Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1898-04-07

FIRST OF THE NAME IN THE PROVINCE.
No. Is.
Col. John Washington, great grand
father OF George Washington, the rev.
olu,ionary general and first President
of he United States, migrated in 1867
with his brother Andrew from South
Cave in the East Riding of Yorkshire,
on the banks of the Humber river, in
England, to the province of Virginia,
settling first on Bridges creek in the
county of Westmoreland. He bad pas.
-ege over the seas in ship owned by
Edward Prescott, of which John Greene
was the captain. During the voyage q
woman by the name of Elizabeth Rich
ardsou, q fauatical zeslot, incurred the
displeasure of some of the passengers on
account of her insane rantings and sing
ular behavior, and was hanged by them
20 the yard arm under the accusation
Of practicing the arts of witchcraft. In
aar extremity she appealed to the COM
miseration Of Mr.. Washington, who
yAinly interposed 10 save her. The
vanton and iawless act was SO revolt
i.g to his intelligence and kinder feel
ings, that upon landing in the Chesa-
peake he reported the case to the au-
thorities. and had the owner of the yes
sci and captain held in bonds for trial
before the provincial court to be held at
: ,iut Mary's in Maryland. The trial,
ruwever, owing to the delays and uD-
crrtanties of the tribunals of those ear
~ days, never took place.
John Washington seems to have been
man of means as well as of intelli-
gence and influence. He patented a
large tract of land between the Po-
tomac and the R4ppahannock rivers,
raised tobacco extensively and Was
elected member of the House of Bur
gesses. His marriage TO Ann Pope oc-
Cured soon after his arrival into the
colony. Having milidary inclination
ne was appointed a colonel of the mi
ltia. In this latter capacity he became
a prominent actor in many of the tragic
events and circumstances of the Bacon
rebellion during the years of 1866,
which followed the harrassing retail
ations of the Indians to avenge the en-
croachments of the colonists upon their
domain of forest and stream.
After the murder of the herdsmau,
Hen, in 1876 by the Doeg Indians in
Truro parish, near the o coqusn river,
and the prompt pursuit of the murder
ers by the mounted rangers Of the
county of Stafford to their town
of Assaomeck, twenty miles up the P,-
tomac, where they were overtaken and
massacred at the doors of their wig
wams, all the other tribes Of both shores
of The river for miles up and down took
refuge with the P.scarawsys, a power
full tribe dwelling on the heights now
occupied by the battlements of Fort
Washington, and here 10 alliance
they proceeded to fortify themselves
ov embank ments, bitches and palisades
against the further encroachments oil
the colonissS. To dislodee this force
of saeages two thousand troops of the
Virginia and Maryland militia were
speedily raised aud assigned to the
command OF Col. John Washington,
who had under him Majors Mason,
Brent and other military notables of
that time. After protrscted siege OF
six weeks, the small number of Indians
who had escaped bullets and stsrva
tion, capitulated to receive little mercy
from their assailants. Their destruc-
ton was complete and vengeance was
satisfied.
Three years before this siege Col.
John had been engaged with Col.
Nicholas Spencer, one of his msjesty's
counsel in Virginia, in the venture OF
bringing from England into the pre-
vince fifty white immigrants, for which
service they received from Thomas,
Lord Culpeper, aud governor of the
province, patent for 5000 acres OF
land which they located on the upper
Potomac, then included within the
bounds of the county of Stafford. be-
tween Little Hunting creek and Epse'
wasson, now known as Doeg creek.
Au equal division of this tract was
made soon after its location to the two
grantees and the part consisting OF
$500 acres bordering Little Hunting
creek fell to Washington, the other
part bordering Doeg creek fell to
Spencer. Subsequently the area of the
entire tract became the property of the
w Washiugtons.
At the time of the granting of this
patent Stafford was the uppermost and
frontier county, stretching interminably
beyond the Blue Ridge and to the
great Mississippi valley. Prince Will.
liam and Fairfax were not set oil until
more than fifty years after. The town
of Assaomeck was about t miles below
Great Hunting creek on that division
of the Mount Vernon "riyer farm" uow
known as Andalusia. 1t was just op-
posite to Broad creek. in Maryland
Col. John died in 1877. he was first
married in England. His wife and two
children came with him to his new
home, but the three died soon after ar.
irving. As before noted, his second
wife was Ann Pope, of Pope's creek,
Westmoreland county. By this alli-
ance he had children-frst, Lawrence,
born 1861. Lawrence in 1880 was mar
ried to Mildred Waruer, of Gloucester
county, Va. His child, Au ustine, was