The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-01-26
PEARSON WASHINGTON.
tales Told OF the First Presidents
Ancestor.
PrcJudiclaI Tradition Vendors Try to
Mako Him Out n Bad Fellow
Daniel Webster MS n
Debtor.

Having ascertained who Gen. Wash
ington's last English ancestor vast
has taken a century and half to do so
his grateful countrymen are now try
ing to provo that this gentleman, Rev.
Lawrence Washington, rector of Pur-
leigh in Essex, was not a drunkard and
malignant i'll the English revolution
of 1910. And my college classmate, Mr..
Ill. F, Waters. who is always discover
ing something, has found letter in the
Bodleian library speaking we'll of Par
son Washington, writes Il. b. Sanborn
in the Boston Advertiser.
The writer, one Mr.. Ayloffe, about
1TO0, says: II doe not remember that
ever knew or heard of Mr.. Washing
ton before he had been sequestcred, but
there was then one Mr.. Roberts, q
'neighbor of mine, who was owner and
patron. of e 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. have
heard him and tooke him to be very
worthy pious man. have been in his
company there, and he appeared u very
modest sober person, and heard him
recommended as such by several gentle
men who knew him before did He
was loyal person, and had one of the
best benefices in these parts, and this
was the onely cause Of his expulsion as
! verify believe"
Let it be remembered by 'scquest-
cred" MIR. Ayloffc meant turned out of
his parish of Parlcigh by the Puritans,
at some time before 1858, when this
Lawrence Washington died. AS this
was nearly sixty years before Mr..
Ayloifc wrote, the latter must have
been a 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 BraXtcd Parva, or Little
I'raXted. Purlcigh is not far off, and
Maiden (for which our Maiden is namely
is three miles north of Purlcigh. Parson
Washington was buried at Maiden in
January, 1858, and four or five years
later his two sons emigratcd to Vir-
ginia. BY piccing all these triflcs
together we get at IL sort of history of
this Lawrence Washington, thanks to
Mr.. Waters.
The English ancestry of Daniel Web
stcr is partly Known, but there is room
Tor 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 n
Puritan, which could hardly be charged
against Webster. a writer in the
Transcript tells one of the numerous
stories that | have heard about Web
ster's neglect to pay his debts. He says:
when | was a clerk in an exchange
office we received GRAFT of n few hun
dred dollars on Mr.. Webster on sight
for collection. We were instructed to
present it to the eminent man for ac-
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 aftcrward The
Transcript correspondent goes on: ~
politely said: You need not pay the
draft at once; take your own time; ac-
cept it payable when convenient, OF
when you please He Strengthened
back, and, his penetrating eyes almost
binding me, said: You are tho politcst
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. should have taken it and consitl-
credit honored. No attention was paid
to it when the sixty days expired and
returned it under protest to the sender"
TWAS the frequent occurrence of in
cidcnts 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-
clincd to answer; this reused Websters
suspicious and he insisted on n reply.
which the judge told the witness he had
better give. WELL" said the witness,
"if must tell you my means of support
1T is this: 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 n
very precarious occupation"
A Queer Remedy.
RI