THE HOME OF WASHINGTON'S BOYHOOD--HIS EARLY EDUCATION--LAWRENCE WASHINGTON
AND HIS CAMPAIGN IN THE WEST INDIES--DEATH OF WASHINGTON'S FATHER--THE
WIDOWED MOTHER AND HER CHILDREN--SCHOOL EXERCISES.
Not long after the birth of George, his father removed to an estate in
Stafford County, opposite Fredericksburg. The house was similar in style to
the one at Bridges Creek, and stood on a rising ground overlooking a meadow
which bordered the Rappahannock. This was the home of George's boyhood; the
meadow was his play-ground, and the scene of his early athletic sports; but
this home, like that in which he was born, has disappeared; the site is
only to be traced by fragments of bricks, china, and earthenware.
In those days the means of instruction in Virginia were limited, and it was
the custom among the wealthy planters to send their sons to England to
complete their education. This was done by Augustine Washington with his
eldest son Lawrence, then about fifteen years of age, and whom he no doubt
considered the future head of the family. George was yet in early
childhood: as his intellect dawned he received the rudiments of education
in the best establishment for the purpose that the neighborhood afforded.
It was what was called, in popular parlance, an "old field school-house;"
humble enough in its pretensions, and kept by one of his father's tenants
named Hobby, who moreover was sexton of the parish. The instruction doled
out by him must have been of the simplest kind, reading, writing, and
ciphering, perhaps; but George had the benefit of mental and moral culture
at home, from an excellent father.
Several traditional anecdotes have been given to the world, somewhat prolix
and trite, but illustrative of the familiar and practical manner in which
Augustine Washington, in the daily intercourse of domestic life, impressed
the ductile mind of his child with high maxims of religion and virtue, and
imbued him with a spirit of justice and generosity, and above all a
scrupulous love of truth.
When George was about seven or eight years old his brother Lawrence
returned from England, a well-educated and accomplished youth. There was a
difference of fourteen years in their ages, which may have been one cause
of the strong attachment which took place between them. Lawrence looked
down with a protecting eye upon the boy whose dawning intelligence and
perfect rectitude won his regard; while George looked up to his manly and
cultivated brother as a model in mind and manners. We call particular
attention to this brotherly interchange of affection, from the influence it
had on all the future career of the subject of this memoir.
Lawrence Washington had something of the old military spirit of the family,
and circumstances soon called it into action. Spanish depredations on
British commerce had recently provoked reprisals. Admiral Vernon,
commander-in-chief in the West Indies, had accordingly captured Porto
Bello, on the Isthmus of Darien. The Spaniards were preparing to revenge
the blow; the French were fitting out ships to aid them. Troops were
embarked in England for another campaign in the West Indies; a regiment of
four battalions was to be raised in the colonies and sent to join them at
Jamaica. There was a sudden outbreak of military ardor in the province; the
sound of drum and fife was heard in the villages with the parade of
recruiting parties. Lawrence Washington, now twenty-two years of age,
caught the infection. He obtained a captain's commission in the newly
raised regiment, and embarked with it for the West Indies in 1740. He
served in the joint expeditions of Admiral Vernon and General Wentworth, in
the land forces commanded by the latter, and acquired the friendship and
confidence of both of those officers. He was present at the siege of
Carthagena, when it was bombarded by the fleet, and when the troops
attempted to escalade the citadel. It was an ineffectual attack; the ships
could not get near enough to throw their shells into the town, and the
scaling ladders proved too short. That part of the attack, however, with
which Lawrence was concerned, distinguished itself by its bravery. The
troops sustained unflinching a destructive fire for several hours, and at
length retired with honor, their small force having sustained a loss of
about six hundred in killed and wounded.
We have here the secret of that martial spirit so often cited of George in
his boyish days. He had seen his brother fitted out for the wars. He had
heard by letter and otherwise of the warlike scenes in which he was
mingling. All his amusements took a military turn. He made soldiers of his
schoolmates; they had their mimic parades, reviews, and sham fights; a boy
named William Bustle was sometimes his competitor, but George was
commander-in-chief of Hobby's school.
Lawrence Washington returned home in the autumn of 1742, the campaigns in
the West Indies being ended, and Admiral Vernon and General Wentworth being
recalled to England. It was the intention of Lawrence to rejoin his
regiment in that country, and seek promotion in the army, but circumstances
completely altered his plans. He formed an attachment to Anne, the eldest
daughter of the Honorable William Fairfax, of Fairfax County; his addresses
were well received, and they became engaged. Their nuptials were delayed by
the sudden and untimely death of his father, which took place on the 12th
of April, 1743, after a short but severe attack of gout in the stomach, and
when but forty-nine years of age. George had been absent from home on a
visit during his father's illness, and just returned in time to receive a
parting look of affection.
