The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1891-12-19

PARSON WASHINGTON.

PARSON WASHINUTON
Tales Told OF the First Presidents
Ancestor.
Prejudicial Tradition Vendors Try to
Make Him Out a Bad Fellow
Daniel Webster rs
Debtor.
Having ascertained who Gen. Wash
ington's last English ancestor vast
has taken century and 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 a drunkard and
malignant in the English revolution
of 1910. And my college classmate, Mr..
II. 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 Mr.. Ayloffe, about
17C8, says: II doe not remember that
ever I knew or heard of Mr.. Washing
ton before he had been sequestered, but
there was then one Mr.. Roberts, a
neighbor of mine, who was owner and
patron of g parish SO small that
nobody would accept of his church (but
with difficulty and Mr.. Roberts enter
tanned Mr.. Washington, where he was
suffered quietly to preach. I have
heard him and tooke him to be very
worthy pious man. I have been in his
company there, and he appeared a very
modest sober person, and I heard him
recommended as such by several gentle
men who knew him before I did. He
was a loyal person, and had one Of the
best benefces in these parts, and this
vast the onely cause of his expulsion as
l verify believe"
Let it be remembered by "sequest-
cred" Mr.. Ayloffe meant turned out of
his parish of Parleigh by the Puritans,
at some time before 1868, 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 Mr.. Roberts was in the adjoining
district of Braxted Parva, or Little
Braxted. Purleigh is not far off, and
Maiden (for which our Maiden is namely
is three miles north of Purleigh. Parson
Washington was buried at Maiden in
January, 1868, and four or five years
t. III ko1 +>
ginia. By piecing all these trifes
together we get at a sort of history Of
this Lawrence Washington, thanks to
Mr.. Waters.
The English ancestry Of Daniel Web
ster is partly known, but there is room
for Mr.. Waters to look it up further,
both on the Webster side and that OF
Rev. Stephen Bachiler, from whom,
through his grandmother, he was de-
seconded. 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 i have heard about Web
ster's neglect to pay his debts. He says:
"When was clerk in an exchange
office we received a craft of q few hun
dred dollars on Mr.. Webster on sight
for collection. We were instructed to
present it to the eminent man for &C
ceptance, payable at any future time
he chose; tell him to specify his own
time This was rather unusual and
showed the great respect the creditor
had for the distinguished statesman.
This respect was natural enough, for
Webster was at that time almost idol
lied 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: Il
politely said: You need not pay the
draft at once; take your own time; &C.
cept it payable when convenient, or
when you please He Strengthened
back, and, his penetrating eyes almost
binding me, said: You are the politest
broker have ever met, and accepted it
at once, payable in sixty days. My in
structions were such that if he had said
on it's face, Payable on the resurrection
day. I should have taken it and consid-
cred it honored No attention was paid
to it when the sixty days expired and l
returned it under protest to the sender 2"
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-
clined to answer; this reused Webster's
suspicious and he insisted on reply,
which the Judge told the witness he had
better give. SWELL" 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
stinging reply to this, but Webster sim
ply said: ''Let me tell you, sir, that,
although highly respectable, that is a
very precarious occupation"
A Queer Remedy.
It often occurs in the various gas
works of the city that men working in
the retort houses are overcome by the
fumes IF gas and are in danger of as
phyxiation, says the Philadelphia Rec