George Washington never slept in this town of 80,000 just south of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, but a lot of his ancestors did.
In fact, the name Washington-or ”de Wessington,” as it was spelled in one of its many variants-goes back to at least 1183 in County Durham. In that year, one William de Hertburn moved here from the village of Hertburn, 20 miles to the north, and became lord of the local manor.
As was the custom before family names existed, William or one of his descendants eventually dropped Hertburn and assumed the name of their new home, Washington.
The origin of the name is anglo-Saxon, coming from ”Hwaes,” who was a Saxon chieftain; ”inga,” meaning family of; and ”tun,” an estate. In other words: ”The estate of the Hwaes family.”
It`s not known if William built the original manor house or took over an existing one. The building we see today, however, is not entirely his but a 17th-Century manor that incorporated fragments of the original. The de Wessingtons-cum-Washingtons lived here until 1376, then continued to own the property up until 1613.
Grimy coal town
During the Industrial Revolution, the tiny village of Washington grew into a grimy coal mining town. But since 1968, when the mines closed, old miners` houses have been demolished, slag heaps have been carted away, and pit-head buildings have been converted into a colliery museum.
Today Washington is one of Britain`s ”new towns,” with neat middle-class tract homes surrounding the old village. There, on a wooded hill near the village green, stands Washington Old Hall, built of yellowish brown sandstone.
In 1936 the building was threatened with demolition, but an Anglo-American preservation committee saved it and, with gifts from families on both sides of the Atlantic, restored it and furnished it with period pieces.
It`s a surprisingly modest house for a wealthy landowner-only two stories high and just one room deep. The ground-floor rooms have flagstone floors and beamed ceilings.
Washington memorabilia includes two busts of George by the French sculptor Houdon, who stayed with Washington at Mt. Vernon in 1785; a portrait of the first president painted on a drumhead by Joshua Trumbull of Salem, Mass., in 1776; and a fan presented to Martha Washington by Lafayette.
Jacobean furnishings
Since most of the house dates from the early 1600s, the furnishings are Jacobean, as the period of King James I (1603-1625) is called. In the Great Hall, or communal dining room, for instance, are a massive refectory table with bulbous legs, a large hall cupboard, and an arcaded storage chest, all of elaborately-carved dark oak.
At the west end of the hall are two stone arches that were part of the 12th-Century home of the de Wessingtons. Originally service doors from the kitchen, they would have had wooden screens in front of them to hide food preparation from the diners.
To the east of the Great Hall is the ”with-drawing room,” the lord`s private domain, its walls covered with Jacobean paneling from the Old Manor House in Abbotts Langley. The furnishings here include an Elizabethan oak splay-fronted cupboard, a circa-1600 armchair, and a 19th-Century jug decorated with the American flag, a map of the United States, and figures of Washington and Liberty.
Community center
The stairway to the second floor is contemporary with the house but came from the White Hart Inn in Guildford, near London.
In 1264 Walter de Wessington, third in descent from William de Hertburn, distinguished himself in the Battle of Lewes, fighting on the side of the king. Two of his sons, William and John, married heiresses and settled in Lancashire. There they incorporated the two bars of the House of Lancaster into the Washington coat-of-arms and added three ”mullets” (the star-shaped end of a spur) for distinction.
Several generations later, John Washington (a direct descendent of John de Wessington) married Margaret Kytson, whose brother Thomas made a fortune in the Flemish wool trade and was knighted in 1533.
Sir Thomas Sytson`s daughter married Sir John Spencer of Althorp, who is a direct ancestor of both Sir Winston Churchill and Lady Di. So George Washington is related-by marriage at least-to Britain`s present royal family. John Washington`s son Lawrence, perhaps influenced by his successful uncle, also went into the wool trade and moved south to Northhamptonshire. There he became a wealthy landowner and, eventually, the mayor of
Northhampton. In 1539 he bought the Manor of Sulgrave from Henry VIII and rebuilt the manor house in which the Washingtons lived for the next 80 years. Bucolic village
Today Sulgrave is a bucolic little village 72 miles northwest of London. Although it has a fine 14th-Century church and a picture postcard inn called the Thatched House Hotel, the village`s main draw is Sulgrave Manor.
”We want this house to be a shrine for all Americans who visit the old country and a center from which sentiments of friendship and good will between British and American peoples will forever radiate,” said the marquess of Cambridge when the restored building was opened in 1921.
His wish has come true. Each year about 20,000 Americans trudge up the gravel path of this honey-colored limestone manor.
If they are observant, they recognize the Lion of England and the Dragon of Wales, the royal arms of Elizabeth I, carved in plaster over the south doorway. (Ironically, the Washingtons were at one time stanch loyalists.) But just below those royal arms is the Washington family crest, its three mullets (stars) and two bars (stripes) making an intriguing coincidence with the American flag that flutters from the pole on the nearby lawn.
Inside, Sulgrave has much that is reminiscent of Washington Old Hall. Both are manor housoint British-American effort. Both are furnished with period pieces and Washingtoniana. For the most part, however, Sulgrave is older, dating from 1560. It is also larger and richer in furnishings. The Great Room at Sulgrave, for example, has stained-glass windows and, over the 7-foot-wide fireplace, a portrait of Washington by Gilbert Stuart.
Artifacts found
During restoration, a crevice between the ceiling and the floor above was found to contain an Elizabethan sixpence dated 1568, a baby`s shoe, and a knife-case thought to have belonged to Lawrence Washington.
The Oak Parlor, comparable to Washington Old Hall`s with-drawing room, has its original 1700s paneling, which during the 19th-Century had been covered with wallpaper.
A curiosity, though, is a life-size wooden cut-out of a child in 17th-Century dress. Such figures are rare and, according to the guide conducting my tour, were intended ”to provide company and give the impression that someone was always at home.”
For many visitors the kitchen is the most interesting room, its great size indicating that the Washingtons had many servants. Unlike other rooms, which were furnished piecemeal, the kitchen fittings and equipment were acquired in their entirety from a manor house at Weston Corbett in Hampshire. The fireplace has three ovens, roasting spits of many sizes, and several
”cranes”-one 6 feet long-for holding pots and kettles.
Four-poster beds
Upstairs are three bedrooms, all containing canopied four-poster beds.
Finally, there are two rooms displaying what a printed guide calls ”the relics of George Washington:” his saddlebags, velvet coat, oak liquor chest, and a lock of his hair. There is also a silver Peace Medal, like those Washington gave to friendly Indian chiefs; a pearwood snuff box (circa 1777)
with Washington`s likeness, given by Queen Mary; autographed letters and other documents. Among these is a deed dated 1606 with the signatures of Robert Washington, the builder`s eldest son, and his sons, Robert and Lawrence.
George Washington was descended from this last Lawrence, whose grandson John emigrated to Virginia in 1656. John settled farmland above the Potomac that one day would be called Mt. Vernon. His great-grandson was George. –
