Walter Jones (1776-1861) of Virginia was the son of Dr. Walter Jones and Ailsie Flood. After studying law under Bushrod Washington, Walter Jones was admitted to the bar in 1796. In 1802 President Thomas Jefferson appointed him the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, an office which he held until 1821. He also was a major general in the District of Columbia militia, and during the War of 1812 he took part in the Battle of Bladensburg. Jones gained a national reputation for the prominent part he took in the celebrated Girard will case, the Myra Clark Gaines case, McCullough vs. Maryland, the Randolph will case, Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Company vs. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, and John Randall vs. Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company. He was married in 1808 to Anne Lucinda and with her had three sons and eleven daughters. Upon his death in Washington, D.C., he was buried in the Congressional Cemetery.

William Hayward Foote (1781-1846) inherited "Hayfield" from his aunt and adopted mother Elizabeth Foote. Hayfield plantation was a 360 acre portion of the Mount Vernon estate acquired by Elizabeth Foote's husband, Lund Washington, from George Washington after the Revolutionary War. William Foote prospered as Hayfield's proprietor and in his will bequeathed the estate and all his property to his wife of 15 years, Mary Marshall Scott Foote. After his death the executors of the will led by Francis L. Smith contested William Foote's heirs' entitlement. In his will he had bequeathed everything to his wife "for as long as she remains my widow or for life... if, however, she should cease to be my widow or marry again, she must account for all these things and take her dower at law... It is not my purpose to give any Cur a Sop."