Arizona republican., 1911-07-20

the east of Leeds. The Abbey church. as is well known. is d noble building It was founded by Abbot Hugh in the year 1069 The Washington window is one of the Clerestory windows, in the lovely choir of the Abbey. on the southern side. and the shield. with its arms. is to be seen on the middle light of the window.
 The shield has a curious history It was first described-Argent. two bars Eulos. in chief three mullets pierced. of the scCond-by Glocr. the Worcester Herald. who visited Sclby in 1884: but Glover did not know whose arms they were. In 175S. in 1900. and in 1867. they were seen again-and the device stands out quite plain. to be seen from the ground floor of the aisle-by famous antiquaries. but rone of them thought of the Washington arms. In 1893 a Mir. C. C. Hodges made the first sug- Gestion. but he made it quite tentative ly, and it was only a few weeks ago that Capt. Storrs of Portsmouth. made the positive statement that tic arms Were the arms of the Wa ;hington fam fly. or the truth of that statement there seems to be little dOUbt, for the Washington arms are well known, and these. it is said differ in no one par ticular from them. Capt. Storrs wrote to the present vicar of Selby. the Rev pr. Solluway, who came to the cure of the parish in December of last year. and from this point pr. Solloway began a very thorough inquiry. He compared the bearings with those which exist in three other instances-first on the brass of the date of 1922 on the tomb of Robert Washington. in the church of Great BringtOn, near Sulgrae, in Northamptonshirc; secondly. on q slab above the grave of Laurence Washing ton. of the date 1616. in The same church; and. thirdly. on tablet in the wall of Garsdon church. in Wiltshire. to the memory of Sir Laurence Wash ington. who died in 1645. It is clear. he points out now, that the Selby shield is the oldest example of these arms so far as is known.
 The next thing that happened was the linking of the Selby shield and the American flag. and pr. Sollnway. to whom we are indebted for the whole of this information. explained to a Man chester Guardian" representative on Saturday how that happened. He was showing the window some time ago to visitor who had come to see it, and in pointing out the arms-the two red stripes with the stars above them their likeness to the American flag be- came apparent. He went into the mat ter at once. and found authority for his conclusion that the arms were the bas- is of the other Martin Tupper had al ready given that explanation in his poetical drama Washington" and his torical research had confirmed the idea There are two points of difference. 1t is true but the first of them only proves the theory. The difference is contained in the fact that while the stars of the banner are all six-pointed, the mullets of the shield have only five points. But in Washington's day. when the stars were first used on American coins, they had not six points but five The second difference is not essential The mullets of the shield are pierced through the center-mullets. in fact, being only the heraldic representation of spurs-while the stars of the flag are whole. It is easy to see how such a slight change-slight. that Is. to any one but q Herald-might casually be made
 pr. Solloway sought next to discover the Washington connection with the Abbey. and began with the accepted ac- count of the Washington pedigree. George Washington, the president. it Is known. sent to the Garter King of Arms of his day, Sir Isaac Herd. and asked to be supplied with his pedigree. Sir Isaac Herd met the demand with pedigree, the famous Sulgrave pedi gree. which he based upon the facts that in 1857 one John Washington and his brother Laurence went out from England to Virginia, and that among the sons of the Laurence Washington, who died at Great Brighton, near Sul- grave. in 1916, were two named John and Laurence. Washington himself, 1t is said. was never satisfied with this, for there was a tradition in the family that they had come from the north of England, from Lancashire or Yorkshire. or even further north, and not at all from the Midlands But the matter was left there. though the objection was noted. and there it has stayed to this day. Dr. Solloway goes on, however. to poi,t out that there is wider ground for doubt than is con taincd in the tradition of sccpticism. Laurence Washington, the elder. he has ascertained. was married in 1888, had r children, and died in 1916. Of these children John and Laurence, one of them Herd supposed to have been the founder of the American family. were the fourth and fifth members. so that in 1857. about the time of their immi- grafton, they would be some 60 years old
 The facts are. Dr. Solloway states.