Early Life of George Washington

Early Life of George Washington – George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 on his father’s plantation on Pope’s Creek in Virginia’s Westmoreland County. George’s father Augustine, a third-generation English colonist firmly established in the middle ranks of the Virginia gentry, was twice married.

In 1731 Augustine married Mary Ball, and George was born a year later. Five other children followed. The Washington family moved from Westmoreland County to Augustine, Sr.’s plantation on Little Hunting Creek around 1735, and lived there until they moved to a farm on the Rappahannock River opposite Fredericksburg in 1738.

In 1743, when George Washington was only eleven years old, Augustine Washington passed away and left the bulk of his estate to George’s half-brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, Jr. Lawrence inherited Little Hunting Creek plantation (which he later renamed Mount Vernon in honor of Admiral Edward Vernon under whom he had served in the War of Jenkins’ Ear), and Augustine Jr., inherited the Westmoreland County plantation where George was born.

George Washington inherited the more modest Rappahannock River plantation where he lived with his mother and siblings, but this was not enough to maintain his middling status in the Virginia gentry. His half-brother Lawrence suggested that George enter the British navy, but Mary Ball Washington rejected the proposal. Instead, Washington was trained as a land surveyor, a profession of considerable importance in colonial Virginia.

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