Lawrence Washington (1602–1653)

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Lawrence Washington
Born Lawrence Washington
1602
Died 21 January 1653
Resting place
 All Saints Church, Maldon, Essex
Ethnicity English
Occupation Rector
Religion Anglicanism
Spouse(s) Amphillis Twigden
Children John Washington
Lawrence Washington
William Washington
Elizabeth Washington
Margaret Washington
Martha Washington
Parents Lawrence Washington, Margaret Butler

Reverend Lawrence Washington (1602 – 21 January 1653) was an English rector, and the great-great-grandfather of George Washington.[1] During the Civil War he was among more than one hundred ministers who were deprived of their livings by order of the Puritan Parliament.

Family

Lawrence Washington was born in 1602, the fifth son of Lawrence Washington (b. 1565 d. 13 September 1616) of Sulgrave Manor, Northamptonshire, son and heir of Robert Washington (b. c. 1544 d. 1619), esquire, of Sulgrave by his first wife Elizabeth Lyte, daughter and heiress of Walter Lyte of Radway, Warwickshire. His mother was Margaret Butler (d. 16 March 1651), the eldest daughter and co-heiress of William Butler, esquire, of Tyes Hall in Cuckfield, Sussex, and Margaret Greeke, the daughter of Thomas Greeke, gentleman, of Palsters, Lancashire. Robert Washington was son of Lawrence Washington (b. c. 1500 d. 1584), eldest son of John Washington of Warton, Lancashire. [2][3]

Lawrence Washington had seven brothers, Robert, Sir John, Sir William, Richard, Thomas, Gregory and George, and nine sisters, Elizabeth, Joan, Margaret, Alice, Frances, Amy, Lucy, Barbara and Jane.[4] His elder brother, Sir William Washington, married Anne Villiers, half sister of James I's favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.[5][6][7][8]

Washington was the great-great grandson of John Washington and Margaret Kitson, the sister of Sir Thomas Kitson of Hengrave.[6]

Career

Washington was admitted to Brasenose College, Oxford in 1619, graduating BA in 1623.[3] He was elected a Fellow of the College within a few days. In 1626 he was awarded an MA. In 1627 he was appointed lector, and on 26 August 1631 was appointed proctor. In 1632 he obtained a BD degree and left the university, for reasons which are unclear. It has been suggested that his resignation was either due to difficulties he experienced in acting as Archbishop Laud's representative at Oxford, or that he married in December 1633 after having fathered his son, John, which left him with no choice but to resign.[3]

Washington left Brasenose owing the college '17s 10d personally and £9 5s 9d on behalf of a pupil' (approximately $190 and $1,984.85 in today's money).[9] The college books contain the note: 'Mr Washington to be sued', but it seems no lawsuit was ever filed.[3] An anecdote concerning the later history of the debt records that:[3][10]

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.

Washington'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, to whom Washington was related through his sister-in-law, Anne Villiers.

Washington was appointed rector of Purleigh, Essex, in 1632. He lost his benefice in 1643 during the Civil War when more than one hundred English ministers were deprived of their livings by order of the Puritan Parliament for various offenses: speaking treasonously about Parliament, joining the Cavaliers (in support of King Charles), refusing to administer the Sacrament and other doctrinal irregularities, publishing tracts without license, sequestering Catholics, failing to observe the Sabbath, intemperance, fornication, cursing, gambling and even bestiality. A book, published in London in 1643, described these 'scandalous priests':[11]

The benefice of Lawrence Washington, Rector of Purleigh in the County of Essex, is sequestered, for that he is a common frequenter of Ale-houses, not only himself sitting daily, tippling there but also encouraging others in that beastly vice, and hath been oft drunk, and hath said that the Parliement have more Papists belonging to them in their Armies than the King had about him or in his Army, and that the Parliements Army did more hurt than the Cavaleers, and that they did none at all And hath published them to be Traitours, that lend to or assist the Parliament.

After his ejection from Purleigh, he became rector of Little Braxted, Essex. It is thought that his wife, Amphyllis, did not go with him to Little Braxted. After the death of Amphyllis' father, her mother married Andrew Knowling of Tring, and it is thought that Amphyllis and her children lived with her stepfather at Tring after the Washington family left Purleigh.[3] Knowling was Washington's godfather, and in his will dated 13 January 1649 left bequests to both Washington and his mother, Amphyllis:[12][13]

Item I will give and bequeath unto Lawrance Washington the younger (my godsonne) all my freehould Landes and Tenemtes whatsoeur lying and being within the Parish of Tring aforesaid or else where within the Realme of England. To haue and to hould the same to him and his heires for euer. Item I give and bequeath unto Amphilis Washington my daughter in lawe (& mother of the said Lawrance) the some of Threescore poundes of Currt mony of England to be paid her within six months after my decease.
Interior of All Saints Church, Maldon, burial place of Lawrence Washington

Washington died in poverty, leaving an estate of insufficient value to require the issuance of letters of administration, and was buried in All Saints Church at Maldon, Essex.[3]

Three of Washington's children emigrated to Virginia, as did another family member, Sir Samuel Argall, whose widowed mother, Mary (d.1598), had married Washington's uncle, Lawrence Washington (d.1619) of Maidstone, Registrar of the Court of Chancery.[6][14][15]

In 1928 the Washington window, commemorating the Washington family, was given to All Saints Church, Maldon, by the citizens of Malden, Massachusetts.[3][16]

