The
Surry
County
Washingtons
In the middle of the 1600's, not one, not two, but three different and distinct
Washington families were founded in Virginia, by different immigrants named
Washington.
The first to come and best known was started by John Washington, who settled in
Westmoreland County, in northern Virginia, in the winter of 1657. Soon
thereafter his younger brother Lawrence came, then returned to England for a few
years, finally returning by 1667 to Virginia to stay. These two brothers both
died about 1677 and left families. The older brother, Col. John Washington (ca.
1634-1677), was the great-grandfather of Gen. George Washington.
By 1663 there had settled, in the same Westmoreland County, oddly enough, an
Edward Washington, who was too old to have been a child of either of the other
Washingtons. He was burnt in the thumb for "murthering a man," (It is
presumed to say involuntary manslaughter), and he later become Constable.
He survived until 1710 and left a family of numerous descendants. It seems
inconceivable that he could have been related to John and Lawrence. John was
justice of the county court, led, with the rank of Lt. Col., a Virginia
expedition against the Indians, owned several thousand acres of land, and
clearly was the leading citizen of his area. There surely would have been some
mention of this Edward by either or both brothers but there is none.
Meanwhile in 1658, far away in southern Virginia, in Surry County, there occurs
another John Washington. In that year he married Mrs. Mary Ford, and by 1660 he
had died, when his widow was remarried to Henry Briggs. He did leave one son,
Richard Washington, who lived to marry and have thirteen children and numerous
descendants. His most distinguished descendant perhaps was the poet, Sidney
Lanier.
The European parentage of most immigrants in the 17th century to what is now the
United States is completely unknown. Only in a rare exceptional case has the
origin been preserved or later recovered. George Washington did not have any
idea where his great-grandfather John Washington had come from, except that he
thought (mistakenly) it was one of the northern counties of England.
Sir Issac Heard, then of the College of Arms, wrote to George Washington on the
subject in 1791, and later formed a
theory about the parentage of the Westmoreland County John and Lawrence
Washington, which was accepted until 1863. At that point some people showed the
theory was wrong, and a great deal of study was devoted to investigating the
problem, until finally in 1889 Henry F. Waters found the documents that
established the Westmoreland brothers as sons of Rev. Lawrence Washington (ca
1602-1652) and Amphillis his wife. Since then a number of students have expanded
our knowledge of this family and its various connections.
In retrospect, and with present knowledge, this looks like a comparatively easy
problem. In Virginia we had not only the two brothers, John and Lawrence, who
both left wills naming each other, but there was also a sister Martha, to whom
John left money in his will for her to come to Virginia. And she in turn left a
will naming her Washington nephews in Virginia and two sisters in England,
Elizabeth and Margaret. If one finds in English records five brothers and
sisters of the right period, with names John, Lawrence, Martha, Elizabeth and
Margaret Washington, one certainly
has a proven case.
Contrast this with the problem presented by John Washington of Surry County. We
have no records of him except his 1658 marriage contract with Mrs. Mary Ford,
and then records of his widow and son. There is no slightest indication in any
surviving Virginia records of any other relatives or any other evidence. In
order to trace him across the water, one has nothing to go on but the name John
Washington and his approximate age, as marriageable in 1658. Mr. Waters pointed
out in 1889 in connection with the other Washingtons, that there were families
of the name in nineteen different English counties in the 17th century -- and
then he finally found his clue to the parentage of the Westmoreland brothers in
a twentieth! The Surry problem does look hopeless.
In 1925 Dr. Lyon G. Tyler published in his Tylers Quarterly Historical and
Genealogical Magazine a series of articles on the Surry County Washingtons
with this unfortunate paragraph (Vol. VII, page 46): "John Washington and his
brother Lawrence, of Westmoreland Co., Va., were sons of Rev. Lawrence
Washington, rector of Purleigh in England, who had a brother Sir John
Washington. Now Sir John married twice (1) Mary, daughter of Philip Curtis, of
Northamptonshire; and (2) Dorothy, daughter of William Pargiter, of Gretworth,
Eng. By the first marriage he had two sons John and Mordaunt. Now Theodore
Pargiter, brother of Dorothy, writes a letter from London August 2, 1654, in
which he mentions his 'cozen John Washington', apparently in Barbadoes. As many
people emigrated from Barbadoes to Southside Virginia, there is no reasonable
doubt that John Washington of Barbadoes was John Washington, of Surry Co., Va.
Sir John Yeamans, Governor of Barbadoes, was represented in Isle of Wight
(County , Va.,) by his nephew Joseph Woory."
This is a fine example of leaping to a conclusion based on no evidence at all.
First, it requires us to accept that Theodore Pargiter's
"cozen John Washington" is indeed his sister's stepson and not some other
John Washington. It should be noticed that the Pargiters and Washingtons had
been intermarried and been cousins of each other since the 1540's. Actually, I
do think it likely, though unproved, that Tyler's guess on the first point is
right, and that Sir John Washington's son John is indeed the man mentioned in
Pargiter's letter. Next, the text of the letter implies, but does not actually
state that "cozen John Washington
was in Barbadoes." But, third, it
is a wild statement to say, that because other people from Barbadoes came to
southern Virginia, John Washington of Surry is necessarily the John Washington
who may have been in Barbadoes.
However, it is not necessary to judge how reasonable Dr. Tyler's guess was.
Evidence has been available in print since 1889 to prove definitely that his
guess was wrong, and that Sir John Washington's son John did not come to Surry
County, Virginia and die there in 1658-60.
Mr. Waters in his classic article showing the parentage of John and Lawrence
Washington of Westmoreland County, (New England Historical and Genealogical
Register, Oct., 1889.) gave an
abstract of the will of Dame Margaret Sandys, sister of Rev. Lawrence Washington
and of Sir John Washington. She left a legacy in 1673 to "my nephew John
Washington, my dear eldest brother's son." Her eldest brother was Sir John, so
this shows that his son John was alive in England in 1673, and therefore, did
not leave a widow in Surry County, Virginia in 1660.
It is unfortunate that there has been all this confusion over the years about
the history of the Surry County Washingtons. Prospects do not seem bright for
ever determining the English parentage of John Washington of Surry. There seem
to be no clues in this country, and I do not know how one could expect to
stumble on information in one of twenty counties in England about a John
Washington who by English evidence alone can be shown to have gone to Virginia
and died.
The Surry County descendants should know that one branch which settled in
Tennessee in the nineteenth century rose to a peak of affluence and magnificence
that no member of George Washington's family ever came close to attaining.
To summarize:
1) The Surry County Washingtons
were misled by bad research into believing that their family was related to
George Washington's family.
2) The claimed relationship was
that of first cousin to Gen. Washington's great-grandfather, and therefore, of
fourth cousin to the General.
3) Prospects for determining the
English origin of the immigrant ancestor John Washington of Surry County,
Virginia are not encouraging.
4) If his English origin is ever
determined, there is no way to predict whether he will be related to the family
from which George Washington's great-grandfather came, or to some entirely
different family.
John A. Washington