Beginning of Connected Genealogy.

About the year 1500 one John Washington, of Warton, on the Irish sea a few miles north of Liverpool, married Margaret Kitson, sister of Sir Thomas Kitson, of London. The union of the Washington and Kitson arms in a stained glass window in Fawsley Hall, near Daventry, about ten miles west of Northampton, indicates that this Washington was connected with a branch of the Durham Washingtons. The Washington arms show the three red pierced mullets and two red bars on a white background, and also a crescent mark of cadency. In another window in the same building are the arms of Washington alone.

Sir Thomas Kitson, brother of Mrs. John Washington, was a great wool and cloth merchant. During the reign of Henry VIII there sprang up in the midland counties of England a great sheepfarming industry, and the powerful Kitson relatives persuaded Lawrence Washington, son of John Washington and Margaret Kitson, to move to Northampton. Lawrence Washington was educated to the law and was twice Mayor of Northampton, once in 1532-3, and again in 1545-6. Between these two terms he was granted the Manor of Sulgrave, about fifteen miles southwest of Northampton.

Sulgrave Manor.

Sulgrave is a village of about 450 inhabitants, about three miles from the nearest railroad station, Helmdon. There are only two streets in the village, running at right angles with each other. The two principal buildings are the Sulgrave church at the west end of the village and the ancient stone building known as the Sulgrave Manor House or Washington House, at the east end. [See plate 36.]

Concerning the history of Sulgrave Manor there is no better authority than the monumental work of the learned antiquarian George Baker, entitled "The History and Antiquities of the County of Northampton," a folio of several hundred pages, published in England in 1822-30. The history of Sulgrave, from the time of the Domesday survey down to the time of the Washington possession may briefly be stated as follows:

At the time of the Domesday survey, Sulgrave contained "four hides" of land and was held by three brothers Ghilo. The estate

descended through the Ghilos and their descendants, the Pinkeneys, until about the year 1303, when it was divided into the Manor of St. Andrews Priory (Northampton) and Elington Manor. In 1538-39, during the reign of Henry VIII, when the King was abolishing the monasteries, the Manor of Sulgrave (a parcel of the dissolved Priory of St. Andrews), with all the lands in Sulgrave and Woodford and certain lands in Stotesbury and Cotton, near Northampton, lately belonging to the Priory, and all the lands in Sulgrave lately belonging to the dissolved Priories of Canons Ashby and Catesby, were granted to Lawrence Washington, of Northampton, gentleman.

Lawrence Washington, the grantee of Sulgrave, died in 1583-84, leaving Robert Washington his son and heir. In 1610, Robert, jointly with his (Robert's) eldest son Lawrence, sold the Manor of Sulgrave. About that time, Robert repaired to London to live, his son Lawrence having previously (about 1606) moved to Brington, near Northampton.

So much with respect to the Manor. Now, as to the Manor House itself, Baker, speaking collectively of the subdivisions of the original Sulgrave, says:

"Manor Houses: One only is now recognized which has degenerated into a common farm house. It stands at the eastern extremity of the village and was formerly the residence of the Washingtons."

This statement is confirmed by the fact that the familiar coat of arms of the Washington family is carved in stone in the spandrels of the arch of the doorway in the gable-end of the building, and these stones were built into the walls when the house was erected. Over this door there are the remains of a cement tablet bearing the same arms. Still higher above these, at the top of the wall under the eaves, are the royal arms of Queen Elizabeth, also done in cement, and now protected by glass.

The identity of this building as the ancestral Washington home is so well established that all the antiquarians with whom we have communicated accept it without question. Baedeker, who is very careful in making historical assertions about the age of buildings in England, says in his "Great Britain:"

"Sulgrave, the ancestral home of the Washingtons. The Manor House was built by Lawrence Washington about the middle of the 16th century."

The Banbury Guardian, published at Banbury, not far from Sulgrave, refers to "Sulgrave Manor House, the ancestral home of the Washington family."

The Vicar of Sulgrave Church, who has made considerable research on the subject, has no doubt of the identity of the building.

Our conclusion is that Sulgrave Manor House is authentic and that it was occupied by a family of Washingtons having the same heraldic arms as our George Washington.

It is an interesting commentary on the permanence of English landmarks that this residence of George Washington's ancestors 374 years ago, is still standing, while the house in which our Washington was born has disappeared.

