Lawrence Washington (1602–1653)

Lawrence Washington
Born 1602
Died January 21, 1653 (aged 5051)
Resting place St. Mary the Virgin with St. John Church, Great Brington, Great Brington, Northamptonshire
Ethnicity English
Occupation Rector
Religion Anglicanism
Spouse(s) Amphillis Twigden
Children John Washington
Lawrence Washington
William Washington
Elizabeth Washington
Margaret Washington
Martha Washington
Parent(s) Lawrence Washington, Margaret Butler
Relatives brothers Walter Washington (died 1597), Robert Washington (died 1622)

Reverend Lawrence Washington (1602 – 21 January 1653) was an English rector, and the great-great-grandfather of George Washington.[1]

Family

Lawrence Washington was born in 1602, 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

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.[3] His elder brother, Sir William Washington, married Anne Villiers, half sister of James I's favourite, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham.[4][5][6][7]

Washington was the great-great grandson of John Washington and Margaret Kitson, the sister of Sir Thomas Kitson of Hengrave.[5]

Career

Washington was admitted to Brasenose College, Oxford in 1619. He graduated in 1623 with a Bachelor of Arts,[8] 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.[9] 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.[9]

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.[10] 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.[11]

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.[12]

Interior of All Saints Church, Maldon, burial place of Lawrence Washington

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.[8]

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.[5][13][14]

In 1928 the Washington window, commemorating the Washington family, was given to All Saints Church, Maldon, by the citizens of Malden, Massachusetts.[8][15]

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:[8][16]

Notes

  1. Washington family, Sulgrave Manor, Northamptonshire Retrieved 15 July 2013.
  2. "Ancestry", Mount Vernon
  3. Richardson IV 2001, p. 294.
  4. Anne Villiers was the daughter of Sir George Villiers by his first wife, Audrey Saunders (d.1587); she was buried at Chelsea 25 May 1643.
  5. 1 2 3 Washington Family Tree, Sulgrave Manor Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  6. Metcalfe 1887, p. 45.
  7. Firth 1892, p. 416.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Reverend Lawrence Washington, 1602-1652/3 Retrieved 27 August 2013.
  9. 1 2 Randall, p. 10.
  10. White, John (1575-1648) "The First Century of Scandalous, Malignant Priests" (London:1643), listed as number 9 on p.4 Retrieved 6 March 2013.
  11. Chernow, p. 5.
  12. Randall, pp. 10-11.
  13. Baldwin 2004.
  14. Memorial to Lawrence Washington in All Saints Church, Maidstone Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  15. Washington window in All Saints Church, Maldon, Essex Retrieved 30 August 2013.
  16. 1 2 3 4 Richardson IV 2011, p. 294.
  17. 1 2 3 Richardson IV 2011, p. 295.

See also

References

common frequenter of ale-houses, not only himself sitting daily tippling there, but also encouraging others in that beastly vice in op. cit. p. 5, s.v. Ancestry.

External links

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