GENEALOGY OF THE WASHINGTON FAMILY.
The Washington family is of an ancient English stock, the genealogy of
which has been traced up to the century immediately succeeding the
Conquest. At that time it was in possession of landed estates and manorial
privileges in the county of Durham, such as were enjoyed only by those, or
their descendants, who had come over from Normandy with the Conqueror, or
fought under his standard. When William the Conqueror laid waste the whole
country north of the Humber, in punishment of the insurrection of the
Northumbrians, he apportioned the estates among his followers, and advanced
Normans and other foreigners to the principal ecclesiastical dignities. One
of the most wealthy and important sees was that of Durham. Hither had been
transported the bones of St. Cuthbert from their original shrine at
Lindisfarne, when it was ravaged by the Danes. That saint, says Camden, was
esteemed by princes and gentry a titular saint against the Scots.
[Footnote: Camden, Brit. iv., 349.] His shrine, therefore, had been held in
peculiar reverence by the Saxons, and the see of Durham endowed with
extraordinary privileges.
William continued and increased those privileges. He needed a powerful
adherent on this frontier to keep the restless Northumbrians in order, and
check Scottish invasion; and no doubt considered an enlightened
ecclesiastic, appointed by the crown, a safer depositary of such power than
an hereditary noble.
Having placed a noble and learned native of Loraine in the diocese,
therefore, he erected it into a palatinate, over which the bishop, as Count
Palatine, had temporal, as well as spiritual jurisdiction. He built a
strong castle for his protection, and to serve as a barrier against the
Northern foe. He made him lord high-admiral of the sea and waters adjoining
his palatinate,--lord warden of the marches, and conservator of the league
between England and Scotland. Thenceforth, we are told, the prelates of
Durham owned no earthly superior within their diocese, but continued for
centuries to exercise every right attached to an independent sovereign.
[Footnote: Annals of Roger de Hovedon. Hutchinson's Durham, vol. ii.
Collectanea Curiosa, vol. ii., p. 83.]
The bishop, as Count Palatine, lived in almost royal state and splendor. He
had his lay chancellor, chamberlains, secretaries, steward, treasurer,
master of the horse, and a host of minor officers. Still he was under
feudal obligations. All landed property in those warlike times, implied
military service. Bishops and abbots, equally with great barons who held
estates immediately of the crown, were obliged, when required, to furnish
the king with armed men in proportion to their domains; but they had their
feudatories under them to aid them in this service.
The princely prelate of Durham had his barons and knights, who held estates
of him on feudal tenure, and were bound to serve him in peace and war. They
sat occasionally in his councils, gave martial splendor to his court, and
were obliged to have horse and weapon ready for service, for they lived in
a belligerent neighborhood, disturbed occasionally by civil war, and often
by Scottish foray. When the banner of St. Cuthbert, the royal standard of
the province, was displayed, no armed feudatory of the bishop could refuse
to take the field. [Footnote: Robert de Graystanes, Ang. Sac., p. 746.]
Some of these prelates, in token of the warlike duties of their diocese,
engraved on their seals a knight on horseback armed at all points,
brandishing in one hand a sword, and holding forth in the other the arms of
the see. [Footnote: Camden, Brit. iv., 349.]
Among the knights who held estates in the palatinate on these warlike
conditions, was WILLIAM DE HERTBURN, the progenitor of the Washingtons.
His Norman name of William would seem to point out his national descent;
and the family long continued to have Norman names of baptism. The surname
of De Hertburn was taken from a village on the palatinate which he held of
the bishop in knight's fee; probably the same now called Hartburn on the
banks of the Tees. It had become a custom among the Norman families of rank
about the time of the Conquest, to take surnames from their castles or
estates; it was not until some time afterwards that surnames became
generally assumed by the people. [Footnote: Lower on Surnames, vol. i., p.
