In the 1730s, Leeton stood on a 4,142-acre parcel belonging to Major George Turberville. Turberville, Willoughby Newton, and Robert Carter owned most of the land in western Fairfax, and in colonial Virginia that wealth was sustained by the enslavement of people. As many as 45 people labored to grow tobacco and fruit for the Turbervilles. Major Turberville's great-grandson, George Richard Lee Turberville, was born at Leeton in 1845. Though only in his teens as the Civil War began, George took on a role. On July 30, 1861, he noted that the Union Army camped in Centreville was preparing an attack. George alerted his uncle, John DeBell, and his neighbor James P. Machen. DeBell and Machen rode through the woods all night to warn the Confederate Army as the morning of the First Battle of Manassas dawned. George later joined Mosby's Rangers, serving until he was captured and imprisoned in Washington, D.C. He lived the rest of his life at Leeton and is buried there with other members of his family. Leeton was sold out of the Turberville family in 1952.