Coat of arms of George Washington

Arms of the head of the Washington Family

Selby Abbey, England

The coat of arms of George Washington, President of the United States of America from 1789 to 1797, were first used to identify the family in the twelfth century, when one of George Washington's ancestors took possession of Washington Old Hall, then in County Durham, in North East England. ([?]John Wessington (also Washington) (died 1451) was an English Benedictine who became prior of Durham Abbey.)

The design (three red stars over two horizontal red bars on a white field) is often said to have inspired the Stars and Stripes flag, and has been used since 1938 as the coat of arms and flag of the District of Columbia. It is also found on the Purple Heart.

Description

The simple blazon is:

"Argent two bars Gules, in chief three mullets in fess of the second."

Architectural occurrences

• The Washington Window in Selby Abbey, in the British market town of Selby, contains a variant of the Washington coat of arms in the original 14th century stained glass. It is thought to be a benefaction to the abbey to commemorate John Wessington, Prior of Durham (1416–1446). The arms are distinguished from the usual Washington arms by having pierced mullets.

• The Washington coat of arms can also be seen at the huge parish church in Garsdon, near Malmesbury, Wiltshire, where a branch of the family moved in Tudor times. A Washington memorial accompanies it.[1]

• George Washington's coat of arms is engraved in stone in the porch of an ancient church in the tiny Dorset hamlet of Steeple, a church that incidentally lacks a steeple.

• The Washington coat of arms is also painted in scarlet on the roof interior, quartered with those of the squires of Steeple village, the Lawrence family, who are allied with the Washingtons by the marriage of one of its sons, Edmund Lawrence to Agnes de Wessington in 1390.

• The Washington coat of arms is also engraved in stone inside a side room in the church in the small Lancashire village of Warton (near Carnforth), near a pub named the George Washington. The flag of the US capital hangs proudly inside the church, presented on 25 July 1977 by Walter E. Washington, mayor of Washington DC from 2 January 1975 - 2 January 1979

• The Washington coat of arms can also be seen in stone on the outside of Hylton Castle, Sunderland, an 11th century fortified manor house [1].

• The Washington coat of arms appears in a memorial to Lawrence Washington (died 1619), great-uncle of Lawrence Washington, great-great grandfather of George Washington, in All Saints Church, Maidstone.

Maidstone, England

References

• Dorset Pioneers: Jack Dwyer: The History Press: 2009: ISBN 978-0-7524-5346-0

External links

• The Washington Window in Selby Abbey
• Wiltshire History Centre, records of Washington Memorial, Garsdon.[2]