John Washington

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For the football player of the same name see John Washington (football player).

John Washington (c. 1631-1677) was a Virginia planter and politician. He was the great-grandfather of George Washington, first president of the United States of America.

Washington, son of Lawrence, was born in Purleigh, Essex, England around 1631 and emigrated to the Colony of Virginia in 1656. He had been second officer on a merchant ship that foundered in the Potomac River, but left after the ship was refloated.^[1]

Washington married Anne Pope, daughter of plantation owner Nathaniel Pope, in 1658. Their wedding gift from Pope consisted of 700 acres (2.8 km²) on Mattox Creek in Westmoreland County of Virginia's Northern Neck.^[1]

Washington became a successful planter. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses.^[1] During the events leading to Bacon's Rebellion, he was appointed a Colonel in the Virginia militia and led a company of men to back a group of Marylanders during a supposed parley. Six chiefs of various tribes were killed, and retaliations increased.^[2] He was criticized for this by William Berkeley, but received popular support.^[3]

The local parish of the Anglican Church (the established church in Virginia, and thereby a tax district of the county) was changed to Washington in his honor.^[1]

His brother-in-law was Christopher Gist, the great-grandfather of General Mordecai Gist.