Ethnicity English Religion Anglicanism Name Lawrence Washington Children John Washington | Occupation Rector Spouse(s) Amphillis Twigden Role Rector | |
Resting place All Saints Church, Maldon, Essex Relatives brothers Walter Washington (died 1597), Robert Washington (died 1622) Died January 21, 1653, Little Braxted, United Kingdom Parents Margaret Butler, Lawrence Washington Grandchildren Lawrence Washington (1659–1698) Grandparents Margaret Greeke, William Butler, Robert Washington Great-grandparents Thomas Greeke, Lawrence Washington |
Rev. Lawrence Washington (1602 – 21 January 1653) was an English rector, and the great-great-grandfather of George Washington.
Contents
Family
Lawrence Washington was born in 1602, He was the fifth son of Lawrence Washington (b. 1565 d. 13 September 1616) of Sulgrave Manor, Northamptonshire, son and heir of Robert Washington 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.
Ancestors
Sir John Washington (d.1331)
Lawrence's ancestor Robert (d.1324) was the progenitor of the branch of the Washington family residing at Sulgrave Manor. The brother of this Robert, Sir John Washington (d.1331), was the progenitor of the branch of the Washington family residing at Hallhead Hall/Adwick-le-Street and was the ancestor of London-Rotterdam merchant Robert Washington (1616 - 1674). The son of this Robert (b.1616) was James Washington, who emigrated to Virginia with his cousin, Lt. Col. John Washington, the ancestor of George Washington, before returning to England and then emigrating to Rotterdam, the Netherlands. This James Washington was the ancestor of Baron Jakob von Washington.
Siblings of Lawrence Washington
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. His elder brother, Sir William Washington, married Anne Villiers, half sister of James I's favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.
Washington was the great-great grandson of John Washington and Margaret Kitson, the sister of Sir Thomas Kitson of Hengrave.
Career
Washington was admitted to Brasenose College, Oxford in 1619. He graduated in 1623 with a Bachelor of Arts, and within a few days was elected a Fellow of the College. In 1626 he was awarded a Master of Arts, and in 1627 appointed university lector.
On August 26, 1632 the Archbishop of Canterbury William Laud made Washington proctor at Oxford. Laud sought to rid the university of its Puritan clergy, and Washington was instrumental in carrying out the archbishop's purges. Washington's services to Laud earned him an appointment to the well-compensated rectory of Purleigh in Essex, a position he assumed in 1632. The appointment enabled Washington to marry Amphilis Twigden, a literate, wealthy young widow. Oxford dons were forbidden from marrying, and Washington had risked his post at the university by courting her.
During the Civil War more than one hundred English ministers were deprived of their livings for alleged treason or immorality by order of the Puritan Parliament. In 1643 Washington was censored on trumped-up charges of being "a common frequenter of ale-houses" who "[encouraged] others in that beastly vice" and lost his benefice.
Following his ejection from Purleigh, Washington became rector of the impoverished parish of Little Braxted in Essex. Neither Amphilis nor their children accompanied him there, as they were given shelter by the family of Sir Edwin Sandys, sympathetic relations whose patriarch had served as treasurer in the Virginia Company. Through the Sandys, Lawrence's son John secured an apprenticeship with a London merchant where he learned the tobacco trade.
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.
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.
In 1928 the Washington window, commemorating the Washington family, was given to All Saints' Church, Maldon, by the citizens of Malden, Massachusetts.
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: