Lund Washington

Born1737

Died1796 (aged 58–59)

Knownforsteward of Mount Vernon

Lund Washington
Born	1737 Stafford County, Colony of Virginia
Died	1796(1796-00-00) (aged 58–59) Fairfax County, Virginia, U.S.
Employer	George Washington
Known for	steward of Mount Vernon
Spouse	Elizabeth Foote
Children	Daughters died as infants

Lund Washington (1737–1796) was a distant cousin of George Washington who served as steward of the Mount Vernon estate during the American Revolution.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Lund Washington was the fourth son of Townshend Washington (1705–1743) and his wife Elizabeth Lund (1705–1773). Lund was born in what was then Stafford County but soon became King George County on Virginia's Northern Neck. His grandfather, John Washington (1671–1712), was the son of Lawrence Washington (1635–1677), who emigrated from Britain to Virginia as did his brother John Washington, both settling in the Northern Neck region. This Lund Washington's eldest brother, Robert Washington (1729–1800) married Alice Strother and named their sixth son Lund Washington (1767–1853) after either their mother's surname or this uncle; the younger Lund Washington eventually became postmaster of Washington, D.C., and married twice. Townshend Washington's other sons were Thomas Washington (1731–1794) and Lawrence Washington (1735–1799); the family also included daughter Catherine Washington (1740–1792) who married her cousin John Washington (1729–1782) who represented King George County in the House of Delegates.

In 1779, this Lund Washington married Elizabeth (Betsy) Foote, then 33 years old, whose 34-year-old sister Catherine had married his brother Lawrence five years earlier. The Foote daughters were fourth generation Virginians. However, neither couple had children who survived them. Both of Betsy's daughters died as infants,^[4] and Catherine was childless. Betsy Foote Washington's piety would be shown in her prayer journals as well as household devotions which included slaves.^[5] After Lund Washington's death, Betsy Foote Washington adopted her nephew William Hayward Foote (1781–1846) and bequeathed the Hayfield plantation to him.^[6]

According to his nephew (the postmaster mentioned above), before his marriage, this Lund Washington had a son with a housekeeper, who then moved to Connellsville (in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, disputed between Virginia and Pennsylvania in the earliest days of the Republic). However, when a veteran with a large family attempted to visit Lund Washington in his final years, he refused to see him, having heard a report years earlier that his son John had been killed fighting Native Americans.^[7] That nephew Lund Washington (in that same unpublished manuscript) also characterized the President's testamentary emancipation of his slaves as "the ... worst act of his public life."^[8]^[9]

Career

Before beginning work for his uncle, Lund Washington managed an Albemarle County plantation for Mr. Beverly, then Ravensworth in Fairfax County for William Fitzhugh for several years. ^[10]^[11] In 1764 he accepted his cousin General George Washington's offer and became manager of Mt. Vernon and associated plantations, growing in responsibilities and serving for approximately two decades, until 1785. While George Washington was a hands-on owner when actually present in Virginia, Lund Washington was the estates' principal manager during his absence, especially during the American Revolutionary War.^[12] Considerable correspondence between the two exists, particularly as Lund Washington supervised renovations of the manor house and slave quarters during the conflict.^[13]

However, he aroused his cousin's ire in April 1781, in the war's closing days, when three British warships anchored in the Potomac River after torching several plantations on the Maryland shore and demanded foodstuffs and other supplies. Although Lund Washington initially followed General Washington's orders and refused, after further threats, he provided them. Also, approximately the same time 17 enslaved people, mostly men, escaped to the warships.^[14]^[15] Seven would be returned to General Washington at the war's conclusion.^[16]^[17]^[18] Previously, only four white indentured servants (one from Fielding Lewis' estate and three from Mt. Vernon) had fled to the British, and the Fredericksburg absconder was later taken prisoner by Virginia forces.^[19]

By his departure from Mt. Vernon in 1785, Lund Washington may have saved enough to purchase the 360-acre Hayfield plantation in Fairfax County from his cousin, or that was the plantation the General exchanged for another farm Lund had purchased from Thomas Hanson Marshall in 1779 (the year of his marriage), else General Washington gave it to Lund because he took no salary during the five years of the American Revolutionary War.^[20] In the 1787 tax census for Fairfax County, Lund Washington owned 13 Blacks above age 16 and six under age 16, as well as 12 horses and 16 cattle (compared to General George Washington owning 109 Blacks above age 16, 91 below that age, and 93 horses and 195 cattle).^[21] He freed one enslaved Black man, Edward Shankling, in October 1793.^[22]

Per the oft-cited Cincinnatus analogy, General Washington resumed active management of his estates following Lund's departure, but found no manager who satisfied him, or was willing to serve, for so long. Brother Charles Washington's son George Augustine Washington began serving his uncle in the 1786,^[23] and was the principal manager during the early years of his uncles' presidency, but died of tuberculosis in 1791. During his final years, in addition to hired managers from Britain (whom the President thought for the most part failed for lack of experience overseeing enslaved Blacks),^[24] the former president basically successively employed three sons of his sister Betty Washington Lewis: Howell Lewis, Robert Lewis and Lawrence Lewis.^[25] Also John Fairfax and his brother Hezekiah served as overseers for several years in the mid-1780s, before establishing their own estates and farming using enslaved labor, with John Fairfax crossing the Appalachian Mountains and also serving in the Virginia House of Delegates.^[26]

v t e Washington family
First generation	Lawrence Washington (1602–1652)	Coat of arms of the Washington family
Second generation	John Washington
Third generation	Lawrence Washington (1659–1698)
Fourth generation	Augustine Washington Bailey Washington
Fifth generation	Lawrence Washington (1718–1752) Augustine Washington Jr. George Washington Elizabeth Washington Lewis Samuel Washington John Augustine Washington Charles Washington Henry Washington William Washington Bailey Washington Jr. Lund Washington
Sixth generation	William Augustine Washington Bushrod Washington George Steptoe Washington Lawrence Augustine Washington George William Washington
Seventh generation	John Thornton Augustine Washington George Corbin Washington Bushrod C. Washington Peter Grayson Washington
Eighth generation	Lawrence Berry Washington Lewis Washington Benjamin Franklin Washington William D. Washington Eugenia Washington John Augustine Washington III Susannah Sarah Washington Graham
Tenth generation	W. Selden Washington
Washington family residences Abingdon Arlington House Beall-Air Blakeley Cedar Lawn Claymont Court Fairfield Ferry Farm George Washington Birthplace National Monument Happy Retreat Harewood Kenmore Mary Washington House Mount Vernon Richwood Hall Ridgedale Rising Sun Tavern River Farm Sulgrave Washington Old Hall

Authority control databases
International	VIAF FAST WorldCat
National	United States
Other	Yale LUX

Career

Death and legacy

References

Related Articles