Ariss was born in Cople Parish, Westmoreland County, about 1729, the youngest of five children of John Ariss and Frances Spencer Ariss. His mother was the granddaughter of Nicholas Spencer, a member of the governor’s Council in the 1680s and a sizable landowner in the parish. Within the space of two months in the winter of 1730, one sibling whose sex is unknown died and the already-widowed father drowned. John Footman became the guardian of the two boys and two girls who had been orphaned and of their considerable estate, valued at more than £350. At Footman’s death in 1739, Wharton Rans...