Augustine Washington left large possessions, distributed by will among his
children. To Lawrence, the estate on the banks of the Potomac, with other
real property, and several shares in iron works. To Augustine, the second
son by the first marriage, the old homestead and estate in Westmoreland.
The children by the second marriage were severally well provided for, and
George, when he became of age, was to have the house and lands on the
Rappahannock.
In the month of July the marriage of Lawrence with Miss Fairfax took place.
He now gave up all thoughts of foreign service, and settled himself on his
estate on the banks of the Potomac, to which he gave the name of MOUNT
VERNON, in honor of the admiral.
Augustine took up his abode at the homestead on Bridges Creek, and married
Anne, daughter and co-heiress of William Aylett, Esquire, of Westmoreland
County.
George, now eleven years of age, and the other children of the second
marriage, had been left under the guardianship of their mother, to whom was
intrusted the proceeds of all their property until they should severally
come of age. She proved herself worthy of the trust. Endowed with plain,
direct good sense, thorough conscientiousness, and prompt decision, she
governed her family strictly, but kindly, exacting deference while she
inspired affection. George, being her eldest son, was thought to be her
favorite, yet she never gave him undue preference, and the implicit
deference exacted from him in childhood continued to be habitually observed
by him to the day of her death. He inherited from her a high temper and a
spirit of command, but her early precepts and example taught him to
restrain and govern that temper, and to square his conduct on the exact
principles of equity and justice.
Tradition gives an interesting picture of the widow, with her little flock
gathered round her, as was her daily wont, reading to them lessons of
religion and morality out of some standard work. Her favorite volume was
Sir Matthew Hale's Contemplations, moral and divine. The admirable maxims
therein contained, for outward action as well as self-government, sank deep
into the mind of George, and, doubtless, had a great influence in forming
his character. They certainly were exemplified in his conduct throughout
life. This mother's manual, bearing his mother's name, Mary Washington,
written with her own hand, was ever preserved by him with filial care, and
may still be seen in the archives of Mount Vernon. A precious document! Let
those who wish to know the moral foundation of his character consult its
pages.
Having no longer the benefit of a father's instructions at home, and the
scope of tuition of Hobby, the sexton, being too limited for the growing
wants of his pupil, George was now sent to reside with Augustine
Washington, at Bridges Creek, and enjoy the benefit of a superior school in
that neighborhood, kept by a Mr. Williams. His education, however, was
plain and practical. He never attempted the learned languages, nor
manifested any inclination for rhetoric or belles-lettres. His object, or
the object of his friends, seems to have been confined to fitting him for
ordinary business. His manuscript school books still exist, and are models
of neatness and accuracy. One of them, it is true, a ciphering book,
preserved in the library at Mount Vernon, has some school-boy attempts at
calligraphy; nondescript birds, executed with a flourish of the pen, or
profiles of faces, probably intended for those of his schoolmates; the rest
are all grave and business-like. Before he was thirteen years of age he had
copied into a volume forms for all kinds of mercantile and legal papers;
bills of exchange, notes of hand, deeds, bonds, and the like. This early
self-tuition gave him throughout life a lawyer's skill in drafting
documents, and a merchant's exactness in keeping accounts; so that all the
concerns of his various estates; his dealings with his domestic stewards
and foreign agents; his accounts with government, and all his financial
transactions are to this day to be seen posted up in books, in his own
handwriting, monuments of his method and unwearied accuracy.
He was a self-disciplinarian in physical as well as mental matters, and
practised himself in all kinds of athletic exercises, such as running,
leaping, wrestling, pitching quoits and tossing bars. His frame even in
infancy had been large and powerful, and he now excelled most of his
playmates in contests of agility and strength. As a proof of his muscular
power, a place is still pointed out at Fredericksburg, near the lower
ferry, where, when a boy, he flung a stone across the Rappahannock. In
horsemanship too he already excelled, and was ready to back, and able to
manage the most fiery steed. Traditional anecdotes remain of his
achievements in this respect.
Above all, his inherent probity and the principles of justice on which he
regulated all his conduct, even at this early period of life, were soon
appreciated by his schoolmates; he was referred to as an umpire in their
disputes, and his decisions were never reversed. As he had formerly been
military chieftain, he was now legislator of the school; thus displaying in
boyhood a type of the future man.