imself while serving under
Prince Rupert, at the storming of Bristol, in 1643, and again a few
years after, while in command of Worcester. His uncles, John and
Lawrence Washington, in the year 1657, emigrated to Virginia, and
settled in Westmoreland. John married a Miss Anne Pope, and resided at
Bridge's or Bridge Creek, in that county. It is he who has been before
mentioned as commanding the Virginia troops against the Indians not long
before the breaking out of Bacon's rebellion. He and his brother
Lawrence both died in 1677; their wills are preserved; they both appear
to have had estates in England as well as in Virginia. His grandson,
Augustine, father of George, born in 1694, married first in April, 1715,
Jane Butler; and their two sons, Lawrence and Augustine, survived their
childhood. In March, 1730, Augustine Washington, Sr., married secondly,
Mary Ball. The issue of this union were four sons, George, Samuel, John
Augustine, and Charles, and two daughters, Elizabeth or Betty, and
Mildred, who died an infant. George Washington was born on the
twenty-second day of February, N. S., 1732. The birth-place is sometimes
called Bridge's Creek, and sometimes Pope's Creek; the house stood about
a mile apart between the two creeks, but nearer to Pope's. Of the
steep-roofed house which overlooked the Potomac, a brick chimney and
some scattered bricks alone remain. George, it is seen, was the eldest
child of a second marriage.

Not long after his birth his father removed to a seat opposite
Fredericksburg; and this was the scene of George's boyhood; but the
house has disappeared. He received only a plain English education,
having obtained his first instruction at an old field school, under a
teacher named Hobby--the parish sexton. The military spirit pervading
the colony reached the school; in these military amusements George
Washington was predominant; but he found a competitor in William Bustle.

Augustine Washington, the father of George, died in April, 1743, aged
forty-nine years. He left a large estate. Not long afterwards Lawrence
Washington married Anne, eldest daughter of the Honorable William
Fairfax, and took up his residence at Mount Vernon, in Fairfax County.
Augustine resided at Bridge's Creek, and married Anne, daughter of
William Aylett, Esq., of Westmoreland County. George remained under the
care of his mother, and was sent to stay for a time with his brother
Augustine, to go to a school under charge of a tea