Washington, Lawrence, 1718-1752

Lawrence Washington was the elder half-brother of George Washington, being the oldest living child of Augustine Washington and his first wife Jane Butler.

Lawrence Washington was born in 1718, in Westmoreland County, Virginia. On June 9, 1740 Washington was given a commission as a Captain in one of four Virginia Foot Regiments being raised to fight in the War of Jenkins’ Ear, a war in the West Indies between Britain and Spain. The commission came from the court of King George II of England.

While serving as a Captain in the Virginia Foot Regiments, Captain Washington met and greatly admired Admiral Edward Vernon. Admiral Vernon was co-commanding the campaign with General Wentworth, a man who held a low opinion of Colonial Troops. Captain Washington became a Marine under Admiral Vernon's command on board the Admiral's ship. It was during the two years Captain Washington was away fighting in the West Indies that he contracted tuberculosis, the disease that would eventually take his life only a decade later.

Upon returning to Virginia in the fall of 1742, Captain Washington began to take control of the estate that would become his, then known as Little Hunting Creek, in Fairfax, Virginia. The Virginia Regiments were disbanded, yet Captain Washington still had a taste for the military life. He won the post of Adjutant General for the militia of Northern Virginia, along with a promotion to Major. He also won the hand of Anne Fairfax of Belvoir, an estate nearby his own in Fairfax, Virginia, achieving a very advantageous marriage for himself. Her father was the Honorable Colonel William Fairfax, the cousin and land agent for Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron. Their marriage took place the summer after Major Washington's father died. The death of his father, Augustine Washington, led to Major Washington inheriting the Little Hunting Creek property.

Major Washington, now firmly in a new world of affluence due to his marriage, renamed his property Mount Vernon in honor of Admiral Vernon. Major Washington succeeded as well in becoming a member of the House of Burgesses in Virginia, representing Fairfax County. This brought even more affluence and respect to the Washington name. Major Washington also began to take a more invested interest in his younger brother George. George was a frequent visitor at Mount Vernon, and became well acquainted with the Fairfax family at Belvoir. It would be due to these connections that the young man would be able to have a phenomenal rise in social status and wealth at the young age of 15. Virginia at the time was a place where the success of a man and his family depended on the connections forged in the genteel parlors of richer men, who would help obtain opportunities that otherwise would never be given.