43. Fuller says, that the custom of surnames was brought from France in
Edward the Confessor's time, about fifty years before the Conquest; but did
not become universally settled until some hundred years afterwards. At
first they did not descend hereditarily on the family.--_Fuller, Church
History. Roll Battle Abbey._]
How or when the De Hertburns first acquired possession of their village is
not known. They may have been companions in arms with Robert de Brus (or
Bruce) a noble knight of Normandy, rewarded by William the Conqueror with
great possessions in the North, and among others, with the lordships of
Hert and Hertness in the county of Durham.
The first actual mention we find of the family is in the Bolden Book, a
record of all the lands appertaining to the diocese in 1183. In this it is
stated that William de Hertburn had exchanged his village of Hertburn for
the manor and village of Wessyngton, likewise in the diocese; paying the
bishop a quitrent of four pounds, and engaging to attend him with two
greyhounds in grand hunts, and to furnish a man at arms whenever military
aid should be required of the palatinate. [Footnote: THE BOLDEN BOOK. As
this ancient document gives the first trace of the Washington family, it
merits especial mention. In 1183, a survey was made by order of Bishop de
Pusaz of all the lands of the see held in demesne, or by tenants in
villanage. The record was entered in a book called the Bolden Buke; the
parish of Bolden occurring first in alphabetical arrangement. The document
commences in the following manner: Incipit liber qui vocatur Bolden Book.
Anno Dominice Incarnationis, 1183, &c.
The following is the memorandum in question:--
Willus de Herteburn habet Wessyngton (excepta ecclesia et terra ecclesie
partinen) ad excamb. pro villa de Herteburn quam pro hac quietam clamavit:
Et reddit 4 L. Et vadit in _magna caza_ cum 2 Leporar. Et quando
commune auxilium venerit debet dare 1 Militem ad plus de auxilio,
&c.--_Collectanea Curiosa_, vol. ii., p. 89.
The Bolden Buke is a small folio, deposited in the office of the bishop's
auditor, at Durham.]
The family changed its surname with its estate, and thenceforward assumed
that of DE WESSYNGTON. [Footnote: The name is probably of Saxon origin. It
existed in England prior to the Conquest. The village of Wassengtone is
mentioned in a Saxon charter as granted by king Edgar in 973 to Thorney
Abbey.--_Collectanea Topographica_, iv., 55.] The condition of
military service attached to its manor will be found to have been often
exacted, nor was the service in the grand hunt an idle form. Hunting came
next to war in those days, as the occupation of the nobility and gentry.
The clergy engaged in it equally with the laity. The hunting establishment
of the Bishop of Durham was on a princely scale. He had his forests, chases
and parks, with their train of foresters, rangers, and park keepers. A
grand hunt was a splendid pageant in which all his barons and knights
attended him with horse and hound. The stipulations with the Seignior of
Wessyngton show how strictly the rights of the chase were defined. All the
game taken by him in going to the forest belonged to the bishop; all taken
on returning belonged to himself. [Footnote: Hutchinson's Durham vol. ii.,
p. 489.]
Hugh de Pusaz (or De Pudsay) during whose episcopate we meet with this
first trace of the De Wessyngtons, was a nephew of king Stephen, and a
prelate of great pretensions; fond of appearing with a train of
ecclesiastics and an armed retinue. When Richard Coeur de Lion put every
thing at pawn and sale to raise funds for a crusade to the Holy Land, the
bishop resolved to accompany him. More wealthy than his sovereign, he made
magnificent preparations. Besides ships to convey his troops and retinue,
he had a sumptuous galley for himself, fitted up with a throne or episcopal
chair of silver, and all the household, and even culinary, utensils, were
of the same costly material. In a word, had not the prelate been induced to
stay at home, and aid the king with his treasures, by being made one of the
regents of the kingdom, and Earl of Northumberland for life, the De
Wessyngtons might have followed the banner of St. Cuthbert to the Holy
wars.
Nearly seventy years afterwards we find the family still retaining its
manorial estate in the palatinate. The names of Bondo de Wessyngton and
William his son appear on charters of land, granted in 1257 to religious
houses. Soon after occurred the wars of the barons, in which the throne of
Henry III was shaken by the De Mountforts. The chivalry of the palatinate
rallied under the royal standard. On the list of loyal knights who fought
for their sovereign in the disastrous battle of Lewes (1264), in which the
king was taken prisoner, we find the name of William Weshington, of
Weshington. [Footnote: This list of knights was inserted in the Bolden Book
as an additional entry. It is cited at full length by Hutchinson.--_Hist.
