While matters concerning the estate were being discussed, Lawrence soon
discovered so much of my too great freedom that he and my half-brother
Augustine insisted that I go to live for a time with the latter, near
to whose abode was a good school. My mother wept and protested, but at
last agreed, with impatience, that I might go if I wished to do so. Of
this Lawrence felt secure, for he had promised me a horse for myself
and clothes to come from London, especially a red coat. I have always
had a fancy for being well clothed; and as I was less well dressed than
other gentlemen’s sons, the idea of a scarlet coat, and the promise of
spurs when I had learned to ride better, settled my mind. I liked very
well the great liberty I had, and to part with this and my playfellows
I was not inclined; but I felt, as a boy does, that I was being made
of importance, which pleases mankind at all times of life. I may
say, also, that I was become more grave than most of my years, and
was curious to see Williamsburg, where lived the king’s governor, and
something beyond our plantation.
I remember that George Fairfax insisted once that no action ever grew
out of only one motive, and, as I see, there were several made me
willing to leave my home. Thus when Lawrence talked to me of his wars,
and of his friends the Fairfaxes, and of how I must also soon visit him
at Mount Vernon, I readily agreed to his wishes. It was hard to part
with Betty, who looked like me until I had the smallpox, and with my
dear brother Jack; but I was eager, as the day came, to see the outside
world, and I rode away very content, on a gray mare with one black fore
foot, beside Augustine, and my man Peter after us.
It was a long ride across the neck and down to Pope’s Creek on the
Potomac, and I was a tired lad when we rode at evening up to the door
of the house of Wakefield, where I was born eleven years before.
Here began a new life for me. Anne Aylett, Mrs. Augustine Washington,
was a kind woman, very orderly in her ways, and handsome. After two
days Peter was sent home, and I was allowed to ride alone to a Mr.
Williams’s school at Oak Grove, four miles away.
I took very easily to arithmetic, and, later, to mathematic studies. I
remember with what pleasure and pride I accompanied Mr. Williams when
he went to survey some meadows on Bridges’ Creek. To discover that
what could be learned at school might be turned to use in setting out
the bounds of land, gave me the utmost satisfaction. I have always had
this predilection for such knowledge as can be put to practical uses,
and was never weary of tramping after my teacher, which much surprised
my sister-in-law. I took less readily to geography and history. Some
effort was made (but this was later) to instruct me in the rudiments of
Latin, but it was not kept up, and a phrase or two I found wrote later
in a copybook is all that remains to me of that tongue.
I much regret that I never learned to spell very well or to write
English with elegance. As the years went by, I improved as to both
defects, through incessant care on my part and copying my letters over
and over. Great skill in the use of language I have never possessed,
but I have always been able to make my meaning so plain in what I wrote
that no one could fail to understand what I desired to make known.
I have always been willing to confess my lack of early education, but
notwithstanding have been better able to present my reasons on paper
than by word of mouth. I am aware, as I have said, that, except in the
chase or in battle, my mind moves slowly, but I am further satisfied
that under peaceful circumstances my final capacity to judge and act
is quite as good as that of men who, like General Hamilton, were my
superiours in power to express themselves. I may add that I learned
early to write a clear and very legible hand. As to spelling, my
mother’s was the worst I ever saw, and I believe King George was no
better at it than I, his namesake. This just now reminds me that I may
have been named after his grandfather, King George II, for George was
not a family name, and, as we were very loyal people, it may have been
so.
It was usual in those days to give to children names long in use in a
family. John, Augustine, and Lawrence, for males, were repeated among
us, and Mildred and Harriott; but I never heard of a George Washington
before me, nor of any George in our descent, except my grandmother’s
grandfather, the Hon. George Reade of his Majesty’s council in 1657.
General Hamilton at one time interested himself in this matter, but I
could make no satisfactory answer. I suppose my mother knew. I never
thought to ask her. General Hamilton made merry over the idea of how
much it would have gratified his present Majesty to have known of his
grandfather being thus honoured.
Indeed, it pleased Mr. Duane, when maligning me, to call me Georgius
Rex, but of this I apprehend that I have said enough. It is of no
importance.
Outside of my school, the life at Wakefield was well suited to a lad of
spirit. There were thirty horses in the stables, and some of them well
bred and had won races at Williamsburg.
The waters of Pope’s Creek, where the Potomac tides rush in at flood
and out at ebb through a narrow outlet of the creek, were full of
crabs, oysters, clams, and fish. One of the slaves, named Appleby
after August’s school, was engaged in the supply of fish, which the
many negroes and the family needed. I think there were, at the least,
seventy blacks. Being permitted to go on the water with Appleby, I
found much satisfaction in sailing and rowing and the search for
shell-fish. My brother August once surprised me by saying that some day
the bottom of the Bay of Chesapeake would be a richer mine, on account
of the oysters, than my brother Lawrence’s iron-mines, by which we all
set great store. This may some day come to pass. The quantities of shad
took in April and May were enough to feed an army, and what we did not
eat went to feed the land.
In the autumn I was sometimes allowed to sit with August in a wattled
blind, behind brush, while at dawning of day he shot the ducks, geese,
and swans which flew over the little islands of Pope’s Creek in great
flocks.
I prospered in this hardy life and grew strong and able to endure,
nor was it less good for me in other ways; for, although I cared very
little for August’s fiddling, nor to hear Anne sing, nor for the books,
of which there was a fair supply, I admired August so much that I
began, as some lads will do, to imitate his ways of doing things. And
this was of use to me, for August was very courteous and mild-spoken to
people of all classes, and much beloved by his slaves, to whom he was a
gentle and considerate master.
The country along the Potomac was well settled with families of
gentry, and visits were made by rowboats, so that I found very soon
boy companions, although Belvoir, where the Fairfaxes lived, and Mount
Vernon, rebuilt in 1742, being remote, were less frequently visited.
The church at Oak Grove was the better attended, and few persons were
presented or admonished for non-attendance, because on Sunday, as many
drove long distances, provisions were brought, and in the oak grove
near by, between services, there was a kind of picnic, very pleasant to
the younger people.