,
first dropping the _de_, varied from Wessyngton to Wassington,
Wasshington, and finally to Washington. The head of the family to
which our Washington immediately belongs sprang from Lawrence
Washington, Esq., of Gray's Inn. He was mayor of Northampton, and
received a grant of the manor of Sulgrave from Henry VIII. [Sir
William Washington of Packington, was his direct descendant. The
Washingtons were attached to the Stuart dynasty. Lieut.-Col. James
Washington perished in defence of that cause. Sir Henry Washington,
son of Sir William, distinguished himself under Prince Rupert, in
1643, at the storming of Bristol; and still more, in 1646, in the
defence of Worcester against the arms of Fairfax. We hear little of
the Washingtons after the death of Charles I. England, during the
protectorate, was an uncomfortable residence for those who had adhered
to the Stuarts, and many sought refuge in other lands. Among many who
emigrated to the western wilds were John and Andrew Washington,
great-grandsons of the grantee of Sulgrave.]

The brothers arrived in Virginia in 1657, and purchased lands in
Westmoreland County, on the northern neck, between the Potomac and
Rappahannock rivers. John married a Miss Anna Pope, of the same
county, and took up his residence on Bridges Creek, near where it
falls into the Potomac. He became an extensive planter, and, in
process of time, a magistrate and member of the House of Burgesses.
Having a spark of the old military fire of the family, we find him, as
Colonel Washington, leading the Virginia forces, in co-operation with
those of Maryland, against a band of Seneca Indians, who were ravaging
the settlements along the Potomac.

The estate continued in the family. His grandson Augustine, the father
of our Washington, was born there in 1694. He was twice married; first
(April 20th, 1715), to Jane, daughter of Caleb Butler, Esq., of
Westmoreland County, by whom he had four children, of whom only two,
Lawrence and Augustine, survived the years of childhood; their mother
died November 24th, 1728, and was buried in the family vault. On the
6th of March, 1730, he married in second nuptials, Mary, the daughter
of Colonel Ball, a young and beautiful girl, said to be the belle of
the northern neck. By her he had four sons, George, Samuel, John
Augustine, and Charles; and two daughters, Elizabeth, or Betty, as she
was commonly called, and Mildred, who died in infancy.

George, the eldest, the subject