Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1916-02-22
tone 81 NaahlngEon1s AnceSkoro

And at Mount Vernon 1 myself have noted
An old cast-iron, scutcheoned chimney-back
Charged with that heraldry.
The old building is in an excellent state of
preservation. The main hall has a fine fireplace
and an oak beam ceiling The ancient oak stair
case has very beguiling twisted banisters and
fascinating secret cupboard at the intermediate
landing. The drawing room is on the second
floor, as the custom in the days when it was
built, and III one of the bedrooms it is said that
Queen Elizabeth slept.
The estate surrounding Sulgrave manor con-
sists of about two hundred acres of gently rolling
land, substantially all of it in full view of the
manor. The ownership carries with it the lord
ship of the manor, with the Rights, Royalties,
Privileges and Appurtenances thereto belonging,
and is subject to "a fee farm rent of lis sd ($2.S4
per annum.'
Sulgrave Manor is the place in England most
closely associated with the name of Washington,
and yet it is true that George Washington him.
self attached little Importance to this fact. In the
early days of the American republic ancestry
was despised much more than is the case.
In 1888 George Washington refused to accept the
dedication of book on heraldry because a por-
ton of the community were
"Clamorously endeavoring to propagate idea
that those whom they wished invidiously to des-
ignate by the name wellborn' were meditating
in the first instance to distinguish themselves
from their compatriots and to wrest the dearest
privileges from the bulk of the people,"
But the ability to trace ones ancestors has
greater value in this country today than it had
in the days of the first president. Washington
knew very little about his own forefathers When
he asked about them by the Garter King-of-
Arms, he said the first of his family in Virginia
had from of the northern counties in
England, possibly Yorkshire Lancashire,
even farther north. Later there was considerable
crIfof bout fha nf
from which he was descended, and it was finally
agreed by genealogists that the Washingtons of
Sulgrave and Brighton did actually spring from
the Washingtons in Warton, Lancashire place on
the Westmoreland border.
Several generations of Washingtons of Warrior
are recorded, and one Of these was the father of
Laurence Washington mayor of Northampton in
1882 and 1915 He seems to have taken up his
residence at Sulgrave, though members of his
family continued to remain at Warton for several
generations. This Laurence Washington had for
mother the daughter of Robert Kytson of Hen
grave in Suffolk. This proved a matter of very
considerable importance in their history because
it brought them into connection with the Spen-
GERS of Althrop and Wormleighton, through the
marriage of Sir Thomas Kytsons daughter Cath
crime, to Sir John Spencer of Wormleighton,
whose grandson, Sir Robert Spencer, was created
Baron Spencer of Wormleighton in 1903
In the process of time the Washingtons of Sui
grave appear TO nave got into financial difficulties.
Laurence Washington entered the wool trade, per-
haps induced to do so by the fact that Lord
Spencer was one of the great fock-masters of his
day. This Laurence acquired considerable riches
in the wool trade. In 1889 he became possessed
of the Manor of Sulgrave for the sum Of three
hundred and twenty-one pounds, fourteen shiI-
lings, and subsequently he purchased additional
property.
SundlaI With Washington Arms.
He had many sons, of whom the Oldest was
Robert, the ancestor of George Washington He
succeeded his father in 1885, when he was of the
age of forty, but he does not seem to have been
so prosperous as his father Yet it appears that
he able to send both his sons CHRISTOPHER
and William, to Oriel college, Oxford, where they
were in 1885, the year Of the great armada
Roberts oldest named Laurence probably
after the mayor of Northampton, and in 1910
Robert, in agreement with his son, agreed to sell
Sulgrave to their cousin, Laurence Makepeace.
The second Laurence Washington then removed
to Brington, near Northampton, his father per-
haps going with him, though the latter was buried
in the family vault at Sulgrave. Laurence Wash
ington had seventeen children, two of whom rose