#12 The Father of Our Country
IDENTITY POLITICS | Mark Boonstra: George Washington, a humble and pious man who sought not the limelight, who attributed all of his successes to the benevolence of Almighty God.
Washington was born in 1732 to Augustine and Mary Ball Washington. He was the eldest of their six children. The family made their home on a farm on Pope’s Creek, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, just below its junction with the Potomac River. Augustine served on the vestry of the Washington (Anglican) Parish. The formerly-named Appomattox Parish was re-named in 1664 in honor of Augustine’s grandfather—signer Washington’s great-grandfather—John Washington, who had served on the first vestry of the parish.
John had immigrated from Purleigh—in Essex, England—around 1656. He was the son of Rev. Lawrence Washington and Ampillis Twigden Washington. Rev. Washington was the rector at All Saints (Anglican) Church in Purleigh. While serving as proctor of Oxford University, Rev. Washington had assisted the Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, in his efforts to purge puritan elements from the university. Later, when puritan General Oliver Cromwell overthrew the monarchy in the English Civil War and King Charles I was executed in favor of Lord Protector Cromwell’s own reign, Rev. Washington fell out of favor.
Son John then made his way to America. Once in Virginia, John befriended Colonel Nathaniel Pope, a large landholder for whom Pope’s Creek was named. Upon John’s marriage to Pope’s daughter Anne, Pope gifted the couple a seven-hundred-acre parcel on Mattox Creek in Westmoreland County, and John became a successful planter. He acquired additional land on nearby Bridges Creek, and built a family home there. He served as a colonel in the militia and was elected to the House of Burgesses. Upon John Washington’s passing in 1677, he left a gift to the Washington Parish rector with instructions that a tablet of the Ten Commandments be erected as his memorial stone.
John’s and Anne’s eldest child, Lawrence Washington—the namesake of Rev. Washington—was born in 1659. He inherited the Mattox Creek Farm as well as a property in Stafford County known as Little Hunting Creek. That property later was renamed—by signer-Washington’s elder, half-brother Lawrence—“Mount Vernon.” Like his father, Lawrence (Washington’s grandfather) was elected to the House of Burgesses. He married Mildred Warner.
Augustine was born to Lawrence and Mildred in 1694; he was the eldest of their three children. He served as sheriff and justice of the peace, and had two sons, Lawrence and Augustine Jr. (known as Austin) with his first wife, who passed away in 1728. Augustine then wed Mary Ball, in a ceremony performed by Rev. Walter Jones of the Yeocomico (Anglican) Church in Cople Parish, where Mary’s father served on the parish’s vestry.
Augustine inherited property on Bridges Creek and acquired additional land reaching over to Pope’s Creek, where he built Pope’s Creek Plantation—later called Wakefield. This was Washington’s birthplace in 1732. Augustine also came to own the Little Hunting Creek property (Mount Vernon) in Stafford County.
Washington lived at Pope’s Creek only until the age of three—when his family moved to Little Hunting Creek. This property was closer to Augustine’s iron works business—called Accokeek Iron Furnace. Little Hunting Creek was located within Truro Parish, and Augustine was quickly elected to the parish’s vestry. Within three years, the family moved again, even closer to the business, to a farm that Augustine acquired on the northern bank of the Rappahannock River, just across from Fredericksburg; today, that farm is called Ferry Farm. But Augustine died when Washington was just eleven years old. He left Mary with five young children between the ages of six and eleven.
As a result, Washington’s educational opportunities became limited, although his mother endeavored to ingrain moral principles into her children by reading daily from Sir Matthew Hale’s book, Contemplations Moral and Divine—a volume that Washington continued to retain in his library even at the time of his death. Washington is also believed to have studied at a school in Fredericksburg run by Rev. James Marye, the rector of St. George’s Parish. Whether as a school assignment or as self-directed education, Washington hand-wrote one hundred-ten social maxims from The Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior in Company and Conversation.
After his father’s death, Washington spent time with his elder half-brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon. Lawrence was elected to the House of Burgesses and married Anne Fairfax, the daughter of Colonel William Fairfax. Colonel Fairfax took a liking to young Washington and engaged him, at the age of sixteen, as part of a team of surveyors mapping out his lands across the Blue Ridge Mountains and into the Shenandoah Valley. In 1749—at the age of just seventeen—Washington was appointed surveyor of Culpeper County.
But Lawrence died of tuberculosis in 1752. Having now lost a second father-figure—to whom he was very close—Washington abandoned his surveying career in favor of a military one. Just as Lawrence had served as adjutant general of the Virginia militia, Washington was named adjutant of the southern district of the colony, and then of the Northern Neck district; he attained the rank of major by the age of twenty-one. He quickly progressed through the military ranks, becoming commander of the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War. During the ensuing years, Washington was known to hold public prayer and scripture-reading services with his troops.
