In 1735, the Augustine Washington family with three-year-old George moved about sixty miles up the Potomac River to live near Little Hunting Creek, which would later be named Mount Vernon. The Pope Creek property they left behind was entrusted to George’s half brother Augustine, Jr., who was then about seventeen. Augustine, Jr.’s son, William Augustine, would take over the estate at about age seventeen, nearly thirty years later in 1774.
In 1738, six-year old George Washington and family moved again to Ferry Farm in King George County (later renamed Stafford County after the Declaration of Independence in 1776), located just across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Virginia. Washington lived in the Fredericksburg area for about fifteen years, until he was twenty-one in 1753, at which time he began his military career. Mary Washington, his mother, lived at Ferry Farm, while Lawrence, his older brother, lived in Mount Vernon until he died. George grew up under the care of his mother and older brother, enjoying periods of time at both of these large farms.
Childhood letters of the youthful George Washington were claimed to have been in existence in the Civil War years. Benson Lossing cites two of these alleged childhood letters that passed between Richard Henry Lee and young George Washington.13
George Washington received his education in Fredericksburg, which we will address in the next chapter. He also attended church at St. George’s Anglican Church, where he began his life-long habit of church-attendance.14
The young George Washington was remarkably strong and athletic. Written accounts claim he was capable of throwing a stone across the Rappahannock River, and all the way from the ground to the top of the natural bridge in Virginia.15 His diaries are filled with accounts of foxhunting, hunting, gunning, fishing, canoeing, and horseback riding.16 His power as a wrestler and thrower of the iron bar were legendary.17 He was accomplished and graceful in the more gentlemanly activities of dancing and horsemanship.18 As part of his training for a career in the military, he took fencing lessons from Jacob Van Braam, a Dutch officer in the British military service.19
WASHINGTON’S APPROVED DESCRIPTION OF HIS YOUTH
While it is clear that we don’t know much about Washington’s early life, we do know that the following description about his childhood by David Humphreys was not only read, but also corrected by Washington. As far as we know, Humphrey’s draft was the only biography approved by Washington. This work was almost lost to history, and was not printed until the late 1990s.20
By a domestic tutor (which was then generally & is now frequently the mode of education practiced in that part of the Continent) he was betimes instructed in the principles of grammar, the theory of reasoning, on speaking, the science of numbers, the elements of geometry, and the highest branches of mathematics, the art of mensuration, composing together with the rudiments of geography, history and the studies which are not improperly termed “the humanities.” In the graceful accomplishments of dancing, fencing, riding and performing the military exercises, he likewise made an early and conspicuous proficiency. In short, he was carefully initiated into whatever might be most useful to him, in making his way to preferment in the British army or navy, for which he was designed.
Though he was rather unsure & reserved in his appearance; he was frequently animated and fluent in conversation & always descreed [discreet] in conduct. & In the performance of any business committed to him, he was active, indefatigable, persevering. [He was noted for] His tall stature, for he was clear six feet high without his shoes; his gentiel deportment, for he had something uncommonly noble in his manners; his modest behaviour, which, without being the result of ill-becoming diffidence.
[He was] remarkably robust & athletic. I several times heard him say, he never met any man who could throw a stone to so great a distance as himself; and, that when standing in the valley beneath the natural bridge in Virginia, he has thrown one up to that stupendous arch.
[H]unting & Surveying – the first gave him activity & boldness – the second the means of improving the Coup d’oeil in judging of military positions & measuring by the eye the distance between different places. – Patience & perseverance in reconnoitering – how often he spent whole days on horseback, braving the ravages of the most violent heat & cold that ever was experienced in our climate.
