Sulgrave  in  1538.  In  the  next  century  we  find
traces  of  Robert  Washington  of  the  Adwick  family,
a  rich  merchant  of  Leeds,  and  of  his  son  Joseph
Washington,  a  learned  lawyer  and  author,  of  Gray's
Inn.  About  the  same  time  we  hear  of  Richard
Washington  and  Philip  Washington  holding  high
places  at  University  College,  Oxford.  The  Sulgrave
branch,  however,  was  the  most  numerous  and  pros-
perous. From  the  mayor  of  Northampton  were
descended  Sir  William  Washington,  who  married
the  half-sister  of  George  Yilliers,  Duke  of  Bucking-
ham ;  Sir  Henry  Washington,  who  made  a  desper-
ate defence  of  Worcester  against  the  forces  of  the
Parliament  in  1646  ;  Lieutenant  -  Colonel  James
Washington,  who  fell  at  the  siege  of  Pontefract,
fighting  for  King  Charles ;  another  James,  of  a
later  time,  who  was  implicated  in  Monmouth's  re-
bellion, fled  to  Holland  and  became  the  progenitor
of  a  flourishing  and  successful  family,  which  has
spread  to  Germany  and  there  been  ennobled ;  Sir
Lawrence  Washington,  of  Garsdon,  whose  grand-
daughter married  Robert  Shirley,  Baron  Ferrers ;
and  others  of  less  note,  but  all  men  of  property  and
standing.  They  seem  to  have  been  a  successful,
thrifty  race,  owning  lands  and  estates,  wise  magis-
trates and  good  soldiers,  marrying  well,  and  in-
creasing their  wealth  and  strength  from  generation
to  generation.  They  were  of  Norman  stock,  knights
and  gentlemen  in  the  full  sense  of  the  word  before
the  French  Revolution,  and  we  can  detect  in  them
here  and  there  a  marked  strain  of  the  old  Norse


THE   WASniNGTONS.  35

blood,  carrying  with  it  across  the  centuries  the  wild
Berserker  spirit  which  made  the  adventurous  North-
men for  centuries  the  terror  of  Europe.  They  were
a  strong  race  evidently,  these  Washingtons,  whom
we  see  now  only  by  glimpses  through  the  mists  of
time,  not  brilliant  apparently,  never  winning  the
very  highest  fortune,  having  their  failures  and  re-
verses no  doubt,  but  on  the  whole  prudent,  bold
men,  always  important  in  their  several  stations,
ready  to  fight  and  ready  to  work,  and  as  a  rule
successful  in  that  which  they  set  themselves  to  do.
