Rev. Lawrence Washington (1602-1652)
Fellow of Brasenose College, Oxford, & Rector of Purleigh & Little Braxted, Essex
He was born at the Manor of Sulgrave and after graduating from Brasenose College, Oxford (1623), he was elected a Fellow of the College. In 1632, he was Proctor of Oxford and played a key role in helping the Archbishop of Canterbury purge the university of its Puritan clergy. As a reward, he was gifted the valuable living of Purleigh. But, during the Civil War in 1643, the Puritans took their revenge and Washington was stripped of the rectory on the charge of being, "a common frequenter of ale-houses (who encouraged) others in that beastly vice". Following his ejection from Purleigh, Washington became Rector of the impoverished parish of Little Braxted in Essex. His wife and their six children did not accompany him and instead went to live with Lawrence's uncle by marriage, Sir Edwin Sandys, one of the founders of the Virginia Company. It was through Sandys that his son, John (the President's great-grandfather) secured an apprenticeship with a London merchant where he learned the tobacco trade. Lawrence died in poverty and three of his children (including John) emigrated to Virginia.
