Lawrence Washington ( 1718 – 1752 ) Lawrence Washington ( 1718 – 1752 ) was a soldier and prominent landowner in colonial Virginia . As a founding member of the Ohio Company of Virginia , and a member of the colonial legislature representing Fairfax County , he was chiefly responsible for establishing the town of Alexandria , Virginia on the banks of the Potomac River in 1749 . Washington was the older and beloved half - brother of George Washington , the future United States President . He was the first of the family to live in the Mount Vernon estate , which he named after his commanding officer in the War of Jenkins ' Ear , Admiral Edward Vernon . Military career . In late 1739 the British Parliament decided to raise a " Regiment of Foot " ( infantry ) in the American colonies , to be used in the West Indies for the war against Spain , known as the War of Jenkins ' Ear . The regiment , to be composed of four battalions , was designated Colonel William Gooch ' s 43rd Regiment of Foot , denoting its precedence within the British Army establishment . The company commanders were to be recruited in the colonies and Colonel William Blakeney was sent across the Atlantic with blank commissions , signed by King George II , to be distributed to the various governors . On 10 July 1740 , Lieutenant Governor of Virginia William Gooch awarded the senior ( of 4 ) Captain ' s Commission in one of Virginia ' s companies to Lawrence Washington : his Commission survives in the archives of the Mt . Vernon estate . The four Virginia Companies mustered at Williamsburg in August 1740 , but the transport ships did not set sail for Jamaica until early October . The main British invasion force did not arrive Jamaica until early January 1741 , and the Conjunct Expedition , under the dual command of Vice Admiral Edward Vernon and Brigadier General Thomas Wentworth , got under way in late January . In early February commanders decided to assault the Spanish fortress at Cartagena ( in present day Colombia ) . At that time , some of the Americans were seconded to Admiral Vernon ' s warships to be used as Marines . Lawrence was fortunate , as he would later write to his father , to be appointed " Captain of the Soldiers acting as Marines " on board Vernon ' s flagship , the 80 - gun HMS " Princess Caroline " . Because of this service , the 43rd Foot was called " Gooch ' s Marines . " Washington survived the expeditions against the seaport of Cartagena , New Granada ( see Battle of Cartagena de Indias ) and against Cuba and Panama , which suffered a high rate of casualties , mostly from disease . The assault against Cartagena , in March – April 1741 , proved a disaster , as over half of the British force fell ill and died of tropical diseases , chiefly yellow fever . The fever predominated amongst the newly arrived troop ships , while the crews on Vernon ' s warships , having already been in the Caribbean for one year , were largely inured against disease . Washington survived the fevers which killed off nearly 90 percent of the American colonists because of his fortunate ( early ) transfer from a troop ship to Vernon ' s flagship , which , having been in the tropics for over one year , had a crew already inoculated against tropical diseases ( as well as less crowded conditions aboard ship . ) In January 1741 , some 3 , 255 officers and men of Gooch ’ s " American Regiment " were on board ship in the harbor of Kingston , Jamaica . Not quite two years later , on 24 October 1742 , the American survivors could muster only 17 officers and 130 enlisted men , who returned to North America in November and December , accompanied by 268 sick soldiers . On 17 January 1743 , The " New York Weekly Journal " contained a dispatch from Jamaica dated 24 October 1742 : " from Jamaica , we are informed that General Wentworth had received Orders to return to Great Britain with his British Forces and to reduce " [ disband ] " the American Regiment under Colonel Gooch . Each man is to be paid to the 24th of October and sent home on four transports , viz : one to New York , two to Virginia , and one to North Carolina . A very melancholy reflection that of the five hundred men sent from this Province in five vessels at the first embarkation . " Writing a history of " British Settlements in North America " in 1748 , Bostonian Dr . William Douglas said that of 500 men sent from Massachusetts for the expedition , not over 50 returned . Washington also participated in the 1741 British landing at Guantanamo ( Cumberland Harbor ) Cuba , part of Admiral Vernon ' s plan — never realized — to attack Santiago from the rear ( by land ) and from the front ( by sea ) . on Santiago de Cuba . Upon his return to Virginia at the end of 1742 , Washington discovered that the post of militia commander , Adjutant , was vacant . He applied for it and was appointed Adjutant , at the rank of