Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/395

 io s. x. OCT. 24, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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the precursor of the massive iron "Ebury Bridge" which now spans the Brighton Rail- way and the remnant of the Canal.

W. L. BUTTON. (To be continued.)

THE WASHINGTON PEDIGREE.

1. THE identity and descent of the two emigrant Washington brothers have been fully proved by Americans searching in this country, and accepted in the United States of America, the country most interested in the ancestry of their great President. In ' The Ancestry of George Washington,' by Mr. Henry F. Waters, published as far back as 1889, the emigrant brothers, John and Lawrence, and their sisters Elizabeth, Mar- garet, and Martha, are shown to be identical with the children of Mrs. Amphillis Washing- ton enumerated in the will of Mr. Andrew Knowling of Tring, Herts ; since it is im- possible that there should have been two distinct families of five Washington children, having the same Christian names and order of birth, and, as seen by their wills, of corre- sponding ages. At the proceedings of the Surrogate Court at Wheathampstead, the acting Surrogate " for this occasion only " (pro hdc vice), signing himself Lawrence Washington, can have been no other than the Rector of Purleigh, looking after his children's interests as beneficiaries under the will of Mr. Knowling, proved at that Court (Harper's, May, 1891).

2. As to the improbability of Purleigh children being baptized at Tring, the father's name is entered as " Mr." Lawrence Washing- ton, a prefix then used for clergymen amongst others, and there is no other Lawrence Washington who can have been the father. And a parallel to this is recorded in the Purleigh register of the same century. A Rector of Purleigh notes in this register his marriage with a widow of Woolwich in 1690, and also the baptism of the child of the marriage in the drawing-room of the grand- mother's house in that town the names of the " gossips," or godparents, which are added, showing that this was not the private baptism of a sick child. In the case of the Washington children at Purleigh, as there were money expectations afterwards realized, we are not surprised that, for this reason also, not only his godchild Lawrence, but also the two infants next in age were conveyed to the home of their mother's stepfather at Tring for baptism Mr. Andrew Knowling, as evidenced by his will, bearing that relationship to their mother.

3. As to the objection, "The Rector of Purleigh is not known to have married," his marriage had long ago been proved by the record in the Harleian MS. of the appear- ance of Mrs. Washington before Commis- sioners at Chelmsford, when " fnth part of Purleigh ordered to the plundered [deprived]' Rector's wife." He must have married' between his induction to Purleigh, 17 March,, and the resignation of his Fellowship at Brasenose College, Oxford, 30 November,. 1633, because, as authorities on old College procedure state, no other explanation is possible why he enjoyed only eight and a half months' continuance of his Fellowship, instead of the customary twelve months,, after induction. This date coincides with the birth of his eldest son, John, who was of age 8 Feb., 1655, when, after waiting a twelvemonth, he took out letters of adminis- tration on his mother's effects.

4. See also Mr. Ford's discovery in The Nation, 22 Dec., 1892, 'The Washington Pedigree Assured.' Elizabeth, whose father is entered in the Tring Church Register as " Mr." Lawrence Washington, became Mrs. Elizabeth Rumball, or Rumbold, and received a legacy from an aunt, Mrs. Elizabeth Me wee, one of whose brothers is known to have been Lawrence Washington, Rector of Purleigh.. As the father of the niece and the brother of the aunt were both named Lawrence Washington, they must be the same person. The alternative is that Mrs. Elizabeth Mewce had two brothers with the same Christian name ; but of this no trace can be found in the history of the family. There- fore the Rector of Purleigh was father of Elizabeth, and of her brothers and sisters, including John the emigrant and great-grandfather of General George- Washington.

I append a list of principal dates :

Induction to Purleigh, 17 March, 1633.

Baptism of Lawrence, 23 June, 1635.

Baptism of Elizabeth, 17 Aug., 1636..

Baptism of William, 12 Oct., 1641.

Burial of Rector of Purleigh, 21 Jan., 1652..

Burial of Mrs. Washington, 19 Jan., 1654.

John Washington takes out letters of administration, 8 Feb., 1655.

William appears to have died in youth. Margaret and Martha, born within the- Commonwealth period, were probably bap- tized in a drawing-room. As to John, all Purleigh registers, except for burials, previous to 1662, are missing.

R. T. LOVE..

Purleigh Rectory,. Maldon, Essex..