The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-03-09
THE WASHINGTONS.
An Interesting Account of the Washington
Family,


prevailed throughout the British en-
pire in much the greater part of the
regin of George II. (1727.60, and did
so in 1731-32, the year beginning on
the 25th of March, as rule; so that
Washington was born in the year 1871,
according to the ordinary mode of fix
ing years and dates and days in the old
country, the usages of which governed
the new country to which Virginia
even then the ancient dominion-be-
longed one hundred and fifty years ago.
When the English adopted the reform =
in 1852, 270 years later--things were
properly arranged, the year being made
to commence on the 1st of Jan
uary, while eleven days were omitted
from the calendar-the Sd of Septem-
Der being reckoned as the 14th of Sep
tember, 1852, whence the call of so
many of the intelligent men of that
year, "Give us back our eleven days !"
Washington's birthday thus was made
to fall on the 22d of February, and he
completed his majority on that date in
1853. He was the eldest son, by a
second marriage, of Augustine Wash
ington, grandson of John Washington
who came to America, it is supposed,
in the year 1867, or thereabout- say
some two hundred and twenty-four
years ago. His mother was
Mary Ball, Augustine's second wife, who
survived her husband for more than
forty-six years, as she died in August,
1889, and his death occurred in April,
1743. She lived to see her eldest son,
become one of the most immortal of
men. The Washingtons were
of the English gentry, and of
very old race. 1t is believed
that they were of some note in the
tenth century, long before the Con-
quest. 1t is certain that they were of
established fortune in the thirteenth
century, living in the north of Eng
land, Durham, county Pal.,tine. J
William De Hertburn was the first of
them who can be considered indisputa-
bly, historical. Exchanging his estate
for that of WeSsington, he took the
latter name; and he must be considered
the progenitor of all the Washingtons,
and they are many. The family were
of considerable distinction, and spread
to many parts of England-Northum-
berland, Yorkshire, Lancashire, War
wickshire and Northamptonshire. Law
renee Washington, whose father (John)
is known, was mayor of Northampton in
1882. just three hundred and ffty
years ago. This was temp Hen. VIII,
and in 1889 Lawrence obtained part
of the spoil of the monasteries-the
manor of Sulgrave. This long remained
III the family, and came to be known
as the Washington manor The John
Washington and Lawrence Washington
who came to America in 1867 were
great-grandsons of the first Lawrence
Washington of Sulgrave; and George
Washington was the great grandson of
the John Lawrence who came over in
1867, accompanied by his brother
Lawrence. The pedigree is very re-
spe3table, even if we go no farther back
than to John Washington of Warton,
father of the mayor of Northampton,
who probably was born under the
Plantagenets, that dynasty becoming
extinct in 1856. The active Washing
tons of the time of the great civil wa,
we're royalists, and some of them were
persons of distinction, ana fought on
those fields
Where the wicked cavaliers did run
The clean contrary way"
But the fortunes of war fiually were
with the r Jundheads, and the tive
brothers, John and Lawrence, who al
rived in Virginia in 1867, were politi
Cal exiles, who had found it would be
good for their health to leave England
General ashington, in 1892 spoke oi
"the usurpation OF Oliver Cromwell,
though he had played part in Americ.
not unlike to that which Cromwell haC
performed in England. Our first Pres
ident was man of good lineage
Probably he was of the best blood o
any of the Presidents, who, though o
good positions, were oftenest sons O
their own works, or grandsons. Mr.
Hawthorne, in his "English Note
Books" writes concerning his jour
ney from Newcastle to York, il
1856: "All 1 remember of thi
tract of country is that one of tn,
stations at which we stopped for an in
slant is called Washington, and this il
no doubt the old family palace wher,
the De Wessingtons, afterward thu
'Washingtons,' were first settled il
England" There is parish of Wash
ington in Durham, and township o
Washington in that parish; and par
ish of Washington in Sussex-and il
Derby there is a township of Wessing
ton or Washington in the parish o
erich. There is ahamlet of Washington
or Washington in the parish of Campden
Chipping, Gloucester. Thus the nam,
is somewhat common in widely -separ
ated English shires. though it does no
appear to be borne by any place of note
The title of Wellington is derived fror
the parish and market town of yelling
ton, in Somersetshire, which is not
large place. But little is known of tn
Northern Wessingtons, but we ca
easily believe that they were all aliv
and active, and that they cut Scottis
throats, or had their throats cut b
Scottishmen, in the old Percy an
Douglas wars, five hundred years agc
or more or less. Such were the gen
tlemanly amusements of those vauishe
days, diversified by hunting and hawl
ing, and other cruel sports. 1t was th
Wessingtons who "went SOUTH" an
spread the name of the race over I'll
midland counties of England, and WI
prepared the way for the Washington
that crossed the ocean, and founded I'll
thriving family from which proceede
the man who was to found the Americs
nation. As George Washington WI
the real creator of this republic, no
different might have been this country
history had his great grandfather r
| mained in ENGLAND and sharad in II