Marriage and issue

When he was about thirty-three years of age Washington married, in December 1633, Amphilis Twigden (baptized 2 February 1602), the daughter and co-heiress of John Twigden of Little Creaton, Northamptonshire, by Anne Dicken, daughter of William Dicken, by whom he had three sons and three daughters:[3][17]

  • John Washington, who born in 1633/4, shortly after his parents' marriage. He emigrated to Virginia in 1656. He married firstly, on 1 December 1656, Anne Pope (d.1668), the daughter of Nathaniel Pope, gentleman, of Virginia, by whom he had two sons, Lawrence (grandfather of George Washington) and John, and a daughter, Anne. He married secondly Anne Gerard, widow successively of Walter Broadhurst (d.1658), and Henry Brett. He married thirdly Frances Gerard, widow successively of Thomas Speak, Valentine Peyton and John Appleton. He left a will dated 21 September 1675, which was proved 11 January 1677. After his death, his widow, Frances, married William Hardwick.[18]
  • Lawrence Washington, who was baptized at Tring on 18 June 1635. He emigrated to Virginia before May 1659, but returned to England, becoming a merchant in Luton, Bedfordshire. He married firstly Mary Jones, daughter of Edmund Jones, gentleman, of Luton, by whom he had a son, Charles, and a daughter, Mary. He emigrated to Virginia a second time shortly before 27 September 1667. He married secondly, about 1669, Joyce Jones, widow successively of Anthony Hoskins and Alexander Fleming, and daughter of William Jones of Virginia, by whom he had a son, John, and a daughter, Anne. He left a will dated 27 September 1675, which was proved 6 June 1677. After his death his widow, Joyce, married James Yates.[18]
  • William Washington (baptised 14 October 1641).[17]
  • Elizabeth Washington (baptised 17 August 1636), who married a husband surnamed Rumbold.[17]
  • Margaret Washington, who married George Talbot.[17]
  • Martha Washington, who emigrated to Virginia in 1678. She married Samuel Hayward of Virginia, son of the London merchant Nicholas Hayward. There were no issue of the marriage. She left a will dated 6 May 1697, which was proved 8 December 1697.[18]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Washington family, Sulgrave Manor, Northamptonshire Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  2. ↑ Richardson IV 2011, pp. 293-5.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Reverend Lawrence Washington, 1602-1652/3 Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  4. ↑ Richardson IV 2001, p. 294.
  5. ↑ Anne Villiers was the daughter of Sir George Villiers by his first wife, Audrey Saunders (d.1587); she was buried at Chelsea 25 May 1643.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Washington Family Tree, Sulgrave Manor Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  7. ↑ Metcalfe 1887, p. 45.
  8. ↑ Firth 1892, p. 416.
  9. ↑ "Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1245 to Present". Measuring Worth. 
  10. ↑ Brasenose College, George Washington Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  11. ↑ White, John (1575-1648) "The First Century of Scandalous, Malignant Priests" (London:1643), listed as number 9 on p.4 Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  12. ↑ Ford 1890.
  13. ↑ Knowling refers to Amphyllis as his 'daughter in law', a term commonly used to refer to a stepdaughter at the time; Oxford English Dictionary, online edition.
  14. ↑ Baldwin 2004.
  15. ↑ Memorial to Lawrence Washington in All Saints Church, Maidstone Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  16. ↑ Washington window in All Saints Church, Maldon, Essex Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 Richardson IV 2011, p. 294.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Richardson IV 2011, p. 295.

See also

  • Strickland (surname), The Washington family are direct descendants of the Strickland family from Westmorland in England.

References

common frequenter of ale-houses, not only himself sitting daily tippling there, but also encouraging others in that beastly vice in op. cit. p. 5, s.v. Ancestry.
  • C. V. Wedgwood, The King's Peace 1637-1641 London and Glasgow, Collins Fontana, 1973
  • C. V. Wedgwood, The King's War 1641-1647 London and Glasgow, Collins Fontana, 1973
  • Christopher Hill, The Century of Revolution 1603-1714 London and New York, Routledge Classics, 2006
  • A. L. Rowse, The Elizabethan Renaissance: The Life of the Society London, Penguin Classic History, 2000
  • A. L. Rowse, Ralegh and the Throckmortons (1962) The Reprint Society, London, 1964 (index s.v. Sulgrave, Washington)
  • Wallace Notestein, The English People on the Eve of Colonization 1603-1630 New York, Harper&Brothers, 1954 in: The New American Nation Series (Steele Commager and Morris ed.)
  • Blair Worden ed., Stuart England Oxford, Phaedon 1986
  • Helen Gardner, (introduction, edition) The Metaphysical Poets Penguin Books, 1972 (biographical notes pp. 306–323)
  • Henry Morley, Character Writings of the Seventeenth Century London, George Routledge and Sons, 1891 in: The Carisbrooke Library. XIV
  • Hugh Ross Williamson, George Villiers, First Duke of Buckingham: Study for a Biography London, Duckworth 1940
  • Glyn Redworth, The Prince and the Infanta: The Cultural Politics of the Spanish Match New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2003 (index s.v. Washington)
  • The Brazen Nose [the college's magazine], volume 41 (2006-7), page 110, for the story of the unpaid debt left by Lawrence.
  • The Washingtons of Tring by Murray Neil (Tring, 2013, ISBN 978-0-9749860-2-5) includes information on the time Ahphyllis and her children lived in this small Hertfordshire Town.

External links

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