WASHINGTON, George, the first president of the United States, born in Westmoreland co., Va., Feb. 22 (old style, 11), 1732, died at Mount Vernon, Dec. 14, 1799. The house in which he was born was in a parish called by the family name of Washington, near Pope's creek, a small tributary of the Potomac, about half a mile from its junction with that river. It was destroyed by fire during the boyhood of Washington, but in 1816 a stone with a suitable inscription was placed on the spot by George Washington Parke Custis. The family to which Washington belonged has not yet been satisfactorily traced in England. The genealogies accepted by Sparks and Irving and his other biographers have recently been proved to be inaccurate. His great-grandfather, John Washington, emigrated to Virginia about 1657, with his brother Lawrence. George Washington was the son of Augustine Washington and his second wife Mary Ball. After the burning of the house at Pope's creek, his father removed to a house on the Rappahannock, a short distance below Fredericksburg. Here he died in 1743, leaving a large landed property to his widow and five children. To his oldest son Lawrence he bequeathed an estate on the Potomac afterward known as Mount Vernon. George received only the education of the schools of the neighborhood, and his instruction at them did not go beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic, with the addition, which must have been somewhat exceptional, of bookkeeping and surveying. He paid some attention to the French language after the army of Count de Rochambeau arrived in this country, but never attempted to speak or write it. His orthography was rather defective, a very common fault a century ago. Uniform tradition represents him to have attained an early development of physical strength. He took the lead in all the athletic sports and exercises of his companions. Though no great reliance can be placed upon most of the anecdotes which are related of his boyhood and youth, it is certain that he grew up of a vigorous, and in early life spare and agile frame, capable of much physical endurance, remarkably strong in the arms, and a bold and graceful rider. Nor is there any doubt that he early acquired among his contemporaries that character for justice, veracity, and sterling honor, which he sustained through life. His elder brother Lawrence held a commission in one of the American regiments which were sent in 1740 to reënforce the army under Gen. Wentworth and Admiral Vernon, in the unsuccessful expedition against Cartagena. While on this expedition Capt. Lawrence Washington formed intimate personal relations with the admiral, and on his return at the close of the war he gave to his newly occupied residence at Hunting creek the name of Mount Vernon, in honor of that popular naval hero. When George was 14 years old a midshipman's warrant was obtained for him, and it is said that his clothes were packed to go on board ship. His mother alone never cordially approved of the plan, and it was finally abandoned in consequence of her opposition. Tradition represents her as a woman of vigorous character and masculine will. He was trained by her in habits of frugality and industry, to obey rightful authority, and to speak the truth. George Washington had ever been the favorite of Lawrence, and after leaving school passed much of his time at Mount Vernon, occupied in summer with the usual routine of plantation life, and in winter and the studious hours of the year with his favorite branch of surveying, in which he became a great proficient. He made it his profession, and was much employed by the eccentric Lord Fairfax, an English nobleman who had made his home in Virginia, where he had a vast estate and lived in a substantial stone dwelling called Greenway Court, in the Shenandoah valley, which was then a wilderness. Three years were spent in this way, Washington passing the summers in surveying Lord Fairfax's estates, and the winters principally at Mount Vernon.