Jamestown Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 20

Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series on descendants of the Jamestown settlers, writing about the family line of George Washington. Melissa is a genealogist who has a blog, AnceStory Archives, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.

Today I continue with my “Jamestown Descendants: Who’s Who” series, focusing on the scions of a double Washington line traced back to Lawrence Washington (1659-1698): soldier, planter, politician, and prominent landowner.

In 1893 the Chicago World’s Fair had an intriguing attendee who made headlines. The Daily Inter Ocean reported that when Mrs. John Wheeler Smith (1822-1895) signed the register book at the Virginia building (a replica of Mount Vernon), word got out that a grandniece of General George Washington was on the premises.

Mrs. Smith was a widow at the time. Her husband, Major John Wheeler Smith, was a paymaster for the United States Union army. His lines include Massachusetts settlers Henry Adams, Simon Willard, and John Stone.

At the time of her visit to the fair, Mrs. Smith was the oldest surviving relative of George Washington in her family. There were three other surviving siblings out of ten.

She was born Georgianna Augusta Washington to John Thornton Augustine Washington and Elizabeth Conrad Bedinger, in Cedar Lawn, Jefferson County, West Virginia.

According to Wikipedia, the house she was born in, Cedar Lawn,

also known as Berry Hill and Poplar Hill, is one of several houses built near Charles Town, West Virginia, for members of the Washington family. Cedar Lawn was built in 1825 for John Thornton Augustine Washington, George Washington’s grandnephew. The property was originally part of the Harewood estate belonging to Samuel Washington. The property that eventually became Cedar Lawn was left to Samuel’s son, Thornton Washington, who built “Berry Hill,” named for his wife’s family. Berry Hill was destroyed by fire, and John Thornton Augustine built Cedar Lawn when he inherited [the land].

Her father was the son of Thornton Washington and Mildred Berry, daughter of Thomas Stanley Berry and Elizabeth Corn Washington (a daughter of John Washington and Mary Massey).

Georgianna’s grandfather, Thornton Washington, was the son of Mildred Thornton and Col. Samuel Washington (a younger brother of General Washington, born to Augustine Washington and Mary Ball).

While Mrs. Smith was in Chicago, she reunited with her relatives who were still around and spent time with some of her children.

Five children were born to John Wheeler Smith and Georgianna Augusta Washington. They were always told by their mother that they “combine the blood of old Puritan as well as cavalier stock”:

• Mary Washington Smith married Alonzo A. Dewey and 2^nd Bernhard Gustav Frick
• Virginia Emeline Smith married Dr. John Bunyan Foster
• Eliza Mansfield Smith married Prof. John J. Campbell and 2^nd Dr. George MacLoskie
• Wheeler Eaton Smith remained unmarried
• Edwin Curran Smith married Mary Elizabeth Turrell and 2^nd Lena Howell Spain, and 3^rd Dalarita/Dolores Romero.

Mrs. Smith and two of her daughters were members of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (see links attached to names, and news clip below). Their patriot for admission was Col. Samuel Washington. Some were also members of the National Society of Daughters of Founders and Patriots of America.

Mrs. Smith shared her views and memories on her old home state of Virginia with the Daily Inter Ocean:

Mrs. Smith has not visited Virginia since she left there just before the beginning of the war [Civil War]. “I do not care to go back,” she said. “I am not much given to sentimentalism, but I prefer to think of Virginia and the old home places of our family as I knew them when I was a girl. From what my friends who have seen it tell me I think it would only make me inexpressibly sad to see the changes which have taken place. So many of my relatives and schoolmates have passed away – our old home even is in a State [West Virginia] which was cut off the old State of which I feel so proud – that altogether I prefer to think of Virginia as I knew it years ago.”

I found an announcement in the New York Tribune, dated 18 June 1900, that the Little Rock Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution in the state of Arkansas boast a “real daughter” elected to membership – two, in fact: Mary Washington (Smith) Dewey and her niece Mrs. Norma Smith Landon (daughter of Edwin Curran and Mary Elizabeth Turrell). The article reported these are “two of the nearest living relatives of the ‘Father of his Country.’”

The descendants of John Thornton Augustine Washington were featured in Life magazine in February 1951 in an article entitled “If Washington Had Become King: A Carpenter or an Engineer Might Now Rule the U. S.,” by Robert Wallace.

In 2008 Ancestry Magazine published a story which also covered heirs of Gen. Washington who would have inherited the throne if he had been crowned king of America instead of president of the United States.

This speculation about the country’s royal family – if Washington had become king – was not new. For example, in 1908 the Times-Picayune named heirs to Washington who would have been entitled to a coronation had there been a King George in the U.S.

According to this article, the likely relations in line to the succession would be those descended from Col. Samuel Washington, who had many heirs (George Washington had no biological children of his own).

Among the would-be royal kings named in this news clip were the offspring of Mrs. Smith’s brother, Col. Thornton Augustine Washington, who married Olive Ann Jones. He was made a major in the Confederate army and served as Assistant Adjutant General to Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Next in line would be his son, George Thornton Washington, born at San Antonio, Texas, on 13 April 1863. Here is part of a profile from the Times-Picayune.

He did have a brother, Lawrence Berry Washington, who married Ruth P. Bird but died before him.

Note: Mrs. Smith had three other brothers who had issue: Benjamin Franklin Washington married Georgianna Hite Ranson; Judge George Washington married Mary Virginia Dempsey; and Col. Daniel Bedinger Washington married his cousin Lucy Anne Washington (daughter of Samuel Washington and Catherine Townsend Washington).

There would be many potential heirs to this dynasty – and Col. Samuel Washington had male children not only with Mildred Thornton, but with Anne Steptoe.

To be continued…

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Note on the header image: portrait of Samuel Washington (1734-1781), by James Alexander Simpson. Gift of Mary Washington Borie. Courtesy of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Virginia.

The Washington early lines were part of the English noblemen who came to Jamestown, Virginia. They had royal blood and shared familial lines with the late Queen Elizabeth II. See links below on that genealogy.

Related Articles:

• Jamestown Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 2
• Jamestown Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 3
• Jamestown Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 4
• Jamestown Descendants: Who’s Who, Part 5