LIST OF PHOTOGRAVURE PLATES. VOLUME VI, WASHINGTON AND HIS MOTHER. WASHINGTON, LAFAYETTE AND STEUBEN. A. Tholey J. L. G. Ferris . MARCEL'S GREAT ORDINANCE READ TO THE PEOPLE. . 243 GEORGE WASHINGTON. THE public and personal acts of George Washington are closely allied and form together a great part of the history of the period in which he was the prominent actor. The Washington family. is of English origin, and can be traced back through several generations. The first of the Washingtons known in this country are John and his brother Lawrence, who emigrated to Virginia about the year 1657, and settled near Bridge's Creek, on the Potomac, in the county of Westmoreland, where they bought lands and became settlers. John became known as an extensive planter, and gave his name to the parish in which he resided. His grandson, Augustine, was twice married; first to Jane Butler, two of whose sons, Lawrence and Augustine, grew to manhood. His second wife was Mary Ball, a lady of great beauty and accomplishments, daughter of Joseph Ball, Epping Forest, Virginia. George, the eldest of her children, was born at Wakefield, on Pope's Creek, on February 22d (old style, February 11th), 1732. The house in which Washington was born, a plain Virginia farm-house of the period, having been burned in 1735, the family removed to the brow of a steep slope on the left bank of the Rappahannock, and here George passed his boyhood in the usual pursuits of young Virginians in easy circumstances. |