Washington also joined the new lodge of the freemasons in Fredericksburg, and within a year had advanced to the position of master mason. While non-sectarian in nature, freemasonry requires that its members believe in a Supreme Being and place duty to God above all else. Around this time, Washington also composed or copied a series of prayers into a volume entitled the Daily Sacrifice. In one, he prayed:
O eternal and everlasting God, I presume to present myself this morning before thy Divine majesty, beseeching thee to accept of my humble and hearty thanks, that it hath pleased thy great goodness to keep and preserve me the night past from all the dangers poor mortals are subject to, and has given me sweet and pleasant sleep, whereby I find my body refreshed and comforted for performing the duties of this day, in which I beseech thee to defend me from all perils of body and soul.
Direct my thoughts, words and work. Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the lamb, and purge my heart by thy Holy Spirit, from the dross of my natural corruption, that I may with more freedom of mind and liberty of will serve thee, the everlasting God, in righteousness and holiness this day, and all the days of my life.
Increase my faith in the sweet promises of the Gospel. Give me repentance from dead works. Pardon my wanderings, & direct my thoughts unto thyself, the God of my salvation. Teach me how to live in thy fear, labor in thy service, and ever to run in the ways of thy commandments. Make me always watchful over my heart, that neither the terrors of conscience, the loathing of holy duties, the love of sin, nor an unwillingness to depart this life, may cast me into a spiritual slumber. But daily frame me more and more into the likeness of thy son Jesus Christ, that living in thy fear, and dying in thy favor, I may in thy appointed time attain the resurrection of the just unto eternal life. Bless my family, friends & kindred unite us all in praising & glorifying thee in all our works begun, continued, and ended, when we shall come to make our last account before thee blessed Saviour, who hath taught us thus to pray, our Father.
In 1759, having recently been elected to the House of Burgesses, Washington wed Martha Dandridge Custis, the wealthy widow of Colonel Daniel Parke Custis. The ceremony was conducted by Rev. David Mossom of St. Peter’s (Anglican) Church in New Kent County. Martha was raised in that church, where both her father, Colonel John Dandridge, and Colonel Custis served on the vestry. Martha’s great-grandfather was Rev. Christopher Dugdale of Oxfordshire, England.
Upon their marriage, Washington and Martha lived at Mount Vernon, along with Martha’s two surviving children, John Parke Custis and Martha (Patsy) Parke Custis. Early gifts from Washington to John and Martha included Bibles and prayer books.
By 1762, Washington had imported a prayer book for Mount Vernon’s Truro parish and was serving the first of many years on its vestry. He also served several terms as churchwarden. Among his fellow vestrymen was George Mason. Mason later was a principal drafter of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and the Virginia state constitution—which became models for the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
In 1765, Truro Parish was split, and the northern portion—in which Mount Vernon was located—became Fairfax Parish. Washington was elected to the Fairfax Parish vestry, but the parish lines were quickly redrawn and his service instead continued in Truro Parish. There were three churches located within Truro Parish; Washington principally attended the Pohick Church (originally known as Occoquan Church). The first rector was Rev. Charles Green, who was sponsored for the position by Washington’s father while he served on the vestry.
Upon Rev. Green’s passing in 1765, Rev. Lee Massey took the pulpit. Soon, Washington was actively involved in planning a new church building. It was completed in 1774; Washington purchased pews number twenty-eight and twenty-nine in that church. Rev. Massey—who became Washington’s close friend and revolutionary supporter—attested that he “never knew so constant an attendant at Church as Washington. And his behavior in the house of God was ever so deeply reverential that it produced the happiest effect on my congregation, and greatly assisted me in my pulpit labors.”
Another new church—Christ Church—was built in Alexandria, which was part of Fairfax Parish. In addition to his pews at Pohick Church, Washington purchased pew number five in Christ Church, and sometimes attended services there when the weather permitted; Christ Church was located about ten miles from Mount Vernon.
During these years, Washington’s service in the House of Burgesses saw him firmly in the patriot camp. In 1769, he introduced a proposal for a colony-wide boycott of certain English goods and—notwithstanding his own status as a slaveholder—a cessation of the slave trade. In 1773, Washington’s step-daughter passed away at the age of sixteen. The disconsolate Washington, who had tearfully prayed at her bedside that her life be spared, found comfort in knowing that she had gone to a better place.
In the summer of 1774, following a service at Christ Church in Alexandria, Washington announced his support for colonial independence. He then attended the first Virginia convention in August of that year; it was convened after the royal governor, Lord Dunmore, dissolved the House of Burgesses in response to its call for a day of prayer in support of the patriots then under siege in Boston, Massachusetts. Delegates to the convention elected Washington to the Continental Congress. The second Virginia convention was held in March of 1775 at the Henrico Parish (Anglican) church (later called St. John’s Church) in Richmond; there, Washington supported Patrick Henry’s famous call to “Give me liberty or give me death!”
Next Up: Part Two: The Father of Our Country
* Portions of this essay are derived from Judge Boonstra’s 3-volume work: In Their Own Words: Today’s God-less America . . . What Would Our Founding Fathers Think?
-Mark | Mark’s Substack | Visit Mark’s Website