nded upon the heads of all
the participants and not a few of their friends, making their land an
uncomfortable place for a residence. There is no evidence that these
brothers were engaged in the insurrection; but there is quite sufficient
proof that the political situation was stormy, subjecting the Washington
family to frequent molestation.

Edward Everett says: "There is no doubt that the politics of the family
determined the two brothers, John and Lawrence, to emigrate to Virginia;
that colony being the favorite resort of the Cavaliers, during the
government of Cromwell, as New England was the retreat of the Puritans,
in the period which preceded the Commonwealth."

We suspect that these brothers did not understand Indians as well as they
did Cromwell, or they would not have been so willing to exchange the
latter for the former. However, English colonists had settled in the
wilderness of Virginia, and, possibly, some of their own acquaintances
were already there. They knew somewhat of that particular portion of the
new world, and what they knew was generally favorable. Being young men,
too, unmarried, intelligent, adventurous and fearless, life in America
appeared to them romantic rather than otherwise. Be this as it may, John
and Lawrence Washington removed to this country in 1657, and settled in
Westmoreland County, Virginia.

One fact indicates that they belonged to a noble ancestry. Lawrence was
educated at Oxford University, and was a lawyer by profession, and
therefore was a young man of rank and promise, while John was engaged in
business and resided on a valuable estate at South Cove in Yorkshire.
They were young men of brains and tact, fitted by natural endowments and
education to lay the foundation of things in a new country. They
descended from an ancestry of honor and influence from the twelfth
century. That ancestry lived in warlike times. Some of them were
renowned for deeds of heroism. All of them were known for loyalty,
intelligence and solidity of character. Washington Irving paid a visit
to the ancient "Washington's manor" at Sulgrave, several years before he
wrote the "Life of George Washington," and he said,--

"It was in a rural neighborhood, where the farm-houses were quaint and
antiquated. A part only of the manor-house remained, and was inhabited by
a farmer. The Washington crest, in colored glass, was to be seen in a
window of what is now the buttery. A window, on which the whole family
a