Durham_, vol. i., p. 220.]
During the splendid pontificate of Anthony Beke (or Beak), the knights of
the palatinate had continually to be in the saddle, or buckled in armor.
The prelate was so impatient of rest that he never took more than one
sleep, saying it was unbecoming a man to turn from one side to another in
bed. He was perpetually, when within his diocese, either riding from one
manor to another, or hunting and hawking. Twice he assisted Edward I. with
all his force in invading Scotland. In the progress northward with the
king, the bishop led the van, marching a day in advance of the main body,
with a mercenary force, paid by himself, of one thousand foot and five
hundred horse. Besides these he had his feudatories of the palatinate; six
bannerets and one hundred and sixty knights, not one of whom, says an old
poem, but surpassed Arthur himself, though endowed with the charmed gifts
of Merlin. [Footnote:
Onques Artous pour touz ces charmes,
Si beau prisent ne ot de Merlyn.
SIEGE OF KARLAVEROCK; _an old Poem in Norman French._] We presume the
De Wessyngtons were among those preux chevaliers, as the banner of St.
Cuthbert had been taken from its shrine on the occasion, and of course all
the armed force of the diocese was bound to follow. It was borne in front
of the army by a monk of Durham. There were many rich caparisons, says the
old poem, many beautiful pennons, fluttering from lances, and much neighing
of steeds. The hills and valleys were covered with sumpter horses and
waggons laden with tents and provisions. The Bishop of Durham in his
warlike state appeared, we are told, more like a powerful prince, than a
priest or prelate. [Footnote: Robert de Graystanes, Ang. Sac., p. 746,
cited by Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 239.]
At the surrender of the crown of Scotland by John Baliol, which ended this
invasion, the bishop negotiated on the part of England. As a trophy of the
event, the chair of Schone used on the inauguration of the Scottish
monarchs, and containing the stone on which Jacob dreamed, the palladium of
Scotland, was transferred to England and deposited in Westminster Abbey.
[Footnote: An extract from an inedited poem, cited by Nicolas in his
translation of the Siege of Carlavarock, gives a striking picture of the
palatinate in these days of its pride and splendor:--
There valour bowed before the rood and book,
And kneeling knighthood served a prelate lord,
Yet little deigned he on such train to look,
Or glance of ruth or pity to afford.
There time has heard the peal rung out at night,
Has seen from every tower the cressets stream,
When the red bale fire on yon western height
Had roused the warder from his fitful dream.
Has seen old Durham's lion banner float
O'er the proud bulwark, that, with giant pride
And feet deep plunged amidst the circling moat,
The efforts of the roving Scot defied.]
In the reign of Edward III. we find the De Wessyngtons still mingling in
chivalrous scenes. The name of Sir Stephen de Wessyngton appears on a list
of knights (nobles chevaliers) who were to tilt at a tournament at
Dunstable in 1334. He bore for his device a golden rose on an azure field.
[Footnote: Collect. Topog. et Genealog. T. iv., p. 395.]
He was soon called to exercise his arms on a sterner field. In 1346, Edward
and his son, the Black Prince, being absent with the armies in France, king
David of Scotland invaded Northumberland with a powerful army. Queen
Philippa, who had remained in England as regent, immediately took the
field, calling the northern prelates and nobles to join her standard. They
all hastened to obey. Among the prelates was Hatfield, the Bishop of
Durham. The sacred banner of St. Cuthbert was again displayed, and the
chivalry of the palatinate assisted at the famous battle of Nevil's cross,
near Durham, in which the Scottish army was defeated and king David taken
prisoner.
Queen Philippa hastened with a victorious train to cross the sea at Dover,
and join king Edward in his camp before Calais. The prelate of Durham
accompanied her. His military train consisted of three bannerets,
forty-eight knights, one hundred and sixty-four esquires, and eighty
archers, on horseback. [Footnote: Collier's Eccles. Hist., Book VI., Cent.