As it was the design of his Father that he should be bred for an Officer in the British navy, his mental acquisitions & exterior accomplishments were calculated to give him distinction in that profession. <GW note: it was rather the wish of my eldest brother (on whom the several concerns of the family devolved) that this should take place & the matter was contemplated by him–My father died when I was only 10 years old.> At 15 years old, he was entered a midshipman on board of the [blank] & his baggage prepared for embarkation: but the plan was abandoned in consequence of the earnest solicitations of his Mother.21
We get a sense of the childhood home and grounds where George Washington grew up from an advertisement he placed in November 1772 to sell the property:
A TRACT of 600 acres, including about 200 of cleared land on the north side of Rappahannock river, opposite to the lower end of Fredericksburg. On this tract (a little above the road) is one of the most agreeable situations for a house that is to be found upon the whole river, having a clear and distinct view of almost every house in the said town, and every vessel that passes to and from it. Long credit, if desired, will be given.22
The man who bought the farm was Dr. Hugh Mercer of the city of Fredericksburg, who was a close friend of George’s. He would later become a general in the Revolutionary War and die at the Battle of Princeton in 1777. He bought the entire farm in 1774 for 2000 pounds Virginia currency, to be paid in five annual installments. In 1743, tragedy struck when George was only ten years old. His father Augustine suddenly died. (The account of his death was related in the prior chapter.) According to Mason Weems, George was not home when his father turned ill and did not return in time to see him before he died. However, another account says that George was there for his father’s final moments. Washington-biographer Edward C. M’Guire writes, “It was in the Easter holydays that Mr. Washington was taken sick. George was absent at the time, on a visit to some of his acquaintances in Chotanct, King George County. He was sent for after his father’s sickness became serious, and reached the paternal abode in time to witness the last struggle and receive the parting benediction of his beloved parent.”23
The Reverend Mason Locke Weems, the first biographer of George Washington
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WASHINGTON’S BROTHER LAWRENCE INSPIRES HIS INTEREST IN THE MILITARY
Following the death of his father, George spent time with his older stepbrothers. Since Lawrence had married the daughter of Colonel William Fairfax of Belvoir, George not only found himself at Lawrence’s Mount Vernon, but also at Belvoir, the neighboring Fairfax estate. Here he encountered a British military family of high nobility. Col. William Fairfax was the cousin of and agent for Lord Thomas Fairfax, Sixth Baron of Cameron, and the owner of the entire Northern Neck. As George spent time at Belvoir, he assimilated many of the courtly graces that would characterize his adult life.
Lawrence was also militarily-minded, having served in the British navy during the war between the British and the Spanish, which had broken out in 1740, when Edward Vernon, commander-in-chief of the British Navy in the West Indies, captured the Spanish stronghold of Porto Bello on the Isthmus of Darien (between Columbia and Panama). Consequently, Spain allied with France in retaliation against England. The colonies in turn raised four regiments to assist England in the defense of the West Indies. Lawrence, with his father’s blessing, secured a commission as a captain in the regiment from Virginia and left in 1741 as second-in-command. Thus, Lawrence served under Admiral Vernon in the naval assault against Spanish Cartagena on the South American coast of Colombia.
The conflict ended disastrously, as the English were repulsed. Lawrence returned in 1742 with impaired health, having perhaps contracted tuberculosis during this time. But he also came home with a deep admiration for Admiral Vernon. Reverend Jonathan Boucher’s critical assessment of the Washington family referred to earlier reports that Lawrence, while at Cartagena, got into a “scrape with a brother officer,” and “did not acquit himself quite so well as he ought, and so sold out” (meaning he quit the military with a measure of embarrassment).24 Whether such was the case, it is clear that he honored the Admiral.
After his father Augustine died, Lawrence inherited the Hunting Creek farm, and changed its name to Mount Vernon. “Mount” was appropriate, given that the house was built on a majestic premonitory overlooking the Potomac River, situated on the nearly 2,500-acre tract of land. Augustine Washington’s Last Will and Testament also stipulated that if Lawrence should die without an heir, the estate was to pass to George.
Lawrence had planned to return to England, where he had attended school, and there join the regular army and seek advancement in the ranks. But before he was to leave, his martial plans were exchanged for marital plans, as he was engaged to Ann Fairfax, the daughter of Col. William Fairfax. William Fairfax, “of the King’s Council,” was “one of Virginia’s foremost men, land agent and cousin to Lord Fairfax, and owner of a fine estate called Belvoir.”25 Lawrence and Ann’s spring wedding plans were delayed until midsummer, because of the death of Augustine Washington, father to Lawrence and George. Lawrence was elected to the House of Burgesses, where he served for seven years. His better-known brother was to follow in this same path several years later.
