals. But Beverley, determined to protect the independence and authority of the Burgesses for whom he worked, refused to turn the journals over until that body had met and expressly authorized such an action. The governor became...