Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/287

 12 S. IV. OCT., 1918.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

281

It would be interesting to learn whether any links can be found to connect this Cockney slang phrase with the modern soldiers' " gone west." M. H. DODDS.

Home House, Low Fell, Gateshead.

[A typecaster, having "pied" some type, said, "It's gone west." Asked the origin of the phrase, he replied, "The sun sets in the west."]

WASHINGTON FAMILY (12 S. iv. 133). Major Laurence Washington, second child, by first wife (Jane Butler), of Augustine Washington, was elder half-brother of General George Washington. He was born 1718, and educated in England 1733-40. He joined the British army, and served in the Carthagena expedition in the West Indies under Admiral Vernon of the British navy. On his return to America in 1742, he named his estate, after his great friend, " Mount Vernon." This estate was after- wards owned by President Washington, to whom he left it, after the deaths of his his wife and last surviving child. He died 1752, aged 34 years. Major Washington was a member of the House of Burgesses and Adjutant- General of the district, with the rank of major and a regular salary. He m., July 19, 1743, Anna, dau. of Hon. William Fairfax, Belvoir, Fairfax County, Virginia.

John Augustine Washington, fourth child, by his second wife (Mary Ball), of Augustine Washington, was a full brother of General Washington, and born Jan. 13, 1736. He m. Hannah, dau. of Col. John Bushrod of Westmoreland Co., Virginia, and amongst other children had Bushrod Washington (b. in Stafford Co., Virginia, June 5, 1762), the favourite nephew of the President, who left Mount Vernon to him.

The Washingtons and Bushrods were near neighbours in Virginia, and though the lady was not the daughter of Capt. Richard Bushrod inquired about, she was probably his niece.

It will be more difficult to trace Cornet George Washington serving in a home cavalry regiment in 1746. George was never a favourite name in the Washington family, and is supposed to have been brought into it from the family of Villiers, one of whom, Anne Villiers a half -sister of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham married Sir William Washington of Pack- ington, co. Leicester, father of the famous Col. Henry Washington, Governor of Wor- cester (1646), and George Washington, one of the Duke of Richmond's gentlemen. But that is not so. There were Georges in other Washington branches before this.

There was never a George in the West- morland bianches, seated, at Grayrigg, Threpelands, or Sedbergh ; nor in the Warton (Lancashire) family from which President Washington was descended (through the Sulgrave, Northampton, branch) and which by this time was practically defunct in England.

It was difficult in those days to obtain a commission, especially in a cavalry regi- ment, without much money and influence ; and I do not see where Cornet George could have come from except the Adwick, Yorkshire, family once very rich, but then rapidly declining or another branch of that family then settled in high diplomatic posts at the Hague. This family is now represented by Baron George von Washing- ton of Pol's Castle, Gratz, Styria, who claims to be connected with President Washington through the Warton family ; but he belongs, unquestionably, to the Adwick family, as there is abundant evi- dence to prove.

An ancestor of the Baron, Arthur Wash- ington of Snaith, Yorkshire, was settled in Surry Co., Virginia (1636), twenty-three years before General Washington's family arrived in 1659 ; but he has remained un- known until within these twenty years, as his name was, unfortunately, indexed " Hashington " in the first Virginia Land Book. His descendants have been in Con- gress, and are very highly thought of.

I cordially invite correspondence on Washington family history.

GEOBGE WASHINGTON.

56 Lower Mount Street, Dublin.

" GADGET " (12 S. iv. 187). A discussion arose at the Plymouth meeting of the Devonshire Association in 1916 when it was suggested that this word should be recorded in the list of local verbal pro- vincialisms. Several members dissented From its inclusion on the ground that it is in common use throughout the country ; and a naval officer who was present said that it has for years been a popular ex- pression in the service for a tool or imple- ment, the exact name of which is unknown or has for the moment been forgotten. I have also frequently heard it applied by mo tor- cycle friends to the collection of itments to be seen on motor cycles. " Hia landle-bars are smothered in gadgets " refers to such things as speedometers,, mirrors, levers, badges, mascots, &c., at- tached to the steering handles. The ' jigger '' or short-rest used in billiards is