The writings of George Washington; being his correspondence, addresses, messages, and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts; with a life of the author, notes and illustrations. By Jared Sparks.

544 WASHINGTON FAMILY. [ArPENDIX.
"It is acknowledged by your books, and by report out of your
own quarters," said Governor Washington, in reply to Fairfax,
" that the King is in some of your armies. That granted, it may
be easy for you to procure his Majesty's commands for the disposal
of this garrison. Till then, I shall make good the trust reposed in
me. As for conditions, if I shall be necessitated, I shall make
the best I can. The worst I know, and fear not; if I had,, the
profession of a soldier had not been begun, nor so long continued,
by your Excellency's humble servant."
The King's fortunes were now desperate; but the siege was
maintained, even against all hope, for nearly three months, when
honorable conditions were granted.
That this Sir Henry Washington was the same person, whose
name is conjectured above to be entered in the last Visitation Book in the Herald's College, the circumstantial evidence
is strong. In Baker's pedigree of this branch of the family,
Henry Washington is stated to have been eight years old in 1618.
But in the original book at the College I found the entry to be
three years. The error was probably occasioned by a misprint of
a figure. According to the original entry, therefore, he would have
been thirty-one years old at the siege of Worcester, in 1646. He
was nephew to John and Lawrence Washington, who emigrated
to America about eleven years after the siege of Worcester, and
of course first cousin to General George Washington's grandfather.*
The ancestors of General Washington in a direct line are traced
to Whitfield and Warton in the County of Lancaster. Whitaker,
in his History of Northamptonshire, says of the parish church at
Warton; " The tower appears to be contemporary with the restoration of the church, and on the north side of the door are the
arms of Washington, an old family of considerable property within
the parish; whence it may be inferred, that one of the name either
built the steeple at his own expense, or was at least a considerable
benefactor to the work." Baker gives a pedigree of the family in
Lancaster County for three generations. At what time the migraThis Henry Washington is doubtless the same mentioned by (Clarendon,
as having distinguished himself at the taking of Bristol, in 1643, three
years before the siege of Worcester. " Though the,division," says Clarendon, "led on by Lord Grandison was beaten off, Lord Grandison himself
being hurt; and the other, led on by Colonel Bellasis, likewise had no better
fortune; yet Colonel Washington, with a less party, finding a place in the
curtain, between the places assailed by the other two, weaker than the rest,
entered, and quickly made room for the horse to follow." —History of the
Rebellion, Book VII.