Show A Is pedigree Ped teree ioree 6 1 manchester eng limes limm gibbon gibbon the historian says experience peri ence has proved that there is scarcely any man of a tolerable family who does not wish to know as much aa as he can about it nor is such an ambition either foolish in itself or hurtful to society it is no wonder therefore that the american people aio are so anxious about the pedigree of wa washington wahington hington that to them at least time honored honore and beloved name the father of his country inquiries are being constantly made through the medium of various newspapers and other sources but it appears to me the par parties ties inquiring are entirely on the wrong track chief justice marahall marshall in hia his life of washington published in london in 1807 and dedicated to the marquis of lansdowne says vol 2 p 2 he the president was the great grandson of john washington ton a gentleman of very respectable respectable respect atle family in the north of england who had e emigrated about the year 1657 and settled d in n the elace place where the president was born orn in volume 6 5 of the same bori work there is a communication from from sir isaac heard garter king of arms to chief justice marshall in which he says that john and lawrence washington brothers emigrated from the north of england according to the tradition in the family of the president and settled at bridge creek on oil t the he potomac river in the county of westmoreland according to the virginia state land registry there appears a grant on the june of acres of land t to juhn john wife and on the ath of september the same year a grant of 1200 acres to him and his cifes brother thomas pope it will be seen by reference to a pamphlet I 1 recently published by H F r waters MA ancestors of washington that in a few years afterwards large areas were granted to him and his brother lawrence in stafford county it is stated I 1 I 1 in n homes of american statesmen p 45 a work published in 1854 that a farm in stafford county on the where the dents father had lind lived some years before his lathers fathers death was his share of the personal estate and on this be he lived with his mother until he had completed his year no doubt a portion of the lands granted to his great grandfather in a life of the president by cyrus E edmonds published I 1 in 1838 at p 4 it is stated the P president r was the great grandson of mr john washington a man of considerable wealth and influence in the north of england who emigrated to america about 1657 mr waters says that he has gleaned over the whole field and mentions nineteen different english counties but only three in the north viz yorkshire lancashire and westmorland not cheshire Chea bire derbyshire or staffordshire why not great changes have taken place in england since 1657 when the presidents ancestors emigrated but it will seem a strange circumstance that the book of en english I 1 ahl ian landowners downers called the V new ew doomsday published in 1875 and printed by order of the house houpe of commons contains the nime dime of washington sixteen times only and eight are in and cheshire alone and only one io in all the other northern counties there are still washington families in this locality and if family tradition is reliable their ancestor anc eater left lancashire in the time of henry VIII and participated in the spoils of the diet ie Is cross abbey leek on its dis dissolution sol there was a john washing ton at that time in leek frith was he be the second john job of whitfield or more properly Te witfield of whom mr waters in his pedigree i gives no further account there was also laurence hugh and thomas washington in t the he locality some of their descendants still remain one washington amy A my perhaps per haps this johns granddaughter married john bavage savage of wall gran grange ge leek a great grandson of sir john sav savage ago km brother of archbishop savage and there have been other marriages since with patricius patric iun Ln families miliea fa one of the left the neighborhood of leek about ili the a middle of last century and bought estates here and in 1795 three of his descendants were all landowners here and were as ou such ch appointed trustees under the congleton enclosure act which rewired required a property qualification some 0 me of the family are fire still here one just dead aged 84 had in ia his possession a very old engrav engraved ed portrait of president washington more than a century old locq looked upon on asa as a family portrait which he had ha remembered all his life there are a in astbury churchyard for more than a century past relating to this family THOMAS COOPER |