The first occupant of record of the house at Salona, William Maffitt, is surrounded by legends. Supposedly, Maffitt built Salona in 1801. Maffitt was from South Carolina. Maffitt went to Princeton. Maffitt preached the funeral sermon for George Washington. Maffitt had a boys' school at Salona. Maffitt lived at Salona with his wife Harriotte Lee Turberville Maffitt, who deserted her three children by her first marriage. Dolley Madison spent the night with the Maffitts at Salona when she fled from the White House during the English invasion of Washington. The available documents give a different picture. William Maffitt was born in Cecil County, Maryland, in 1769, eldest son of Samuel and Ann Strawbridge Maffitt.[18] His father was a justice of the peace, elder in the Presbyterian Church, owner of a flourishing farm and a mill, and was a major under George Washington during the American Revolution. The Rev. Mr. John H. Johns made his contribution to the Maffitt legends: The Rev. William Maffit [sic] was a son of Samuel Maffit, an elder of this church. Having been licensed October 9th, 1794, by New Castle Presbytery, he went, April 1st, 1795, to Alexandria, Va., in Baltimore Presbytery. He had delicate health, and was pastor there for only a brief period, when he went to Salina [sic] six miles from Washington, and there became principal of a school, which he continued to teach for many years. He married twice, each time to a widow Lee, of the noted Lee family of Virginia. He died in 1828.[19] Although many young men of Cecil County attended Princeton, the University does not have Maffitt recorded as a student, and his name does not appear in the official list of early Princeton graduates.[20] He probably attended some theological school because on October 9, 1794, the New Castle Presbytery appointed him to supply various New Castle Presbytery congregations.[21] At that time, he seems to have been teaching at the Wilmington Academy.[22] On April 7, 1795, he was transferred to the Baltimore Presbytery, with residence in Alexandria.[23] On April 14, 1795, he was hired by the Alexandria Academy to teach Latin and English to 35 students for the sum of 200 pounds a year.[24] In 1798, George Washington wrote regarding the education of Martha Washington's grandson, George Washington Parke Custis: If he (Custis) was to go to Alexandria, his Studies must be conducted at the Academy or in his own chamber. The first, after coming from a large and celebrated College, he would consider as degrading, and in the other case (being left alone) he would attend very little to them while Mr. Moffet was discharging the trust reposed in him at the Academy.[25]