In the Sulgrave church are buried Lawrence Washington and Amee, his wife. The stone slab over their tomb was formerly inlaid with brass figures representing in the upper left-hand corner, Lawrence Washington; upper right-hand corner, Mrs. Washington; lower right-hand corner seven daughters in procession with hands piously pressed together before their breasts, and in the lower left-hand corner, four sons, similarly postured. Some of these brass figures have been stolen by relic hunters. A modern brass tablet, bearing the Washington arms and a copy of the memorial inscription on the tomb, has been placed in the church. This church is of the second prevailing type of parish churches in England, namely, that with the square battlemented tower. Like the village of Washington, Sulgrave has its roadside smithy in this case having a thatched instead of tiled roof.

Great Brington and Little Brington.

The reaction from the craze for wool-growing, at the beginning of the seventeenth century, left the Washington family in reduced finances, and about 1606, as before stated, Lawrence (grandson of the grantee of Sulgrave) moved to a less pretentious residence on the estate of their powerful relative, Lord Spencer, at Brington, a few miles northwest of Northampton. [See plate 37.]

Brington, sometimes divided into two parts and called Little Brington and Great Brington, is a quaint little town of two or three streets, bordered by houses with thatched roofs. It is only by going to out-of-the-way places like this that one can now see these picturesque thatched houses, as their existence in the cities and near railroads is very dangerous on account of the risk of fire. In Little Brington stands a large stone house with a thatched roof, built in 1606, and occupied by the Washingtons. In the same year in which this house was built their child Gregory died, and the wayfarer may to-day read the record of these two events, inscribed in a stone slab over the door, which says:

THE LORD GEVETH

THE LORD TAKETH

AWAY BLESSED BE THE

NAME OF THE LORD

CONSTRUCTA
1606

In the back yard of this house there is an ancient pump, and near it a very interesting round stone slab sixteen inches in diameter. For forty years or more this slab lay on the ground face downward. Not long ago Earl Spencer's estate agent was curious to see what was on the other side, and, on turning it up, found that it was an ancient sun-dial, bearing not only the lines and figures of the dial, but also the Washington arms, and the date 1617.

While the Washingtons resided here they worshipped in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Great Brington. There they were christened, there they were married, and there some of them are buried. Hither they walked half a mile along a pleasant English lane and joined the country and village folk and their distinguished relatives, Lord Spencer's family, as they gathered on the Sabbath for their devotions. Under a great elm tree, in front of the church, stands what remains of a stone cross, which, like many of the English market crosses, once bore a sun-dial. This cross has stood since the fourteenth or fifteenth century, and the ancestors of our Washington passed it, halted by it, and, doubtless, said many a silent prayer at the sight of the holy symbol, three hundred years ago.

The tomb of Lawrence Washington, son of Robert, who died in 1616, occupies an honored place in the chancel of the old church. It is interesting because upon it are carved the familiar mullets and bars of the Washingtons, impaled with the arms of the Butlers, his marriage to Margaret Butler having united the two families.

In the Spencer Chapel of this Church, built by Lord Spencer, a connection by marriage of the Washingtons, there is another Washington slab in the floor in front of the beautiful tomb of a knight. The tombs of the Spencers in this chapel constitute one of the most magnificent groups of ancestral memorials in England. It has been the burial place of the Spencers since the time of Henry VII. Each arch of the chapel contains a superb altartomb, bearing recumbent figures of knights and ladies which are grim fashion plates of the period. Upon one tomb, Sir John Spencer, who died in 1522, is represented in a tabard charged with coat armour. Some of his accoutrements are of iron, fastened with buckles and leather straps which are well preserved. The effigy of his wife is clad in a white kirtle over a scarlet gown. She has a high head-dress and gold chains around her neck. But more interesting, perhaps, is a brass tablet on the wall showing the pierced mullets and bars of the Washington arms.

An interesting feature of the church is the ancient font to which the infant Washingtons were brought for baptism, as early as 1606, a year before the first permanent English settlement in the New World at Jamestown, and fourteen years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.

The "Persecuted Parson of Purleigh."

A son of Lawrence Washington of Brington was Lawrence Washington, rector of Purleigh church. [See plate 37.] Purleigh is about thirty-five miles northeast of London and four miles south of Maldon, which latter is on the estuary at the confluence of the Chelmer and Blackwater. The church is a handsome stone structure of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries in the decorated style of architecture. It is of the square and battlemented tower type of parish church. The tower is a very fine example of fourteenth century towers. It is constructed of rubble, faced with