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ILLUSTRATIONS OF VOLUME II.

The Interior of the U. S. House of Representatives-FRONTISPIECE.

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1

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

OF

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

THE family of Washington, in Virginia, is descended from English ancestors, who were anciently established at Turtfield and Warton, in Lancashire, from a branch of whom came Sir William Washington, of Leicestershire, eldest son and heir of Lawrence Washington, Esq., of Sulgrave in Northamptonshire. Sir William had, besides other younger brothers, two, named John and Lawrence, who emigrated to Virginia in 1657, and settled at Bridge's creek, on the Potomac river, in the county of Westmoreland. John, the father of Lawrence Washington, died in 1697, leaving two sons, John and Augustine. Augustine died in 1743, at the age of forty-nine, leaving several sons by his two marriages. George, the president, was the eldest by his second wife, Mary Ball, and was born at Bridge's creek, on the 22d (or 11th, old style) of February, 1732.

Each of the sons of Augustine Washington inherited from him a separate plantation. To the eldest, Lawrence, he bequeathed the estate on the Potomac river, afterward called Mount Vernon, which then consisted of twenty-five hundred acres, and also other lands and property. The second son, Augustine, received an estate in Westmoreland. To George were left the lands and mansion where his father lived at the time of his disease, situated in Stafford county, on the east side of the Rappahannock river, opposite Fredericksburg; and to each of the other four sons an estate of six or seven hundred acres. The youngest daughter died in infancy, and for the only remaining one a suitable provision was made in the will. Thus, it will be seen, that Augustine Washington left all his children in a state of comparative independence. His occupation had been that of a planter, and the large estates he was enabled to leave his family had been acquired chiefly by his own industry and enterprise.

Left a widow, with the charge of five young children, the eldest of whom was eleven years of age, Mrs. Washington, the mother of George, exhibited her resources of mind in the superintendence of their education and the management of the complicated affairs of her deceased husband,

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