Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-12-12
PARSON WASHINGTON.
Tales Told of the First Presidents
 Ancestor.
Prejudicial Tradition Vendors Try tc Make Him Out a Bad Fellow Daniel Webster as a
 Debtor.

Having ascertained who Gen. Wash ington's last English ancestor was-it has taken a century and a half to do so his grateful countrymen are now try ing to prove that this gentleman, Rev Lawrence Washington, rector of Pur- leigh in Essex, was not drunkard and malignant in the English revolution of l64O. And my college classmate, MT. Il. F. Waters, who is always discover ing something, has found a letter in the Bodleian library speaking well of Par son Washington, writes F. B. Sanborn in the Boston Advertiser.
 The writer, one Mir. Ayloffe, about 1706, says: II doe not remember that ever knew or heard of Mir. Washing ton before he had been sequestered but there was then one MT. Roberts, a neighbor of mine, who was owner and patron of @ parish so small that nobody would accept of his church Out with difficulty) and MT. Roberts enter tained MT. Washington, where he was suffered quietly to preach. I have heard him and tooke him to be a very worthy pious man. have been in his company there, and he appeared very modest sober person, and I heard him
 
 men who knew him before I did He was loyal person, and had one of the best benefices in these parts, and this W;s@ the onely cause of his expulsion as l verify believe.'
 Let it be remembered by "sequest- ered' Mir. Ayloffe meant turned out of his parish of Parleigh by the Puritans, at some time before 1853, when this Lawrence Washington; died. As this was nearly sixty years before Mr. Ayloffe wrote, the latter must have been young man when he heard the parson preach. He lived at Great Braxted in Essex, and the little parish of MT. Roberts was in the adjoining district of Braxted Parva, or Little Braxted. Purleigh is not far off, and Maiden (for which our Maiden is named) is three miles north of Purleigh. Parson Washington was buried at Maiden in January, 1858, and four or five years later his two sons emigrated to Vir- | ginia. By piecing all these trifles together we get at a sort of history of this Lawrence Washington, thanks to MT. Waters.
 The English ancestry of Daniel Web ster is partly known, but there is room for MT. Waters to look it up further, both on the Webster side aud that ot Rev. Stephen Bachiler, from whom through his grandmother, he was de scended. This clergyman was also turned out of his parish, but for being a Puritan, which could hardly be charged against Webster. A writer in the Transcript tells one of the numerous stories that l have heard about Web ster's neglect to pay his debts. He says | "When l was a clerk in an exchange office we received draft of few hun dred dollars on MT. Webster on sight for collection. We were instructed tc | present it to the eminent man for ac ceptance, payable at any future time he chose; tell him to specify his owr 1 time.' This was rather unusual anC showed the great respect the creditor had for the distinguished statesman"
 This respect was natural enough, fo1 Webster was at that time almost idol ized by many. But it did not secure from the great man the payment of the draft, either then or afterward. The Transcript correspondent goes on: s'l politely said: You need not pay the draft at once; take your own time; ac cept it payable when convenient, o1 when you please He straightenet back, and, his penetrating eyes almost binding me, said: You are the politest broker have ever met and accepted il at once, payable in sixty days My in structions were such that if he had saic on it's face, Payable on the resurrection day. I should have taken it and consid cred it honored. No attention was paic to it when the sixty days expired and returned it under protest to the sender
 It was the frequent occurrence of in cidents like this which gave point to the retort said to have been made some years earlier by witness in court whom Webster was cross-examining. Being asked his occupation the witness de cined to answer; this reused Webster's suspicious and he insisted on a reply which the judge told the witness he haC better give. "Well," said the witness eff must tell you my means of support it is this: I make notes, get them in- dorsed and discounted, take the money and leave my indorsers to pay the note ; Everybody in court expected some singing reply to this, but Webster sim ply said: ''Let me tell you, sir, that although highly respectable, that is z very precarious occupation
 Queer Remedy.
 It often occurs in the various Gas works of the city that men working ir the retOrt houses are overcome hv tbe