THE WASHINGTONS’

Northampton; then at Sulgrave; and when their
fortunes declined——in consequence, some say, of
the ill luck which always came to. those who held
church property, and the manor of Sulgrave had
belonged to St. Andrew’s Monastery at North-
ampton—and they were obliged to leave Sul-
grave, Lawrence Washington settled at Little
Brington, near his friend and kinsman Sir Robert
Spencer. Some suppose that Lawrence Wash-
ington built the house at Little Brington, and
placed the inscription over the door in token of
his many sorrows and trials — the loss of fortune
and home, for he was forced to sell Sulgrave in
r6ro0, and the deaths of his wife and several
children. Be that as it may, he lived at Little
Brington for some years before his death in 1616.
He was honorably buried in the church at Great
Brington. And his sons William, John, and Law-
rence, were constant guests at Althorp Park, hard
by. In the curious steward’s books which were

i

(oh
Uys

    
 

fee

  

GREAT BRINGTON. CHURCH.— BURIAL PLACE OF THE WASH-
INGTONS.

found some few years ago in: an iron-bound chest
at Althorp, and give every item of expenditure in

the household from: 1623 to 1645, the names of the

Washingtons occur-continually, among the quaint-

ENGLISH HOME. 37

est entries which give one a very clear idea of the
way a great house was managed in those days.
Here are a few examples from the yellow old
housekeeping pages:

1623.
June 21. Lump sugar into the nursery, 3 li. 00-02-09
Sir John Washington and Sir William
Washington, staying in the house,
lobsters given to Mr. Curtis. 4. 00-06-00
Dec. 6. To Legg for the carriage of a doe to
my Lord Archbishop. 00-05-00
Collar of Brawne sent to Mr. Wash-
ington.
1624.
July 3. Sent to my Ladie Washington, Puetts
6. (Peewits). Quailes 3. Hearne r.
Sturgeon. I rand.
Oct. 30. For 12 li. of currants fora great cake. 00-04-00
For butter for a cake, 6 li. 00-02-03

This was the christening cake for “Mistress Katherine
Spencer,” who was baptized Nov. 14. Sir John Washington
and Mr. Curtis being among the guests,

These are only a few out of many mentions of
the brothers whose horses are noted constantly as
being provided with “oates” and so forth. The
friendship between the two families of Washing- -
tons and Spencers was maintained until the out-
break of the Civil War. Young Mordaunt, Sir
John Washington’s eldest son, frequently came
with his father to the house that seems to have
been ever open to them, and where Mistress Lucy
Washington, Sir John’s younger sister was house-
keeper, a post which in those days was often filled
by gentlewomen of good family. It was only in
1641 that these friendly visits ceased — brought to
an end some suppose by political differences, which
at that time were only too apt to sever all ties of
friendship and even of family. Sir John is lost
sight of during the Civil War, though there is no
doubt that he espoused the King’s side against
Oliver Cromwell; and, according to Washington
Irving and other authorities, he and his brother
Lawrence were mixed up in the royalist conspi-
racy of 1656, and found it more safe and. conven-
ient to seek a home in the New World the next
year, with very many others of their defeated
party.

For some years before his. emigration, Sir John
Washington, a widower, with three sons Mordaunt,
John, and Philip, had lived at his manor of South