XIV.] They all arrived to witness the surrender of Calais, (1346) on which
occasion queen Philippa distinguished herself by her noble interference in
saving the lives of its patriot citizens.
Such were the warlike and stately scenes in which the De Wessyngtons were
called to mingle by their feudal duties as knights of the palatinate. A few
years after the last event (1350), William, at that time lord of the manor
of Wessyngton, had license to settle it and the village upon himself, his
wife, and "his own right heirs." He died in 1367, and his son and heir,
William, succeeded to the estate. The latter is mentioned under the name of
Sir William de Weschington, as one of the knights who sat in the privy
council of the county during the episcopate of John Fordham. [Footnote:
Hutchinson, vol. ii.] During this time the whole force of the palatinate
was roused to pursue a foray of Scots, under Sir William Douglas, who,
having ravaged the country, were returning laden with spoil. It was a fruit
of the feud between the Douglases and the Percys. The marauders were
overtaken by Hotspur Percy, and then took place the battle of Otterbourne,
in which Percy was taken prisoner and Douglas slain. [Footnote:
Theare the Dowglas lost his life,
And the Percye was led away.
FORDUN. _Quoted by Surtee's Hist. Durham_, vol i.]
For upwards of two hundred years the De Wessyngtons had now sat in the
councils of the palatinate; had mingled with horse and hound in the stately
hunts of its prelates, and followed the banner of St. Cuthbert to the
field; but Sir William, just mentioned, was the last of the family that
rendered this feudal service. He was the last male of the line to which the
inheritance of the manor, by the license granted to his father, was
confined. It passed away from the De Wessyngtons, after his death, by the
marriage of his only daughter and heir, Dionisia, with Sir William Temple
of Studley. By the year 1400 it had become the property of the Blaykestons.
[Footnote: Hutchinson's Durham, vol. ii., p. 489.]
But though the name of De Wessyngton no longer figured on the chivalrous
roll of the palatinate, it continued for a time to flourish in the
cloisters. In the year 1416, John de Wessyngton was elected prior of the
Benedictine convent, attached to the cathedral. The monks of this convent
had been licensed by Pope Gregory VII. to perform the solemn duties of the
cathedral in place of secular clergy, and William the Conqueror had
ordained that the priors of Durham should enjoy all the liberties,
dignities and honors of abbots; should hold their lands and churches in
their own hands and free disposition, and have the abbot's seat on the left
side of the choir--thus taking rank of every one but the bishop. [Footnote:
Dugdale Monasticon Anglicanum. T. i., p. 231. London ed. 1846.]
In the course of three centuries and upwards, which had since elapsed,
these honors and privileges had been subject to repeated dispute and
encroachment, and the prior had nearly been elbowed out of the abbot's
chair by the archdeacon. John de Wessyngton was not a man to submit tamely
to such infringements of his rights. He forthwith set himself up as the
champion of his priory, and in a learned tract, _de Juribus et
Possessionibus Ecclesiae Dunelm_, established the validity of the long
controverted claims, and fixed himself firmly in the abbot's chair. His
success in this controversy gained him much renown among his brethren of
the cowl, and in 1426 he presided at the general chapter of the order of
St. Benedict, held at Northampton.
The stout prior of Durham had other disputes with the bishop and the
secular clergy touching his ecclesiastical functions, in which he was
equally victorious, and several tracts remain in manuscript in the dean and
chapter's library; weapons hung up in the church armory as memorials of his
polemical battles.
Finally, after fighting divers good fights for the honor of his priory, and
filling the abbot's chair for thirty years, he died, to use an ancient
phrase, "in all the odor of sanctity," in 1446, and was buried like a
soldier on his battle-field, at the door of the north aisle of his church,
near to the altar of St. Benedict. On his tombstone was an inscription in
brass, now unfortunately obliterated, which may have set forth the valiant
deeds of this Washington of the cloisters. [Footnote: Hutchinson's Durham,
vol. ii., passim.]
