John Washington

Early life and family

John Washington was born in 1631 in Tring, Hertfordshire, England, the son of Amphillis Twigden and Rev. Lawrence Washington (1602-1653). Prior to Lawrence Washington's marriage, he had been a don at the University of Oxford.

When John was eight his father enrolled him in Charterhouse School in London to begin preparing for an academic career however John never attended the School. In 1633 Lawrence left Oxford to become the Rector of Purleigh, Essex. During the English Civil War, in 1643 the royalist Lawrence Washington was stripped of his clerical position as Rector of Purleigh by the Parliamentary Puritans and subsequently Lawrence became an Anglican Vicar of an impoverished parish in Little Braxted, Essex. His wife and family then returned to his wife's home in Tring, Hertfordshire.

John Washington found an apprenticeship with a London merchant through his Sandys relatives, which provided a valuable education in colonial trade.

In 1656 Washington invested in a merchant ship engaged in transporting tobacco to European markets and left his home in Tring for the Colony of Virginia. Washington was the ship's second officer. In 1657, the ship foundered in the Potomac River. Although the vessel was repaired, Washington elected to remain in the colony. He was accompanied to Virginia by his cousin, James Washington, the son of London-Rotterdam merchant Robert Washington (1616 - 1674) although James subsequently returned to England.

Colony of Virginia

While first in Virginia, Washington stayed at the house of Col. Nathaniel Pope, a planter. During this stay, he fell in love with his host's daughter Anne. He settled at a site on Bridges Creek.

After his marriage to Anne Pope and the wedding gift from Anne's father of 700 acres (2.8 km²) on Mattox Creek in Westmoreland County of the Northern Neck, Washington became a successful planter. He depended on the labor of slaves and indentured servants to cultivate tobacco and kitchen crops. He was selected for the Virginia House of Burgesses and became a politician in the colony.

During the events leading to Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, Washington was appointed a colonel in the Virginia militia. He led a company to back a group of Marylanders during a planned parley with the opposition and American Indian leaders. The militia killed six chiefs of various tribes, and their peoples retaliated for the massacre in later raids and attacks against the colonists. Governor William Berkeley strongly criticized Washington for the murders of the American Indian chiefs, but colonists supported Washington in the massacre. Relations between the Indians and colonists deteriorated.

Marriage and family

He married Anne Pope in 1658.

They had three children together:

After Anne Pope's death, Washington married Anne (unknown maiden name, widow of Walter Broadhurst & Henry Brett). When his second wife died also, John Washington married Frances Gerard (daughter of Thomas Gerard, widow of Thomas Speke, Valentine Peyton & John Appleton). This third marriage occurred about May 10, 1676 when a "joynture" was recorded between Mrs Frances Appleton and John Washington in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

Washington and his first wife Anne Pope are buried at what is now called the George Washington Birthplace National Monument, in present-day Colonial Beach, Virginia. His vault is the largest in the small family burial plot.

Legacy and honors

The name of the local parish of the Anglican Church (the established church in colonial Virginia, and thereby a tax district of the county) was changed to Washington in his honour.