| Rev. Lawrence Washington | |
|---|---|
| Born | Lawrence Washington 1602 Sulgrave Manor, Northampton, England, |
| Died | 1653 Little Braxted, Essex, England |
| Ethnicity | English |
| Occupation | Rector |
| Religion | Anglicanism |
| Spouse | Amphillis Twigden |
| Children | John Washington, |
Rev. Lawrence Washington (1602–1653) was an English rector, and the great-great-grandfather of George Washington. Rev. Washington was born about 1602 in Sulgrave Manor, Northampton, England, and died about Jan 1652/53 in Little Braxted, Essex, England. Rev. Washington was buried 21 Jan 1652/53 in Maldon, Essex, England. Also, he is a great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of Lewis Washington; great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of George Corbin Washington, James Barroll Washington, Mary Ann Washington, Eliza Ridgeley Washington, Betty Lewis Washington, William De Hertbrun Washington; great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of William Lanier Washington.
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Washington was a Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford. His degree there was awarded in 1623. He resigned from his Fellowship in 1633. According to the college records he left in debt, "owing 17s 10d personally and £9 5s 9d on behalf of a pupil". College Fellows at Oxford at the time were held liable for their students' debts. The college accounting books read: "Mr Washington to be sued", but no lawsuit was ever filed.
The college recounts the following story of the debt: "In 1924 a party of Canadian and American lawyers were shown the account of these debts during a visit to the College, and they suggested that they should pay the personal debt of 17s 10d, subject to no interest being charged. A pound note was produced amidst much laughter. Unfortunately this light-hearted gesture was not appreciated by some of George Washington's more seriously minded supporters. A letter to the Daily Express and an article in the New York Herald both denied that any debt had ever existed."[1]
Lawrence's stay at Oxford coincided with the rectorate (1619-1645) of Giles Widdowes at St Martin's. Widdowes was chaplain to Katherine Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham of whom Lawrence became the in-law.
Washington became rector of the village of Purleigh, in Essex, from 1632 until 1643. He lost his position during the Civil War when Essex where his living was situated came under the government of the Long Parliament. He died in poverty after he had been ejected from Purleigh and relocated to the rectorate of Little Braxted, at present an eastern outskirt of Witham (1643). He is buried in the nearby town of Maldon [2].
By then Sir Samuel Argall had become Deputy Governor of Virginia (between 1617-1619). When his widowed mother, Mary Scot, had remarried Laurence Washington of Maidstone (great uncle of Lawrence Washington (1602–1655)), Sir Samuel became the first Washington relative with firm footing in America.
George Washington: a Biographical Compendium (Frank E. Grizzard, Jr., 2002) details the portrait of Lawrence Washington with the contemporary phrasing of the charge laid against him and that led to his removal from Purleigh:
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