Menokin was built circa 1769 on the occasion of the marriage of Francis Lightfoot Lee and Rebecca Tayloe. Rebecca was the daughter of John Tayloe II, who built neighboring Mount Airy. John Tayloe II gave the couple the large plantation on Cat Point Creek and financed construction of the two-story stone Menokin and its dependencies. Soon after, Francis Lightfoot Lee joined the cause of American independence, serving in the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1779 and signing the Declaration of Independence, together with his brother Richard Henry Lee, and the Articles of Confederation. Both Francis Lightfoot and Rebecca Tayloe Lee died in the winter of 1797. Over the years following their deaths, Menokin went into decline and passed hands several times before coming into possession of the Menokin Foundation in 1995. In 2005, the Menokin Foundation conveyed a conservation easement to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on 325 acres of its 500-acre property. The easement property is managed as part of the Rappahannock River Valley National Wildlife Refuge to protect the outstanding fish and wildlife habitat that exists in and along the river.