John Thornton Augustine Washington


John Thornton Augustine Washington was a prominent Virginia farmer who served a term in the Virginia House of Delegates. Washington was a grandnephew of George Washington, first President of the United States.

Early life and family

John Thornton Augustine Washington was born on May 20, 1783, at Berry's Hill plantation near Charles Town, Virginia. He was the eldest son of Thornton Augustine Washington and his first wife Mildred Berry Washington. Washington had one younger brother, Thomas Berry Washington, from his father's marriage to Mildred Berry Washington. His mother died in 1785 and Washington's father married Frances Townsend Washington around 1786. From this marriage, Washington had a younger half-brother, Samuel Washington. Through his father, Washington was a grandson of Samuel Washington, and a grandnephew of Charles Washington and United States President George Washington.
Orphaned as a child, his maternal uncle Lawrence Berry, as guardian, raised J.T.A. Washington at his Berry Plain plantation, and arranged for his education at Bowling Green Academy. Washington remained at Berry Plain until he was of a "sufficient age" to take control of Berry's Hill plantation, which he inherited from his father.

Soldier and politician

Unlike other prominent members of the Washington family, John Washington was not fond of public life. According to his son, Washington had a preference for "the quiet and congenial occupation of a country gentleman." During the War of 1812, Washington was offered the rank of captain and the command of a company of cavalry in the United States Army, but turned down the offer in order to participate in the fighting as a private.
In 1824, Jefferson County voters elected Washington as one of their representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates, but he declined to run for a second term. Washington later was urged to run for Sheriff, but he refused.

Planter

Washington inherited Berry's Hill plantation from his father, and operated it using enslaved labor. In the 1810 census, he owned 31 slaves in Jefferson County, and two decades earlier he owned 37 slaves.
In 1825, Washington built the present Federal-style brick dwelling on the property, which he renamed Cedar Lawn. In addition to his Cedar Lawn estate, Washington owned lands along Bullskin Run, a small tributary stream of the Shenandoah River, near Cedar Lawn, and along the Kanawha River in Mason County.

Marriage and children

On September 2, 1810, at Shepherdstown, Washington married Elizabeth Conrad Bedinger, the daughter of Daniel Bedinger and Sarah Rutherford Bedinger. Elizabeth's father was an officer in the American Revolutionary War and her maternal grandfather Robert Rutherford was a member of the United States House of Representatives representing the lower Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Her brother, Henry Bedinger III, was also a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and later served as Chargé d'Affaires and Minister to Denmark for United States President Franklin Pierce.
Washington and his wife Elizabeth produced a large family including five sons and eight daughters:
  • Lawrence Berry Washington
  • Daniel Bedinger Washington
  • Virginia Thornton Washington, died unmarried
  • Sally Eleanor Washington, died unmarried
  • Benjamin Franklin Washington
  • Georgiana Augusta Washington Smith
  • Mary Elizabeth Washington Asbury
  • Col. John Thornton Augustine Washington
  • Mildred Berry Washington
  • Mildred Berry Washington Bedinger
  • Hon. George Washington
  • Susan Ellsworth Washington Bedinger
  • Henrietta Gray Washington

Later life

Washington's wife Elizabeth died on October 21, 1837, at Cedar Lawn and Washington himself died at Cedar Lawn four years later on October 9, 1841. Washington's children had departed the homestead for other areas or moved to nearby estates by the time of his death, and the Cedar Lawn property passed from the Washington family. Washington had finished drafting his will on July 16, 1840, and it was proved nine days after his death in Charles Town on October 18, 1841. Washington and his wife were interred at Harewood, the estate formerly owned by his grandfather Colonel Samuel Washington and from which Cedar Lawn was created. The family bible acquired by Washington on September 1, 1818, in which he inscribed a record of the dates and locations of his family's births, deaths, and weddings was passed down through his descendants and is currently in the possession of the Bedinger family.

Theoretical American royal succession

According to a May 1908 article in The Scrap Book entitled "If Washington Had Been Crowned" and a February 1951 article in Life entitled "If Washington Had Become King: A Carpenter or an Engineer Might Now Rule the U.S.," John Thornton Augustine Washington would have likely succeeded his great uncle George Washington as "king" of the United States had Washington accepted the position of monarch rather than that of president. Following the laws of male preference primogeniture succession recognized by the Kingdom of Great Britain at the time of American independence, John Thornton Augustine Washington would have been the lawful heir presumptive to Washington as the eldest son of Thornton Washington, who in turn was the eldest son of Samuel Washington, Washington's eldest full brother. A theoretical "King John I of the United States" would have had a lengthy reign spanning from Washington's death in 1799 until 1841.