John Augustine Washington III and descendants papers

John Augustine Washington III (1821-1861): John Augustine Washington III was the great-grand nephew of George Washington and the last private owner of Mount Vernon. The fourth of five children, he was born on May 3, 1821 to John Augustine Washington II and Jane Charlotte Blackburn Washington. John Augustine spent his childhood at his parents’ Blakeley plantation near present day Charles Town, West Virginia. After the deaths of Bushrod Washington and his wife Julia in 1829, the Mount Vernon estate became the possession of John Augustine Washington II. After John Augustine Washington II passed away in June 1832, the estate was left to his widow Jane Charlotte. John Augustine Washington III graduated from the University of Virginia in 1840, returning to Mount Vernon in September 1841 with a proposition to manage the estate for his mother. She agreed, loaning him twenty-two slaves and contracting his employment for five hundred dollars per year for seven years. Upon Jane Charlotte's death in 1855, as the oldest living male heir, John Augustine Washington III became the last owner private owner of Mount Vernon.

Lawrence Washington (1854-1920): Lawrence Washington was the fifth child and eldest son of John Augustine Washington III and Eleanor Love Selden Washington. He was born at Mount Vernon on January 14, 1854. He married Frances Willis Lackland on June 14, 1876, and the couple had twelve children, including Anne Madison and Patty Willis Washington, who inherited a large collection of Washington relics from their father.