By this time the primitive stock of the De Wessyngtons had separated into
divers branches, holding estates in various parts of England; some
distinguishing themselves in the learned professions, others receiving
knighthood for public services. Their names are to be found honorably
recorded in county histories, or engraved on monuments in time-worn
churches and cathedrals, those garnering places of English worthies. By
degrees the seignorial sign of _de_ disappeared from before the family
surname, which also varied from Wessyngton to Wassington, Wasshington, and
finally, to Washington. [Footnote: "The de came to be omitted," says an old
treatise, "when Englishmen and English manners began to prevail upon the
recovery of lost credit."--_Restitution of decayed intelligence in
antiquities._ Lond. 1634.
About the time of Henry VI., says another treatise, the de or d' was
generally dropped from surnames, when the title of _armiger_,
_esquier_, amongst the heads of families, and _generosus_, or
_gentylman_, among younger sons was substituted.--_Lower on
Surnames_, vol i.] A parish in the county of Durham bears the name as
last written, and in this probably the ancient manor of Wessyngton was
situated. There is another parish of the name in the county of Sussex.
The branch of the family to which our Washington immediately belongs sprang
from Laurence Washington, Esquire, of Gray's Inn, son of John Washington,
of Warton in Lancashire. This Laurence Washington was for some time mayor
of Northampton, and on the dissolution of the priories by Henry VIII. he
received, in 1538, a grant of the manor of Sulgrave, in Northamptonshire,
with other lands in the vicinity, all confiscated property formerly
belonging to the monastery of St. Andrew's.
Sulgrave remained in the family until 1620, and was commonly called
"Washington's manor." [Footnote: The manor of Garsdon in Wiltshire has been
mentioned as the homestead of the ancestors of our Washington. This is a
mistake. It was the residence of Sir Laurence Washington, second son of the
above-mentioned grantee of Sulgrave. Elizabeth, granddaughter of this Sir
Laurence, married Robert Shirley, Earl Ferrers and Viscount of Tamworth.
Washington became a baptismal name among the Shirleys--several of the Earls
Ferrers have borne it.
The writer of these pages visited Sulgrave a few years since. It was in a
quiet rural neighborhood, where the farm-houses were quaint and antiquated.
A part only of the manor house remained, and was inhabited by a farmer. The
Washington crest, in colored glass, was to be seen in a window of what was
now the buttery. A window on which the whole family arms was emblazoned had
been removed to the residence of the actual proprietor of the manor.
Another relic of the ancient manor of the Washingtons was a rookery in a
venerable grove hard by. The rooks, those stanch adherents to old family
abodes, still hovered and cawed about their hereditary nests. In the
pavement of the parish church we were shown a stone slab bearing effigies
on plates of brass of Laurence Wasshington, gent., and Anne his wife, and
their four sons and eleven daughters. The inscription in black letter was
dated 1564.]
One of the direct descendants of the grantee of Sulgrave was Sir William
Washington, of Packington, in the county of Kent. He married a sister of
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the unfortunate favorite of Charles I.
This may have attached the Sulgrave Washingtons to the Stuart dynasty, to
which they adhered loyally and generously throughout all its vicissitudes.
One of the family, Lieutenant Colonel James Washington, took up arms in the
cause of king Charles, and lost his life at the siege of Pontefract castle.
Another of the Sulgrave line, Sir Henry Washington, son and heir of Sir
William, before mentioned, exhibited in the civil wars the old chivalrous
spirit of the knights of the palatinate. He served under prince Rupert at
the storming of Bristol, in 1643, and when the assailants were beaten off
at every point, he broke in with a handful of infantry at a weak part of
the wall, made room for the horse to follow, and opened a path to victory.
[Footnote: Clarendon, Book vii.]
