Ancestors. Through his paternal grandmother, Mildred Warner Washington, he descended from King Edward III 1312-1377 of England.
His great-great-grandfather the Reverend Lawrence Washington c. 1602-1653 served as rector of All Saints, Purleigh Parish, Essex, England, but was fired when certain Puritan members accused him of being a common frequenter of Alehouses, not only himself sitting daily tippling there, but also encouraging others in that beastly vice. His great-grandfather John Washington sailed to America about 1656, intending to remain just long enough to take on a load of tobacco.
But shortly after pushing off on the return trip, his ketch sank. Thus John remained in Virginia, where he met and married Anne Pope, the presidents great-grandmother. FATHER Augustine Washington 16947-1743, planter. Known to friends as Gus, he spent much of his time acquiring and overseeing some 10,000 acres of land in the Potomac region, running an iron foundry, and tending to business affairs in England.
It was upon returning from one of these business trips in 1730 that he discovered that his wife, Jane Butler Washington, had died in his absence. On March 6, 1731, he married Mary Ball, who gave birth to George Washington 11 months later. Augustine Washington died when George was 11 years old. Because business had kept Mr. Washington away from home so much, George remembered him only vaguely as a tall, fair, kind man. MOTHER Mary Ball Washington c. 1709-1789. Fatherless at 3 and orphaned at 12, she was placed, in accordance with the terms of her mothers will, under the guardianship of George Eskridge, a lawyer.
Washingtons relationship with his mother was forever strained. Although she was by no means poor, she regularly asked for and received money and goods from George. Still she complained, often to outsiders, that she was destitute and neglected by her children, much to Georges embarrassment. In 1755, while her son was away serving his king in the French and Indian War, stoically suffering the hardships of camp life, she wrote to him asking for more butter and a new house servant.
Animosity between mother and son persisted until her death from cancer in the first year of his presidency.