University of Virginia Library

THE WASHINGTON FAMILY.

It is agreed on all hands that, about the year 1655, two brothers,
John and Laurence Washington, came over to Virginia and settled
in Westmoreland county. In all the histories which I have seen
of the Washington family there is not another word said of Laurence
Washington, except that he and his brother came together
and settled at the same place. While the descendants of John
Washington, in all their branches, are minutely described in genealogies
and histories and biographies, doubtless in a great measure
because the great Washington was one of them, Laurence Washington
was forgotten and lost sight of as though he had never been.
I have met with persons who could not trace their connection with
General Washington or his first ancestors, yet were certain of some
connection with the family, but never thought of inquiring whether
their descent is not from the other brother. In a recent visit to
Tappahannock, the county seat of Essex county, (where are the
records of the old county of Rappahannock, which from 1653 to
1692 embraced all that lay on each side of the Rappahannock
River for some miles up to the Falls above Fredericksburg,) in
searching in an old record of wills, I found that of this same Laurence
Washington. Although he may have settled near the Potomac
with his brother John, he must have removed into Rappahannock
county, for his will is there recorded. He may have done

this without moving many miles from his brother, as Westmoreland
county and Washington parish were only about five miles wide, and
Rappahannock county and Littenburne parish were about the same
width, the one lying on the Potomac, the other on the Rappahannock
River. I have also obtained, by the help of a friend, the
will of Mr. John Washington, which was recorded at Westmoreland
Court-House, and whose original is still there in an old book of
wills, though in a somewhat mutilated form. That they were the
two brothers is evident from the fact that they mention each other
in their wills. Both of the wills are made in the same year,—that
of one on February 26, 1675; that of the other on September 27,
1675. The one is proved the 10th of January, 1677, and the other
the 6th of January of the same year, at an interval of only four
days, so that it is probable they died in a few days of each other.
There is something so pious in the language of these wills, that I
make no apology for introducing a portion of them. Without any
means of ascertaining which was the elder of the two, we begin
with the will of John Washington:—

Again he repeats the same sentiment, hoping "through the
merits of Jesus Christ's death and passion to possess and inherit
the kingdom of heaven prepared for his elect and chosen." He
directs his body to be buried on the plantation upon which he
lived, by the side of his wife and two children. He then proceeds
to distribute his property, which he says it has pleased God to give
him "far above his deserts." After dividing a number of landed
estates between his second and surviving wife and his children,—
John, Laurence, and Anne,—and also his property in England, he
directs that a funeral sermon be preached and no other funeral
kept, and that a tablet with the Ten Commandments be sent for to
England and given to the church. I think, also, that he directs
four thousand-weight of tobacco to be given to the minister, though

of this I am not certain, some words being lost. He leaves one
thousand pounds to his brother-in-law, Thomas Pope, and one
thousand pounds and four thousand-weight of tobacco to his sister,
who had come or was coming over to this country. He makes his
wife and brother Laurence his executors. From the above it would
seem that, great as were his military talents, being commander-in-chief
in the Northern Neck, high as he stood in the Government,
so that the parish was called after him, and large as was his property
in England and America, he was also a sincerely pious man, and
in his will emphatically testifies to those great Gospel principles
which are so prominent in the Church of his fathers.

In the will of his brother Laurence there is the same spirit of piety.
After the usual preamble, he says, "Imprimis: I give and bequeath
my soul unto the hands of Almighty God, hoping and trusting,
through the mercy of Jesus Christ, my one Saviour and Redeemer,
to receive full pardon and forgiveness of all my sins, and my body
to the earth, to be buried in comely and decent manner by my executor
hereafter named: and for my worldly goods, I thus dispose of
them." To his daughter Mary Washington (by a former wife in
England) he bequeathed his whole estate in England, both real
and personal, to be delivered immediately after his death, together
with a ring and other articles. To his loving son John he left all
his books and part of his plate, the other part to his daughter Ann,
when they should be of age or marry. His lands are divided between
his wife and the two children—John and Ann—by her. A
farm called West Fales, which lay on the south side of the Rappahannock,
which once belonged to Captain Alexander Fleming, and
which came to him by his wife, was to be sold for his debts. It is
probable that his second wife was a daughter of Captain Fleming.
He leaves his wife executrix of the estate, but provides that in case
of her death or neglect to be the guardian and overseer of his
children, his loving brother John Washington and loving friend
Thomas Hawkins should be. In a codicil written at the same time,
he leaves that part of the land on which he then lived, and which
came to him by marriage, to the sole disposal of his wife. It is
probable, from the above, that he lived on the north side of the
river, in what is now Westmoreland. From the foregoing particulars,
some other than myself may be able to ascertain the maiden
name of his wife, and who, if any, are the descendants of his three
children, as it is more than probable they had descendants.