Evening star., 1945-06-07
Letters to The Star
Tributes to Washington and
Lincoln in England Recalled

Lincoln in England Recalled
To the Editor of The STAR
Ceremonies which recently have
taken place in England in connection
with the two greatest Presidents of the
United States and of which have seen
no account in the American press,
think, will be Of interest to many of
your readers.
First was the celebration of the an
niversary of George Washington's birth
day at the village of Washington,
County Durham, which has associations
with the first Presidents ancestors. The
American Ambassador was represented
officially, also the United States and
British Armies. Col. Groves of the
United States Army in his speech said !:
I'VE know what Washington would
have done if he had been living today;
he would have been in favor of last
ing union between the two nations"
On the same day at Durham Cathe-
dral, few miles away, plaque was
unveiled in the cloister, the inscription
on which runs: Remember in these
cloisters, which were finished in his day
John Washington of this county. prior
of this cathedral, 14l6-1446, whose fam
lily won an everlasting name in lands to
him unknown
Sulgrave Deed Presented.
The second was the presentation OF
: deed of land transfer, executed 349
years ago, by the governors of Sulgrave
Manor Board, on the lawn of George
Washingtons ancestral home. Attached
to the deed are two seals of Robert and
Lawrence Washington bearing the fam
lily coat of arms-the origin of the Amer
lcan national emblems-the five-pointed
stars above and the red and white
stripes below, and the eagle with out
stretched pinions as crest. An inscrip-
ton on the deed stated that it was pre-
sented by members of the American
armed forces in gratitude for happy and
memorable visits to Sulgrave Manor as
guests of the Northamptonshire Friend
ship Committee in cooperation with the
American Red Cross"
Many thousands of American soldiers
and sailors have spent their periods of
leave in Northamptonshir in the past
three years, and visits to Sulgrave
Manor, personally conducted by the
chief citizens of the county, have been
one of the main attractions.
Brig. Gen Richard c. Tindall military
attache at the American Embassy, pre-
sented the deed to Lord Spencer. chair
man OF the governors of Sulgrave
Manor Board, who. in his reply, said:
OF many great men that the midland
counties have produced, men who have
made their mark upon history, there is
none OF whom we are prouder than the
Washingtons. They lived at Sulgrave
Tor nearly 100 years, and then, having
unfortunately lost their money, had to
sell; and one Of my own ancestors, also
a cousin Of the Washingtons, gave them
a house in the village of Brington. 1t
was from Brington that Georges great
grandfather, John Washington, emf
grated to Virginia in 1887"
Lincoln Memorial Planned.
The third, and perhaps most inter-
esting, in that it relates to an entirely
new discovery in connection with the
ancestry of Abraham Lincoln, was the
presentation at the American Embassy
in London of the title deeds to the
ground in the village of Swanton
Morley, on which once stood the house
of the earliest known Lincolns. Until
recently very little was known of the
origin of the Lincolns. Col Leslie, the
donor OF this land. has traced link
between the Lincoln family and the
PASSIONS Of the famous Pastor Letters"
Toward the end of the 18th century
Agnes Pastor Is recorded to have offered
living to Richard Lincoln. He was a
grandfather of Samuel Lincoln, an ap-
prentice to a Norwich weaver. who, in
1887, desiring to worship God in his own
way and not Archbishop Laud's, took
the youth to New England. There Sam
uel Lincoln founded the American Lin
coins. who, after two centuries peregri-
nations in Virginia Kentucky and else
where, produced Abraham Lincoln.
The house at Swanton Morley was
demolished in 1892, but it's site, on which
it is hoped to erect memorial, has been
established definitely by one who occu-
pied it at the time. All that remains,
two doors, have been saved from scrap
heap, and these. the only known relics
of the earliest known Lincoln, will be
incorporated in the memorial.
Ambassador Winant in his speech on
this occasion said: "No one would have
been quicker than Lincoln to realize
the debt so many owed to so few when
our world might have died If there had
been a few less young airmen in the
RAF and few less airplanes and me-
chanics in the British Isles. If England
had fallen, all hopes for the American
way of life would have been dead"
Perhaps I may add that American
soldiers and sailors have made so many
friends in England that, since they
have been serving on the continent of
Europe, no less than an average Of
100000 letters weekly have crossed the
Channel in each direction, to and from
them. ERIC UNDERWOOD.
Army's Sugar Requisition
To the Editor OF The Star:
The House committee investigating
the food shortage reports that the
armed forces are taking 220 pounds Of
sugar per man this year, as against a
civilian consumption Of 70 pounds per
person last year
Now, no one will deny that men in