In 1746, George spent a week at the Fairfax family’s Belvoir plantation mulling over a major life decision in regard to his military plans. In the context of this stay, the closeness between brothers Lawrence and George was recorded for history. In a September 1746 letter, Col. William Fairfax wrote to his son-in-law Lawrence Washington: “George has been with us, and says He will be steady and thankfully follow your Advice as his best friend.”26 Apparently the military discussions that occurred between Lawrence and Col. Fairfax, along with various visiting friends from former military days, helped to instill in George a desire and a decision for military service. Thus, around this time, Lawrence began to make plans for George to pursue a naval career in the legacy of Admiral Vernon.
A DECISION THAT WOULD HAVE CHANGED WORLD HISTORY
In 1746, George Washington reached a significant, potential turning point in his life. He almost joined the British Navy. Had he followed through on this, world history could have changed.
As we have noted, his talks with Lawrence and Lawrence’s father-in-law awakened an interest in the fourteen-year-old George Washington to pursue military service. Given the many ships that docked and passed on the river from across the sea, it was natural to think of naval service as a possibility for the young man. Lawrence, along with the help of Dr. Spencer, Mary Washington’s family physician, persuaded George’s reluctant mother that his military interest would be well met in the Navy. So, late in 1746, Lawrence secured for fourteen-year-old George a midshipman’s warrant.
But his mother had apprehension. His mother’s reticence to embrace George Washington’s longing for the high seas is seen in a letter written by Robert Jackson, one of Lawrence’s friends from Fredericksburg. Apparently, she had initially approved (“her first resolution”), but upon greater input, changed her mind:
I am afraid Mrs. Washington will not keep up to her first resolution. She seems to dislike George’s going to sea, and says several persons have told her it was a bad scheme. She offers several trifling objections, such as a fond, unthinking mother habitually suggests, and I find that one word against his going has more weight than ten for it.27
The plans finally received a decisive maternal veto, after she received a letter from London from her brother, Joseph Ball, dated May 19, 1747. His arguments proved to be decisive against a naval career for George,
Washington’s parents’ signatures, as well as Washington’s earliest known signature at the age of thirteen, are found in a book on how to use the “Book of Common Prayer.”
I understand that you are advised and have some thoughts of putting your son George to sea. I think he had better be put apprentice to a tinker, for a common sailor before the mast has by no means the common liberty of the subject; for they will press him from ship to ship, where he has fifty shillings a month, and make him take twenty-three, and cut and slash and use him like a negro, or rather like a dog. And as to any considerable preferment in the navy, it is not to be expected, as there are always so many gaping for it here who have interest, and he has none.
And if he should get to be a master of a Virginia ship (which it is very difficult to do), a planter who has three or four hundred acres of land and three or four slaves, if he be industrious, may live more comfortably, and leave his family in better stead than such a master of a ship can . . . . He must not be too hasty to be rich, but go on gently and with patience, as things will naturally go. This method, without aiming at being a fine gentleman before his time, will carry a man more comfortably and surely through the world than going to sea, unless it be a great chance indeed. I pray God keep you and yours.
Your loving brother, Joseph Ball28
The timing could not have been tighter, since the letter arrived when George’s luggage had already been loaded on the ship on which he would have sailed. The historical impact of this decision is profound.
Benson J. Lossing’s explanation reflects the significance of this decision from the perspective of an earlier generation of American Washington scholars,
He was destined by Heaven for a far noble career than man had conceived for him. This incident illustrates the truth of the familiar apothegm, “Man proposes but God disposes.”29
We do not know if the young ex-midshipman George Washington embraced the doctrine of Providence the way that the mature General Washington did as he commanded the army on the land many years later.30 Here is one sample among several hundred reflecting his belief in Providence. Writing to William Pearce from Philadelphia, near the end of his presidency on May 25, 1794, Washington explains his confidence in Divine Providence:
