WASHINGTON'S BIRTHPLACE AND BAPTISM.

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to Augustine and Mary his Wife, was born ye 11th Day of February, 173 about 10 in the morning & was Baptized on the 3th of April following, M' Beverley Whiting & Capt Christopher Brooks Godfather, & Mrs Mildred Gregory, Godmother.' ""** And in the genealogical table which he sent to Sir Isaac Heard in 1792, he wrote: "George, eldest son of Augustine by the second marriage, was born in Westmoreland County," etc.

Where was Washington born and baptized? There is no known official record that can solve the question. There is no tradition that helps to solve it, excepting the statement of Washington quoted above, and that of Mrs. Morer, who says he was born in Cookham, and was carried to America in the arms of either her "aunt or mother." trustworthy is the tradition of the latter, let us see.

How

Mrs. Morer died in 1812, eighty years after the birth of Washington. She must have been a very young child when, as she says, her "aunt or mother" went to America as a

*On the discussion of this subject some years ago, the statement in the family Bible that Washington was born on the 11th of February and was baptized on the (apparently) 3d of April, made the story of his birth in England highly improbable, for it gave the mother only fifty-one or fifty-two days to recover sufficiently from the effects of childbirth, make a long voyage of those times at that inclement season of the year, and prepare for and effect the baptism. There is internal evidence in the entry in the Bible that the writer intended to add another numeral to the figure 3 in the date of the baptism. A fac-simile of that entry is here given. It may be observed that after the figure "3" are the letters th" instead of "rd," as they should have been if the act occurred on the 3d. The writer probably intended to write the "30th," but inadvertently omitted the cipher. If so, there was ample time for the circumstances of the birth, the voyage, and the baptism to occur.

nurse for him-too young, too, to be the likely recipient, as she says she was, of the portrait of Mary Ball and “other relicks of the [Washington] family." Mr. Field was born in 1777. He received the story from Mrs. Morey's lips when he was "a boy," say eighteen years of age, when, according to her narrative, she must have been fully seventyfive years old. Would any court receive testimony of this nature as trustworthy?

It lacked only about a month of being two years from the time of the marriage of Washington's parents until his birth, or fully three years after his father went to England. Augustine had left in Virginia his large estate and various. concerns, and his two sons, one about seven years and the other about nine years of age. main abroad so long, neglectful of his family and estate, to receive and dispose of some property in England which he had inherited?

Would he be likely to re

Does it not seem probable that Augustine Washington and Mary Ball were married in England, and after tarrying. there a while to dispose of some property, returned to Virginia, where their first child was born and baptized, two years after their wedding?

The portrait in question, in the possession of the family of Professor Morse, bears weighty circumstantial testimony in favor of its being the likeness of Mary Ball. It is a three-quarter length, in a sitting posture, of a comely young woman from twenty-two to twenty-five years of age. Her figure and pose denote physical perfection. Her costume is of the Sir Peter Lely, or, rather, the Sir Godfrey Kneller style-low bosom, short oversleeves, etc. Her dress is of the shadow-of-gold color; her hair is of auburn tint, or

THE PAINTER OF HER PORTRAIT.

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rather of a blonde, harmonizing with her complexion, and her eyes blue or rich gray. This corresponds with a description of her person when she was about sixteen years old, given in the fragment of a letter cited on page 12. The form and general expression of her face, especially of the forehead, eyes, and nose, are those of Washington's, in a remarkable degree as portrayed by Houdon in his statue at Richmond made from a cast from the living face, and by Rembrandt Peale, whose portrait of the Great Leader was painted while he was President, and which was pronounced by the patriot's most intimate friends the best likeness of him ever produced. She holds between her forefinger and thumb, very daintily, a pretty white flower.

Mr. Harvey expressed to Professor Morse his belief that the picture was painted by Thomas Hudson,* the most popular portrait-painter in London after the death of Sir Godfrey Kneller, in 1723. His pictures were familiar to Harvey; so, also, they were to Professor Morse, who had studied them in London. As we stood before the portrait, Professor Morse pointed out some technical features in the execution of the picture observed by both himself and Mr.

*Thomas Hudson was a native of Devonshire, where he was born in 1701. He became a pupil of Jonathan Richardson, an eminent English portrait-painter, and married his daughter. He soon excelled his master in imagination and in the graceful pose of his subjects, and became the most fashionable portrait-painter in the English metropolis. Hudson was the tutor of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who finally effected such a revolution in art in England that his master's popularity was overthrown. Hudson had made a fortune. He abandoned the profession and retired to his estate at Twickenham, where he died at the age of nearly fourscore.

Harvey, confirmatory of their belief that it was one of Hudson's productions.

At the time of Mary Ball's sojourn in England, Hudson had a summer residence in Berkshire County, in the neighborhood of the residences of the Washingtons and Balls. May not one of the latter have employed him to paint the portrait of their charming Virginia kinswoman? Professor Morse expressed his strong conviction that this picture is a portrait of Mary Ball, which had somehow fallen into the possession of Mrs. Morer, and through Mr. Field and Mr. Harvey had come to him. And so satisfied am I by the weight of concurrent testimony that it is a portrait of the pretty Virginia girl whom Augustine Washington married in 1730, that I venture to offer a copy of it in this volume as a genuine likeness of the person of the mother of Washington.

CHAPTER III.

THE home plantation of Augustine Washington stretched along the Potomac River more than a mile between Pope's and Bridge's creeks. The river is there a broad stream, and was then largely fringed by the primeval forest. Its waters abounded with the choicest fishes. This farm of a thousand acres was in the northern part of Westmoreland County, a narrow shire afterwards distinguished as the birthplace of two Presidents of the United States (Washington and Monroe) and of several Lees who were prominent actors in the early history of our republic. Of these, Richard Henry Lee, author of the resolution for independence offered in the Congress in 1776; Arthur Lee, M.D., a diplomatic agent for the Continental Congress abroad; and "Legion Harry," a brave and dashing young cavalry leader in the old war for independence, were the most conspicuous. The dwelling to which Mr. Washington took his young wife was a very modest one, yet it ranked among the best of Virginia farm-houses at that time. It had four rooms and a spacious attic, with an enormous chimney at each end. On the river front was a piazza. It was perfectly plain at all points. The only approach to ornamentation was a Dutch tiled chimney-piece in the "best room."

The bride found at her new home a middle-aged kinswoman of her husband in charge of his two fine boys, Lawrence and Augustine. There was an ample supply of men