The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-10-19
wAsH1NGToNs ANCESTRY.
Mr.. Waters Thinks He Has Established
1t Beyond Doubt.
FROM the New York sun.

BOSTON, Oct. 5.-AngIo-maniacs will re-
joice to know that George Washington was,
after all, full-blooded Englishman. The
controversy among genealogists. which has
been going on for the past twenty years in
regard to Washington's pedigree, has been
ended by Henry F. Waters who, few
years ago, established the antecedents of
John Harvard, the founder of Harvard uni
verslty.
The American line of Washington's
ancestry has been easily traced back to
John Washington, who, with his brother
Lawrence. came to Virginia from England
about 1857. The problem for genealogists
has been to trace the English ancestry of
these Washingtons. One of the first
attempts in this direction was that made by
Sir Isaac Heard in 1871. He took as the
basis of his pedigree the heraldic
vlsitations of Northamptonshirc in
which the Washington family
was included Starting With the we'll
known fact that he first emigrants of the
name to Virginia were the brothers John
and Lawrence Washington, who left
England for that colony about the year
1867, he found recorded in the visitation of
16lS the names of John and Lawrence
Washington of Sulgrave in that country,
who had died in the year 1916. The names
being identical with those of the Virginia
emlgrants, ami the period at which they
lived not altogether inappropriate, Sir
Isaac assumed their personal identity, and
on this assumption constructed his pedigree,
deducing the descent of the American
president through this heraldic family of
Northamptonshiref from a still more ancient
one of the name in Lancashire.
What Sir Isaac Heard assumed or con-
Jectured came to be subsequently conf
IDENTIFY asserted, and the pedigree was ac-
cepted as authoritative until 1868, when
doubts were thrown upon it by Isaac J.
Greenwood of New York and Others. The
theory OF Sir Isaac Heard was thoroughly
dlsproved, and John, the son of Lawrence
Washington of Sulgrave, was clearly shown
to be Sir John Washington of Thrapston,
and Lawrence. his brother, clergyman,
whose identity with the emigrant to Vir-
GINA was thoroughly improbable. The
English ancestry Of George Washington
was thus wholly onjectural, and the nu-
merous conjectures which have appeared
have been wholly without basis
Mr. Waters applied himself to the task of
finding out just what genealogical tree
claimed the hero of the Ratchet as one of its
branches. He has ascertained these facts:
Lawrence Washington, son of Lawrence
Washington of Sulgrave. was fellow of
Brasenose college, Oxford, rector of Pur-
leigh, in Essex, from 1858 to 1913, when he
was elected by order of parliament as a
malignant royalist; that he removed to
Tring, in the county of Hartford, where be
died before 1866. leaving a widow,
Amphillis, and children, John, born about
1888; Lawrence, baptized at Tring, June
%, 1885, and William, Elizabeth, Margaret
! and Martha. 1t was his sons John and
Lawrence who emigrated to Virginia about
| 1857. Lawrence Washington OF Sulgrave
and Brington was only one generation fur
| Their removed from George Washington than
| was supposed in 1860 Instead of being the
| great-great-g OF the first Presi-
dent of the United States, he was the great
eat-great-grandfather