"In the Hands of a Good Providence": Religion in the Life of George Washington

2: Foundations: Early Influences

oth George and Martha Washington could claim Anglican ministers among their ancestors. George Washington’s great-greatgrandfather , the Reverend Lawrence Washington, was something of a scholar, who studied at Oxford University’s Brasenose College between 1619 and 1623, earning a bachelor’s degree and then becoming a fellow at the same school, where he received a master’s degree in 1626. The following year, he was made lector of Brasenose College, a position described by one historian as “the chief disciplinarian of undergraduates ,” and in 1631 he became a proctor for the University of Oxford. The proctorship came as a result of a political move by the Bishop of London (and later Archbishop of Canterbury), William Laud, the university’s chancellor, who was working at the behest of King Charles I to stamp out Puritanism at the school. After several members of the administration , including two of the four proctors, were dismissed for their Calvinist leanings, Lawrence Washington was chosen to fill one of those empty slots. This appointment suggests that his theology was close to Laud’s and that he may have subscribed to Arminianism, a theological movement begun in the seventeenth century, in reaction to the strict Calvinist belief in predestination.1 Within a short time, however, Lawrence Washington’s life changed course. Marriage necessitated leaving his position with the university, a job open only to bachelors, and going into the ministry. Reverend  foundations Early Influences “In the Hands of a Good Providence” 12 Washington began serving as the rector at All Saints Church in the Essex village of Purleigh about 1632. This position provided a “substantial living ” and was probably awarded to him through his ties with the university and Bishop Laud, or, in the words of one historian, as a favor to “a don who had served his college and university exceptionally well, had pleased the Caroline hierarchy, and was ready to take up the benefice to which a university career was expected to lead.”2 When civil war broke out about a decade later between forces loyal to King Charles I and those backing Parliament under Oliver Cromwell, Reverend Washington remained a firm Royalist, a political position that led to the loss of his parish in 1643 and charges that he was “Malignant,” a term often used for those who were loyal to the deposed king. In the ensuing seventeen years until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Parliament persecuted almost 2,800 Royalist clergymen.3 A pamphlet prepared at the behest of the Parliament in 1643 outlined six reasons why the largely Puritan government had moved against one hundred ministers and replaced them with “godly, learned, orthodox Divines, diligent Preachers of the Word of God.” The first reason was probably most important in the eyes of the government: The present Church Government by Arch-bishops, Bishops, their Chancellours , Commissaries, Deanes, Arch-deacons, and other Ecclesiasticall Officers, depending upon the Hierarchie, is evill and justly Offensive and burdensome to the Kingdome, a great Impediment to Reformation and growth of Religion, and very prejudicial to the State and Government of this Kingdome, and therefore to be taken away.4 The author went on to accuse many of the persecuted ministers of neglecting their duties, of “Weighty trust,” of preaching the gospel, and of being drunkards, adulterers, and homosexuals who had been unduly influenced by Catholicism.5 Among the actions recorded in the little publication was the following , outlining the charges against George Washington’s great-greatgrandfather : The Benefice of Lawrence Washington, Rector of Purleigh in the County of Essex, is sequestred, for that he is a common frequenter of Ale-houses, not only himselfe sitting daily tippling there, but also incouraging others in that foundations 13 beastly vice, and hath been oft drunke, and hath said, That the Parliament have more Papists belonging to them in their Armies, then the King had about him or in his Army, and that the Parliaments Army did more hurt then the Cavaleeres, and that they did none at all; And hath published them to be Traitours, that lend to or assist the Parliament.6 A county justice of the peace, who personally knew the Reverend Lawrence Washington, later recorded, however, that he took him to be a very Worthy, Pious man; that as often as he was in his Company, he always appeared a very Modest, Sober Person; and that he was Recommended as such, by...