Daily National Intelligencer

WASHINGTON.

FROM THE ESSEX REGISTER,

A communication lately appeared in the Salem Gazette, in which the writer attempted to show that Gen. Washington, at the early age of seventeen, held a Major's commission in the British service, and that, when in his seventeenth year, he crossed the Atlantic, and visited London. Considerable importance was attached to these facts, as not having been noticed by any of the biographers of Washington; and the writer enumerated several circumstances, as tending to corroborate them. The principal evidence of the facts was supposed to exist in a letter from the hon. Wm Fairfax to his brother in this town dated Belvoir, Virg. Feb. 22, 1749, from which the following is an extract:

"Please acquaint our sister Hannah that Mrs. Washington has lost all her children but Major Washington, who has just returned from London, whither he lately went to get his arrears of pay, and to be put on the establishment of half-pay, which he obtained, and is in hopes of repairing his losses."

On this subject, we find the following communication in the last Worcester Spy, in which it is shown, very conclusively, that the observations in the Gazette were founded on a mistake, and that the Washington mentioned in the letters from Fairfax, was some other person than the illustrious Washington, the father of his country. We may reasonably presume that the communication below is from the pen of the Rev. Dr. Bancroft, of Worcester, one of the biographers of Washington:

TO THE EDITOR OF THE WORCESTER GAZETTE.

Sir: The Mrs. Washington mentioned in the hon. William Fairfax's letter was not the mother of Gen Washington. The author of the remarks is mistaken in his supposition that Gen. Washington was a Major in the British army, and visited England The father of Gen. Washington first married Mrs. Dandridge, by whom he had two sons, Lawrence and Augustine. As a second wife, he married Miss Ball, and by her had five children, George, Samuel, John, Charles, and Elizabeth. George was born Feb. 22, 1732. His father died in 1742. In 1747, the birth of a midshipman was obtained for George in a British ship of war, then on the American station; by the persuasion of his mother, the plan was relinquished. The above mentioned letter bears the date of Feb. 22, 1749, the birth day of George, who then completed his seventeenth year. What arrears of pay, as a British Major, could be due to a youth of 17? And what losses could he then have sustained, which were to be repaired? But the will of Gen. Washington puts this question to rest. The estate of Mount Vernon is hereby bequeathed to the nephew, Bushrod Washington; and one reason assigned is, that his father superintended it during the French war in 1754, &c. under a promise, that, if Col. W. fell in the service, he should inherit it. By this will, the estate of his brother Samuel is discharged from a debt due for a piece of land which passed from George to Samuel, and from the latter to his son Thornton; and George Steptoe and Lawrence Augustine, other sons of his deceased brother Samuel, are discharged from a debt of 5000 dollars, incurred in their education. By the same will, a gold-headed cane, once Dr. Franklin's, is given to his brother Charles, then living; and this only, because the will amply provides for his descendants. It is, then, evident that the younger brothers of Gen. Washington lived to have families; and therefore George, in 1749, could not have been the only surviving child of his mother; and, consequently, he was not the Major Washington named, who made the voyage to London in 1748.