Young George Washington

Early Family Life Near the Potomac River

© Mary Trotter Kion

Mar 24, 2006

Great-Grandfather Known as Destroyer of Villages

George Washington, who became America's first president, was born February 22, 1732 at Pope's Creek Farm in Westmoreland County, Virginia. By the Old Style Calendar the date of his birth is February 11. Just fifteen years later, in 1747, he left school and became a surveyor. And like most Americans of the time, George's family roots went back to England. John Washington, George Washington's great-grandfather, was an Englishman of good family. He came to Virginia in 1657 and there he founded the American branch of the Washington family. John Washington received a grant of 150 acres in Westmoreland County on the Potomac River. However, he soon realized that there was a future in the wilderness upriver. In 1674 he and a partner secured a second grant. This grant was for 5,000 acres that lay about 18 miles below the present-day Washington, D.C. and became the site of Mount Vernon. George Washington's great-grandfather was well known as a planter, businessman, and military leader. The Native Americans called him Conotocarius, which means the destroyer of villages.

The Future Mount Vernon

When George Washington was a toddler of two years, his family moved from Pope Creek. They relocated some fifteen to eighteen miles north on a new plantation near the Potomac River. This new home was called Little Hunting Creek Farm and later became a part of the much larger estate of Mount Vernon. But the expansive, lawn-clipped stately mansion, south of present-day Washington, D.C., that would come to be called Mount Vernon was still far in the future.

Washington's father took possession of the future Mount Vernon property in 1726 and moved his family there in 1735. However, they moved again in 1739, and the property passed to Washington's half brother Lawrence. He renamed the estate Mount Vernon in honor of Edward Vernon, an admiral in the British Navy under whom he had served. After the death of his father, Washington lived there for a time. After Lawrence's death in 1752 the property came into George Washington's possession.

But for now, Hunting Creek was little more than a backwoods tobacco farm where neighbors were few and far-flung.

Ferry Farm on the Rappahannock

Three years later, George's father, Augustine, uprooted his growing family and relocated to the 260-acre Ferry Farm near the east bank of the Rappahannock River. Here the elder Washington could be closer to an ironworks in which he held part interest. It was here, at Ferry Farm, that young George grew up enjoying the usual activities of a young colonial lad; hunting, fishing and, horseback riding.

Father's Death Leaves Legacy of Ferry Farm

When young Washington was eleven his father died, leaving a large estate of some 10,000 acres and about fifty slaves. George's elder half-brother, Lawrence, before he died and as the eldest son of Augustine Washington received the largest share to the estate. George, when he reached the age of twenty-two, would receive Ferry Farm.

George's mother, Mary Ball Washington, was now left alone to raise and care for George and his five younger brothers and sisters. Little is know of Washington's childhood after the death of his father. It is believed that he either attended school in the small town of Fredericksburg, just across the Rappahannock from Ferry Farm, or was tutored by an indentured servant at home. It is speculated that, at the age of thirteen, his copying of the 110 Rules of civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation set a pattern for living in his adult life.

Sources:

Compton's, The Complete Reference Collection. CD Rom, 1997, The Learning Company, Inc.

Whitney, David C. The American Presidents. Doubleday & Company, Inc. Garden City, New York, 1967.