The True George Washington | Page 3

whom
Washington's library descended. Original in the possession of the
Boston Athenaeum.
RULES OF CIVILITY
First page of Washington's boyish transcript, written when he was
about thirteen years of age. Used here by courtesy of Mr. S.M.
Hamilton and "Public Opinion," who are preparing a fac-simile edition
of the entire rules.
LIFE MASK BY HOUDON
Taken by Houdon in October, 1785. From the replica in the Historical
Society of Pennsylvania.
TITLE-PAGE OF JOURNAL OF GEORGE WASHINGTON, 1754
Of this first edition but two copies are known. From the original in the
Lenox Library.
PRESIDENTIAL HOUSE IN PHILADELPHIA
Philadelphia offered to furnish the house for the President during the
time Congress sat in that city, but Washington "wholly declined living
in any public building," and rented this house from Robert Morris.
Though it was considered one of the finest in the city, Washington
several times complained of being cramped.

THE TRUE GEORGE WASHINGTON
I
FAMILY RELATIONS
Although Washington wrote that the history of his ancestors was, in his
opinion, "of very little moment," and "a subject to which I confess I
have paid very little attention," few Americans can prove a better
pedigree. The earliest of his forebears yet discovered was described as
"gentleman," the family were granted lands by Henry the Eighth, held
various offices of honor, married into good families, and under the
Stuarts two were knighted and a third served as page to Prince Charles.
Lawrence, a brother of the three thus distinguished, matriculated at
Oxford as a "generosi filius" (the intermediate class between sons of
the nobility, "armigeri filius," and of the people, "plebeii filius"), or as
of the minor gentry. In time he became a fellow and lector of Brasenose
College, and presently obtained the good living of Purleigh. Strong

royalists, the fortunes of the family waned along with King Charles,
and sank into insignificance with the passing of the Stuart dynasty. Not
the least sufferer was the rector of Purleigh, for the Puritan Parliament
ejected him from his living, on the charge "that he was a common
frequenter of ale-houses, not only himself sitting dayly tippling there ...
but hath oft been drunk,"--a charge indignantly denied by the royalists,
who asserted that he was a "worthy Pious man, ... always ... a very
Modest, Sober Person;" and this latter claim is supported by the fact
that though the Puritans sequestered the rich living, they made no
objection to his serving as rector at Brixted Parva, where the living was
"such a Poor and Miserable one that it was always with difficulty that
any one was persuaded to accept of it."
Poverty resulting, John, the eldest son of this rector, early took to the
sea, and in 1656 assisted "as second man in Sayleing ye Vessel to
Virginia." Here he settled, took up land, presently became a county
officer, a burgess, and a colonel of militia. In this latter function he
commanded the Virginia troops during the Indian war of 1675, and
when his great-grandson, George, on his first arrival on the frontier,
was called by the Indians "Conotocarius," or "devourer of villages," the
formidable but inappropriate title for the newly-fledged officer is
supposed to have been due to the reputation that John Washington had
won for his name among the Indians eighty years before.
[Illustration: TABLET TO LAURENCE WASHINGTON AND HIS
FAMILY IN SULGRAVE CHURCH]
Both John's son, Lawrence, and Lawrence's son, Augustine, describe
themselves in their wills as "gentlemen," and both intermarried with the
"gentry families" of Virginia. Augustine was educated at Appleby
School, in England, like his grandfather followed the sea for a time,
was interested in iron mines, and in other ways proved himself far more
than the average Virginia planter of his day. He was twice
married,--which marriages, with unconscious humor, he describes in
his will as "several Ventures,"--had ten children, and died in 1743,
when George, his fifth child and the first by his second "Venture," was
a boy of eleven. The father thus took little part in the life of the lad, and
almost the only mention of him by his son still extant is the one
recorded in Washington's round school-boy hand in the family Bible, to
the effect that "Augustine Washington and Mary Ball was Married the

Sixth of March 17-30/31. Augustine Washington Departed this Life ye
12th Day of April 1743, Aged 49 Years."
The mother, Mary Washington, was more of a factor, though chiefly by
mere length of life, for she lived to be eighty-three, and died but ten
years before her son. That Washington owed his personal appearance to
the Balls is true, but otherwise the sentimentality that has been lavished
about the relations between the two and her influence upon him,
partakes of fiction rather than of truth. After his father's death the boy