Major , by Governor Gooch in Spring 1743 . Personal life . Lawrence is believed to have been born in 1718 , the second child of Augustine Washington and Jane Butler ( whose first - born son , Butler , died in infancy . ) The family was then living in Westmoreland County , Virginia , near the Rappahannock River . In 1729 , Augustine took Lawrence and younger son Augustine , Jr . , to England and enrolled them in the Appleby Grammar School in Westmoreland . Augustine would return to Virginia months later and discover that his wife had died , leaving daughter Sarah in the care of the extended Washington family in Westmoreland County . The father remarried in 1731 , to a young heiress , Mary Ball . Lawrence completed his education and returned to Virginia in 1738 , to oversee the management of his father ' s 2 , 000 - plus acre plantation on the Potomac River at Little Hunting Creek ( then in Prince William County ; after 1742 Fairfax County ) . In late 1738 , Augustine moved his young ( second ) family to a plantation he had recently purchased on the edge of Fredericksburg . Prince William County Deed books reveal that the following spring , March 1739 , Lawrence Washington began to purchase tracts of land bordering the family ' s Little Hunting Creek estate : the purchase , in his own name , indicates Lawrence had attained his " majority " ( age 21 ) . Washington was married in July 1743 to Anne Fairfax ( 1728 - 1761 ) , the eldest daughter of Colonel William Fairfax of neighboring Belvoir , born in England , and his late wife Sarah ( née Walker ) , a mixed - race woman born to a prominent family in the Bahamas , where Fairfax had been working when they married . According to Mario Valdes , through her mother Anne had some African ancestry . Fairfax was a land agent for his cousin , Thomas Fairfax , 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron . The marriage of the 15 - year old Anne to the newly returned 25 - year old army veteran appears to have been prompted by Anne ' s disclosure to her parents that the family ' s minister , the Reverend Charles Green of Truro Parish , had taken opportunities with her . The new county of Fairfax was created ( from northern Prince William County ) in 1742 . Washington was elected to Virginia ' s House of Burgesses in 1744 as a representative for Fairfax ( both the county and the family . ) In 1747 , he joined with his father - in - law and other prominent landowners and businessmen in the Northern Neck to create The Ohio Company of Virginia , with the intention of opening trade to the American interior linked to the Potomac River . To do so , the Company required an " " entrepôt " , " a gateway for trade . The site of Hugh West ' s tobacco warehouse , on the western banks of the Potomac near the mouth of ( Great ) Hunting Creek , was deemed a suitable location because its deep water access allowed ships from London to sail directly to the wharf . But , the local tobacco planters wanted to site a new town away from the river ( and its " played out " tobacco fields ) and further upstream on Hunting Creek . During the legislative session of 1748 - 49 , Washington had the role of promoting the river site and securing the votes necessary to approve a new town on the Potomac , where it would best serve the interests of the Ohio Company . In May 1749 , Governor William Gooch signed an Act to establish the town of Alexandria . Washington was granted permission to " be absent from the Service of the House , for the Recovery of his Health . " Prior to the first public auction of town lots in July 1749 , Washington sailed to London to conduct business on behalf of the Ohio Company , and to consult English physicians regarding his health . His younger brother George , an aspiring land surveyor , attended the " Public Vendue " ( auction ) . He copied the town map , " A Plan of Alexandria , Now Belhaven " , and listed the selling prices of the individual lots for his brother . Although established as " Alexandria " , the town was immediately called " Belhaven " - in honor of Scottish patriot John Hamiliton , 2nd Lord Belhaven . In 1751 , the town council held the " Belhaven Lottery " to raise money for a city hall , and George Washington ' s correspondence throughout the French and Indian War of the late 1750s referred to " Belhaven " . George Washington accompanied his half - brother Lawrence to the warm springs at Bath ( present - day Berkeley Springs , West Virginia ) . Lawrence visited these frequently to improve his health , as he had contracted tuberculosis . In 1751 , they took a ship to the island of Barbados hoping that the tropics might help Lawrence , who was now very ill with TB . ( This was the only ocean crossing taken by George Washington during his lifetime ; his other future travels did not extend beyond the wide borders of the future United States of America ) . At the