He distinguished himself still more in 1646, when elevated to the command
of Worcester, the governor having been captured by the enemy. It was a time
of confusion and dismay. The king had fled from Oxford in disguise and gone
to the parliamentary camp at Newark. The royal cause was desperate. In this
crisis Sir Henry received a letter from Fairfax, who, with his victorious
army, was at Haddington, demanding the surrender of Worcester. The
following was Colonel Washington's reply:
SIR,
It is acknowledged by your books and by report of your own quarter, that
the king is in some of your armies. That granted, it may be easy for you to
procure his Majesty's commands for the disposal of this garrison. Till then
I shall make good the trust reposed in me. As for conditions, if I shall be
necessitated, I shall make the best I can. The worst I know and fear not;
if I had, the profession of a soldier had not been begun, nor so long
continued by your Excellency's humble servant,
HENRY WASHINGTON. [Footnote: Greene's Antiquities of Worcester, p. 273.]
In a few days Colonel Whalley invested the city with five thousand troops.
Sir Henry dispatched messenger after messenger in quest of the king to know
his pleasure. None of them returned. A female emissary was equally
unavailing. Week after week elapsed, until nearly three months had expired.
Provisions began to fail. The city was in confusion. The troops grew
insubordinate. Yet Sir Henry persisted in the defence. General Fairfax,
with 1,500 horse and foot, was daily expected. There was not powder enough
for an hour's contest should the city be stormed. Still Sir Henry "awaited
his Majesty's commands."
At length news arrived that the king had issued an order for the surrender
of all towns, castles, and forts. A printed copy of the order was shown to
Sir Henry, and on the faith of that document he capitulated (19th July,
1646) on honorable terms, won by his fortitude and perseverance. Those who
believe in hereditary virtues may see foreshadowed in the conduct of this
Washington of Worcester, the magnanimous constancy of purpose, the
disposition to "hope against hope," which bore our Washington triumphantly
through the darkest days of our revolution.
We have little note of the Sulgrave branch of the family after the death of
Charles I. and the exile of his successor. England, during the
protectorate, became an uncomfortable residence to such as had signalized
themselves as adherents to the house of Stuart. In 1655, an attempt at a
general insurrection drew on them the vengeance of Cromwell. Many of their
party who had no share in the conspiracy, yet sought refuge in other lands,
where they might live free from molestation. This may have been the case
with two brothers, John and Andrew Washington, great-grandsons of the
grantee of Sulgrave, and uncles of Sir Henry, the gallant defender of
Worcester. John had for some time resided at South Cave, in the East Riding
of Yorkshire; [Footnote: South Cave is near the Humber. "In the vicinity is
Cave Castle, an embattled edifice. It has a noble collection of paintings,
including a portrait of General Washington, whose ancestors possessed a
portion of the estate."--_Lewes, Topog. Dict._ vol. i., p. 530.] but
now emigrated with his brother to Virginia; which colony, from its
allegiance to the exiled monarch and the Anglican Church had become a
favorite resort of the Cavaliers. 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 Anne 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. In honor of his public services and private virtues the parish
in which he resided was called after him, and still bears the name of
Washington. He lies buried in a vault on Bridges Creek, which, for
generations, was the family place of sepulture.
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 of this biography, was born on the 22d of
February (11th, O. S.), 1732, in the homestead on Bridges Creek. This house
commanded a view over many miles of the Potomac, and the opposite shore of
Maryland. It had probably been purchased with the property, and was one of
the primitive farm-houses of Virginia. The roof was steep, and sloped down
into low projecting eaves. It had four rooms on the ground floor, and
others in the attic, and an immense chimney at each end. Not a vestige of
it remains. Two or three decayed fig trees, with shrubs and vines, linger
about the place, and here and there a flower grown wild serves "to mark
where a garden has been." Such at least, was the case a few years since;
but these may have likewise passed away. A stone [Footnote: Placed there by
George W. P. Custis, Esq.] marks the site of the house, and an inscription
denotes its being the birthplace of Washington.
We have entered with some minuteness into this genealogical detail; tracing
the family step by step through the pages of historical documents for
upwards of six centuries; and we have been tempted to do so by the
documentary proofs it gives of the lineal and enduring worth of the race.
We have shown that, for many generations, and through a variety of eventful
scenes, it has maintained an equality of fortune and respectability, and
whenever brought to the test has acquitted itself with honor and loyalty.
Hereditary rank may be an illusion; but hereditary virtue gives a patent of
innate nobleness beyond all the blazonry of the Herald's College.