Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1867-05-28
The Washington Family.

( During the last eighty years inqui-
ries and researches have been made.
and not unsuccessfully, respecting
the Washington family; and it is a
little singular that these researches
were commenced in England and by
British subject. In the year 1892
letter YVES addressed to General
Washington by Sir Isaac Heard, in
London, who held the heraldic office
of Garter King. Arms, desiring in
| formation relating to the Washing-
ton family. This the General gave,
although it did not amount to much,
he coniessing that it was a subject to
which he chad paid very little atten.
tion," Notwithstanding the lustre he
had recently shed upon that family,
which had been most respectable
one for five or six centuries, of the
class called gentry in England. In this
country, thanks to our institutions,
we have but one ctdsS-the people.
1t appears that the founder of the
Washington family, the ancestor of
all of that name in America at least,
was William de Hertburn, who lived
in the twelfth century. He acquired
by purchase, in 1883, the manor and
village Of Wessyngton, in the do
cese of Durham. Wessyngton was,
it may be supposed, its original name.
William was then a Norman, and
not an English name, and this may
favor the hypothesis that his ances>
tor came into England with the Con-
queror in 1866 Hertburn dropped
his own name, and assumed that Of
William de Wessyngton. Wessyng-
ton is said to signify smiling water"
Surnames were then rare or unknown
rs they now exist, and the owners
and lords CT manors usually took that
Of the manor. The seignorial and
proprietary prefix de" was drop
ped, and Wessyngton finally became
Washington, the process of transmit
tation being about this: De Yves
syngton, Wessyngton, Washington,
Washington, Washington, Walsh
ington, Washington. 1t has been
stationary in this last form some
hundreds of years, which will be re.
tanned probably as long as the name
is pronounced among men, and that
will be as long as any name of man
is pronounced, we may suppose
This final change Of the name was
made, perhaps, not less than three
hundred years ago, as the Washing>
tons have long been well known in
England, and some of them have
been very distinguished men. Sir
Henry Washington achieved an hon
orable military reputation, fighting
on the side of King Charles against
the Parliament. 10 the year Of 1888
the manor of Surgrave was granted
to Lawrence Washington, of Gray's
Inn, London. His Grandson Sir
John, had may children, and among
them John and Lawrence, the first
having been knighted by King James
the First. These two brothers ennis
grated to this country about the year
1859, the cause Of their emigration
being, Mr.. Everett says, dissatisfac-
ton with Cromwell's Government
They came to Virginia and settled in
Westmoreland county, purchasing
large landed estates; and some of the
land they purchased is yet owned by
their descendants. Gen. Washing
ton was the great grandson of the
immigrant John. The immigrant
Lawrence had numerous descendants,
some of them distinguished men,
Colonel William Washington, so cell
ebrated as a cavalry officer during
the revolution, was one of them
Lund Washington, the Generals
agent, in whom he had unb6 unded
confidence, was another; also, Col
onel John Washington, distinguish d
as an artillery officer IN the war wi n
Mexico, 1846-'47. Peter G. Wash
ington, Esq, member Of our socie-
ty, is also a lineal descendant of the
first Lawrence.