Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1895-07-10
Aliseellanruus 8eadiag.
WASHINGTON'S PARENTS.
His Father a Maker OF Pig Iron and HI

Mother Second Wife.
George Washington was born in
Westmoreland county, Virginia, on
February %, 1892, according to the
generally accepted style of reckoning
time which has prevailed since 1852,
or, according to the old style, on
February II, 1912. His mother,
Mary Ball, was the second wife of his
father, Augustine Washington, con-
cerning both of whom great deal of
false history has been written, while
much that might have been truthfully
said ofAugustine Washington has been
left unsaid by Marshall, Sparks, Irving
and other biographers of George Wash
ington.
Augustine Washington has been
represented as man of almost royal
blood-as the aristocratic descendant
of titled English family. Be this as
it may, Augustine Washington, at the
time he married Mary Ball, was engag-
ed in making pig iron at Accokeek
Furnace in Stafford county, Virginia,
about Is miles from Fredericksburg,
and he was so engaged when his son
George was born, although he was
then residing at Wakefield, in West
moreland county. Accokeek Furnace
had been built by the Principe compa-
ny, composed of English capitalists, as
early as 1926, on land owned by Angus
tine Washington, covering about 1900
acres and containing iron ore, Angus
tine Washington, who was known as
Captain Washington, becoming the
owner of one-sixth of the furnace prop
erty in consideration of the transfer
of his land to the company. The Prin-
cipo company had other iron enter
prises in Maryland.
Captain Washington visited Eng
land in 1929 and 1870, chiefly in re-
lation to the management of Accokeek
Furnace. Returning to Virginia in
May, 1870, he wrote to his English
partners on the 10th day of July that
on his arrival he found to his great
grief that his wife was dead. There is
an autograph letter in the custody of
the Maryland Historical society, writ
ten at London on October 2, 1870, by
John Wightwick, one of the English
stockholders in the Principe compa-
ny, and addressed to John England,
the company's general agent in Mary
land and Virginia, which preserves the
above facts, and which also severely
criticises Captain Washington for neg
lecting in his letter of July 10 to in
form his English associates whether or
not he would stick to certain bargain
he had made with them concerning
the management of the furnace.
We have been unable to discover
whether Captain Washington kept his
bargain to manage Accokeek Furnace
or not, but in Colonel William Byrd's
progress of the Mines" written in
1882, he mentions "England's iron
mines, called so from the chief mana
ger of them, though the land belongs
to Mr.. Washington" Two miles dis
tant from the mines was the furnace.
Colonel Byrd says: "Mr. Wash
lIRGOu EdiScS tuC vi 2 duo Sni 70 ~ ohioh
er for 20 shillings the ton of iron that
it yields. Besides Mr.. Washington
and Mr.. England there are several
other persons in England concerned in
these works." Augustine Washington
retained his interest in the Principe
company to the time of his death in
1743, and this interest he bequeathed
to his son Lawrence.
In 1871, Augustine Washington mar
ried for his second wife, Mary Ball, a
daughter of Joseph Ball, who resided
in Lancaster county, Virginia, where
Mary Ball was born. Captain Wash
ington did not marry Mary Ball in
England, as Benson J. Losing and
numerous other inaccurate writers
have stated, but after his visit to that
country, during which, as has been
shown, his first wife died.-Iron and
Steel Bulletin.