JARED SPARKS, Esq.
The following official documents show how these Memorial Stones
found their way to the State-House of Massachusetts.
“EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, COUNCIL CHAMBER,
BOSTON, March 15, 1861.
“_To the Honorable the House of Representatives_:--
“I have the honor to present to the General Court, as a
gift to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from one of its
citizens, certain memorials of great historic interest.
“The home and final resting-place of the ancestors of
George Washington were until recently unvisited by
and unknown to Americans. In the genealogical table
appended to the ‘Life of Washington’ by our distinguished
fellow-citizen, Mr. Jared Sparks, it is stated that
Lawrence Washington, the father of John Washington (who
emigrated to Virginia in 1657), was buried at Brington;
but, though both Mr. Sparks and Washington Irving visited
Sulgrave, an earlier home of the Washingtons, neither of
these learned biographers appears by his works to have
repaired to this quiet parish in Northamptonshire.
“Our fellow-citizen, the Hon. Charles Sumner, on a recent
visit to England, identified certain inscriptions in the
parish church of Brington, near Althorp, as being those of
the father and uncle of John Washington, the emigrant to
Virginia, who was the great-grandfather of the Father of
his Country.
“Earl Spencer, the proprietor of Althorp, sought out the
quarry from which, more than two centuries ago, these
tablets were taken, and caused others to be made which
are exact _fac-similes_ of the originals. These he has
presented to Mr. Sumner, who has expressed the desire that
memorials so interesting to all Americans may be placed
where they may be seen by the public, and has authorized me
to offer them to the Commonwealth, if it be the pleasure
of the Legislature to order them to be preserved in some
public part of the State-House.
“I send with this a letter addressed to myself by the
learned historian of Washington, bearing testimony to the
great interest of these memorials, and expressing the
desire that they may (Mr. Sumner assenting) be placed in
the Capitol.
“A letter from Mr. Sumner to Mr. Sparks also accompanies
this Message, describing the church at Brington, and some
of the associations which cluster around the resting-place
of the ancestors of our Washington.
“JOHN A. ANDREW.”
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