and corries, ed not we, kahe tumig If was doubt es of Nor a oricand serv Ignd. who held great lages, . the twel th cen nay, the ea tom at tha. time fo Panora f 1 GEORGE WASHINGTON. FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. ANCESTRY. ENEALOGISTS have found no difficulty in tracing the line of the Washington ancestry back through six centuries of English history. It was a vigorous stock, and held its distinct place and power in the world by marked qualities of mind and body, which persisted in living and having and being known. Marrying into different families, serving different kings and governments, changing localities and countries, did not weaken the family qualities nor abate its force of character. It rather gained strength and improved in quality till it flowered in the transcendent opulence and excellence of our Washington, who made his name and time and country immortal. The family was doubtless of Norman origin and served under William the Conquerer. Among the knights of the county of Durham, England, who held great landed estates and manorial privileges, in the twelfth century, was WILLIAM DE HERTBURN. It was the custom at that time for the owners of large estates, with castles and villages on them, to take the name of the estate. The records of the time show that William De Hertburn exchanged his village of Hertburn for the manor and village of Wessyngton, receiving the diocese with it. After that the De Hertburn family took the name of its new estates, and appears on the records as De Wessyngton. The De Wessyngtons appear at different times and always in important positions, till 1264 the name of William Weshington is recorded on the roll of loyal knights who fought for their sovereign in the battle of Lewes, when the king was taken prisoner. Here the De is left off and the name takes a new form. In 1416 John De Wessyngton was elected prior of the Benedic tine convent, with a cathedral attached. This was an ancient and honorable position, taking rank with a bishopric. There had been many disputes about the claims and privileges of this convent. John De Wessyngton took up the dispute in a tract, which thoroughly set forth the rights of the convent and settled the long controversy in its favor. It won him much renown in his time. The De Wessyngtons separated and went into different countries, engaged in different pursuits, some in the learned professions, some as great land owners, some were knighted for valorous services, some associated with religious houses. Gradually the De was dropped from the family name, and in the later records it appears as it is now spelled, WASHINGTON. The branch of the family from which our Washington descended, sprang from Laurence Washington, Esq., of Gray's Inn, son of John Washington, of Lancashire. This Laurence Washington was for a time mayor of Northampton, and received in 1538 a grant of the manor of Sulgrave with other lands adjoining. Sulgrave remained the landed estate of the family till 1620, and was called "The Washington Manor." Several of the descendents of this family distinguished themselves in wars and public services. This branch of the family was always true to the king, and under the protectorate when the king was in exile, many of his faithful subjects sought homes in other lands, some of them in the new colony of Virginia, which, from its fidelity to the exiled monarch and the Anglican church, had become a welcome refuge to the cavaliers. Among those who came here were John and Andrew Washington, grandsons of the grantee of the Sulgrave estate. The brothers reached Virginia in 1657 and made extensive land purchases in Westmoreland county, between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. John made his home on Bridge's creek and married Miss Anne Pope of the same county, thus at once identifying himself with the interests and life of the colony. He entered largely into the agricultural pursuits of the county; became a magistrate; a member of the house of burgesses; a colonel in the military forces that operated against the Seneca Indians, and a tower of strength in the community of which he was an honored member. The parish in which he resided was named for him. He is buried in the family burial place on Bridge's creek. His extensive landed estate and accumulations remained in the family. Augustine Washington, John's grandson, was the father of George Washington. Augustine was born in 1694, fortyseven years after his grandfather reached America. He was married April 20, 1715, to Jane Butler, daughter of Caleb Butler, of the same county. He had four children by her, but only Lawrence and Augustine survived the years of childhood; their mother died November 24, 1728. March 6, 1730, he married Mary Ball, a young and interesting girl, regarded as the belle of the neighborhood. Six children came of this marriage: George, Samuel, John Augustine, Charles, Elizabeth and Mildred. Mildred died in infancy. GEORGE, the eldest, the great general, president, man, whom we can scarcely think of as a child, was born February 22, 1732, in the old home on Bridge's creek. This old family home of the Washingtons occupied a sightly position, overlooking a great reach of the Potomac river and valley. The house had four rooms on the ground floor, a high pointed roof with rooms in it, and immense chimneys at each end. The house is entirely gone. There is nothing there to mark it as once a home, but the inscription on a stone which tells the traveler that this is the birth-place of George Washington. The record of the Washington ancestry is a noble one, showing that the family through every variety of experience and trial had kept a high respectability, and met all the demands of noble life with ability, fortitude and success. There seems always to have been in the |