Virginia confiscated Lord Fairfax's Northern Neck, and his heir's land claim reached the Supreme Court twice

Thomas, 6th Lord Fairfax, held the Northern Neck Proprietary of Virginia, about 5,282,000 acres^†. Virginia's Act of 1779 confiscated title to the domain^†. Fairfax died in December 1781, two months after Yorktown. He left the Northern Neck lands to his nephew Denny Martin on condition that Martin take the Fairfax name and arms. The barony passed to his brother Robert, who received £13,758 in 1792 under Britain's Loyalist relief act^†. Virginia sold the land anyway. David Hunter received a Virginia patent for 739 acres on 30 April 1789. While in England, James Markham Marshall agreed to buy Fairfax tracts, about 180,000 acres including Leeds Manor. His brother John Marshall, who became Chief Justice in 1801^†, was one of the buyers. The Virginia Court of Appeals ruled for Hunter in 1810. The US Supreme Court reversed that ruling in 1812 or 1813 (sources differ), with Justice Story writing and Marshall recused. Virginia's court refused to comply and declared the Supreme Court's review power unconstitutional. On 20 March 1816, in Martin v. Hunter's Lessee, Story ruled again for Fairfax's heir and held that the Supreme Court can review state courts. The ruling secured the Marshalls' purchase. In 1908 the House of Lords Committee for Privileges confirmed Albert Kirby Fairfax as 12th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. The title is held by Nicholas Fairfax, 14th Lord, who succeeded in 1964; his status in 2026 is not confirmed^†.