time , George Washington was sick with smallpox ; although he suffered some scarring on his face , his survival meant he was immune to other attacks . Smallpox would be the cause of the most deaths during the American Revolutionary War , and more people died of disease than of battle wounds . Lawrence Washington died of TB his Mount Vernon home , in July 1752 . His widow Anne remarried into the Lee family shortly thereafter . Twenty - year - old George lived at , and managed , the Mount Vernon plantation . Upon the death of Lawrence ' s widow Anne , George Washington inherited the estate at Mount Vernon . Lawrence and Anne had several children together , but none survived childhood ; the youngest three died in infancy : Lawrence Washington Military Portrait . The only surviving portrait of Lawrence Washington is at Mt . Vernon , where George Washington is known to have kept it in his private studio / library on the ground floor : it is the only Washington family portrait honored with a place in the Study . A group of American art experts - including James Flexner - were invited to Mt . Vernon around 1966 to examine the many family portraits owned by George Washington . In their brief examination of the unsigned , undated painting of Lawrence Washington , those social historians noted that his jacket lacked a collar , which was a style of dress popular in England in the 1730s . On that basis alone , they estimated the portrait was painted in England before Lawrence left Appleby School in 1738 ( to return to Virginia ) . This attribution was widely accepted by most Washington scholars , notwithstanding the fact that a few years later ( 1969 ) experts in colonial American military history identified the portrait as the finest surviving example of an American Regiment officer ' s uniform " circa " 1740 - 42 . Although it is unsigned and undated , the portrait depicts Lawrence in his military uniform as the Adjutant of the Virginia militia . He posed wearing the scarlet " undressed " frock coat issued him in 1740 - 41 when he was commissioned as a Captain in the British Army , and the green regimental vest of the " American Regiment " . The vest is trimmed with gold lace ( as befits a commanding officer ) , as is the peak of his tri - corn hat . When the leading experts on Colonial American military history visited Mt . Vernon in 1968 - 69 , they described the portrait as " the finest example " of an American officer ' s uniform from the War of Jenkins ' Ear , and published their research ( Plate 325 ) in the foremost journal for the study of military uniforms , Military Collector and Historian . ) The officer ' s cockade in his hat appears to be the same one later worn by George Washington when he had his portrait painted in 1772 . Lawrence ' s " porthole " portrait is nearly identical to that of his neighbor and friend , George Mason of Gunston Hall . The Mason portrait is known to have been painted by the young Philadelphia painter John Hesselius in the spring / summer of 1750 to commemorate his 4 April wedding to Ann Elibeck . A leading expert on the works of Hesselius ( father and son ) , Professor Roland Fleischer , notes that early works of John Hesselius are characterized by the canvas having been primed with a dark , reddish base paint , and that some of his works were signed , others were not . With Lawrence already in failing health and known to have been contemplating returning to the Caribbean in hopes of recovering his health , the younger painter may have depicted Lawrence in more robust health than was accurate in 1750 . With ( father ) Gustavus Hesselius established in Philadelphia , young John Hesselius made his first attempt at establishing himself as a professional portrait painter by traveling to the Virginia capital of Williamsburg in spring 1750 . There were no professional portrait painters then working in the prosperous colony and Hesselius likely expected to set up a temporary studio in the capital , counting on business from Virginia ' s wealthy gentry class who attended the Virginia assembly ( the House of Burgesses ) . Unfortunately for Hesselius , the Virginia legislature did not meet in spring 1752 , because of the absence of a ( resident ) Governor . Hesselius then worked his way back to Philadelphia by visiting the plantation estates of prominent Virginian families . It is highly likely that , after painting the newlywed George and Ann Mason , Hesselius may have obtained a letter of introduction to paint Lawrence and Anne Washington at Mt . Vernon in 1750 . Hesselius would , later , play an indirect role in the portraiture of George Washington , when he took on a young apprentice saddlemaker who aspired to become a painter . The young teen who learned to paint in the Annapolis studio of John Hesselius in 1763 was Charles Willson Peale . { He was George Washington ' s eldest half - brother .