John Washington (1671 - 1712)

Born 2 Apr 1671 in King George County, Virginia

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 24 Apr 1712 at age 41 in Virginia

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This profile is part of the Washington Name Study.

Biography

Fun Fact #1: There would be no American George Washington, father of his country, without this John Washington. "Young Augustine Washington (father of President George Washington) was faced with tragedy at the tender age of 4 when his father Lawrence died leaving Augustine's mother Mildred Warner Washington a widow with three small children. Mildred married shortly thereafter to George Gale who returned to his home in Whitehaven, Cumberland, England with his new wife and step children. George intended to keep the children in England, and it seemed certain that Augustine Washington (father of the father of "our country" George Washington) would not return to America in his formative years, if ever. George Gale sought proper schooling for his step children and enrolled them in the prestigious Appleby School in Westmoreland, England. Life in England seemed very promising for young Augustine Washington when he was faced with a second tragedy. His mother Mildred died in 1701 only three years after his father Lawrence's death. Augustine at age 8 had already endured the loss of both parents.

Lawrence Washington provided that upon the death of he and his wife, his estate should revert to and be managed by his first cousin John Washington of Chotank, King George County (then Stafford County) Virginia. Upon learning of the death of his cousin's wife, John dispatched George Gale and the Courts of Stafford County, petitioning for the legal adoption of Young Augustine and his older brother and younger sister under the terms of Lawrence Washington's Will. The courts found in favor of John and George Gale relinquished custody of Augustine. In 1706 Augustine Washington's life changed abruptly again. At the age of 10 he was forced to give up the comforts of Appleby School and return to the rurals of Virginia and Chotank. Yet it was this move to Chotank that gave Augustine perhaps his first element of stability in what heretofore had been a somewhat turbulent and tragic childhood. He spent the rest his childhood and teen years at Chotank and in 1715 at the age of 21 set out on his own."^[1][2]

Fun Fact #2: This John Washington, and his wife Mary Townshend, inherited a large manor in England from their wealthy Langhorne relatives. Needham Langhorne was lord of the manor of Newton Bromswold, Northants, England. When he died in 1673, the estate descended to his granddaughters Frances(Townshend) Dade and Mary (Townshend) Washington of Virginia. John Washington, Francis Dade and their wives just mentioned, sold their interest in the manor in 1697 while on a visit to London. It is interesting to note that because all but one of the English Langhornes died without issue, much more of the Langhorne family fortune would have been inherited by this same group of Americans and their descendants, in addition to Newton Bromswold. This was because Needham Langhorne was the uncle of Sir William Langhorne, Baronet, who having acquired vast wealth in the Levant trade and distinguised himself as Governor of Madras, purchased the manors of Hampstead (Middlesex) and Charlton (Kent), both comprising a large chunk of London. He went on to marry the Dowager Viscountess Chaworth, a sister to the Duke of Rutland. He and his wife died without issue.

If Needham Langhorne's next elder brother, Benjamin Langhorne, had not left a solitary daughter Frances in England, these Washingtons and Dades, having inherited the vast fortune of Sir William Langhorne, would have been among the wealthiest families in colonial Virginia. ^[3][4]

JOHN WASHNGTON (Lawrence'), was born April 2, 1671. In a letter (printed in Waters' Gleanings) from him to his half sister, Mrs. Mary Gibson, of Hawnes, Bedfordshire, dated June 22, 1697, he says "I have a kind and loving wife by whom I have had three sons and a daughter, of which I have buried my daughter and one son * * * Direct yours to me in Stafford County on Potomack River in Virginia." He married, March 15, 1692, Mary, daughter of Robert Townshend, of Stafford County, and granddaughter of Richard Townshend Esq., of York County, member of the Council (see this Magazine XXII, 313, and Hayden's Virginia Genealogies, 732 and note). Lawrence Washington, son of Col. John Washington, the emigrant, in his will, dated March 11, 1697-8 made his "Cozen John Washington of Stafford" his executor and made bequests to said John and his (John's) eldest son Lawrence. The destruction of the Stafford records prevents us from ascertaining the date of the death of John2 Washington. In the records of Westmoreland is the inventory, dated 1712, of the personal estate of a John Washington in that county; but in the same county in April, 1713, is a suit by John son of Lawrence Washington vs, John Washington, of Stafford, his father's executor. Issue:

1. Lawrence, died without issue (Conway-Ashton);

2. John; John Washington

3. Robert;

4. Townshend;

5. Mary Townshend, married Burdet Ashton, of "Round Hill," Westmoreland Co. (Conway-Ash- ton, and Lund Washington, Sr. accounts) father of John Ashton, of "Round Hill," and grandfather of Charles Henry Ashton, who in 1843, in his 70th year helped to prepare the account of the Washington family.

Col. John was born in 1671. Col. John Washington ... He passed away in 1712. ^[5]

Sources

• Cammi Amezcua, firsthand knowledge. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Cammi and others.

1. ↑ "Captain Augustine Washington Sr, General Notes," original from NPS.
2. ↑ http://npshistory.com/handbooks/historical/26/hh26e.htm
3. ↑ S. H. Lee Washington. “The Virginia Washingtons and the Manor of Newton Bomswold.” The William and Mary Quarterly 23, no. 3 (1943): 336–40. .
4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_William_Langhorne,_1st_Baronet
5. ↑ Entered by Cammi Amezcua, Apr 20, 2011

• http://www.jstor.org/stable/4243413