![]() Date of Birth: 1671, Gloucester County, Virginia Date of Death: 1701, Whitehaven, England Places of Burial: St. Nicholas’s Church Cemetery Mildred Warner Washington was one of George Washington’s grandmothers. Her social and political connections significantly contributed to the Washington family's success in the latter part of the 17th century. Mildred Warner was born in 1671 at Warner Hall in Gloucester County, Virginia, to Colonel Augustine Warner Jr. and his wife, Mildred Reade. The Warners were a well-established and connected family in Gloucester County, with deep roots in the colony that extended back to the 1620s and their earliest ancestor, Nicholas Marteau. Marteau, a French Protestant, immigrated to Virginia to aid in its defense during the Second Anglo-Powhatan War, making him the first ancestor in George Washington’s lineage to arrive in America. Mildred’s father, Augustine, served as speaker of the House of Burgesses, was a member of the Governor’s Council, and belonged to the “Greenspring Faction,” a group of officials who remained steadfastly loyal to Governor Berkeley during Bacon’s Rebellion. Mildred’s father’s loyalty to Berkeley likely placed her and Lawrence Washington in the same social circle, leading to their eventual marriage. Lawrence’s father, John Washington, also remained loyal to Berkeley during Bacon’s Rebellion. This political alignment may have compensated for the fact that the Warners were significantly wealthier than the Washingtons. The marriage benefited the Washingtons more than the Warners, as Mildred brought land and higher social connections into the union. The exact date of their marriage is unclear. Lawrence was about 12 years older than Mildred, and although he returned to Virginia from his English education by 1681, it is unlikely they married before 1685, when Mildred would have been 14. Mildred and Lawrence had one daughter who died in infancy and three children who lived to adulthood: their eldest son, John Washington III, born in 1692; Augustine Washington (the father of George Washington), born in 1694; and daughter Mildred Washington Willis, born between 1696 and 1698. Lawrence died in 1698, leaving Mildred with his estate and the sole responsibility for their three children, the oldest of whom was only six. She quickly remarried an English ship merchant named George Gale. Following this second marriage, she, her children, and at least one enslaved person—a girl named Jane—left Virginia to live in Whitehaven, England, with the Gales. Once settled in Whitehaven in 1700, John and Augustine Washington were sent about 50 miles inland to the Appleby School for a formal English education. In 1701, Mildred gave birth to the couple’s only child—a girl they also named Mildred. It must have been a difficult birth, as both mother and daughter soon died. Mildred had drafted a will while bedridden, stating she was "doubtful of the recovery from my present illness." Her passing created a complicated transatlantic issue, as her three surviving children from her previous marriage to Lawrence Washington were minors with a significant inheritance back in the Mattox Neck of Virginia. This situation resulted in a lengthy legal dispute. A cousin, John Washington of the Chotank area of what was then Stafford County, and a man named Samuel Thompson filed a suit in Westmoreland County Court, asking that the children and their property be placed in their custody. The 1702 suit ruled in favor of George Gale, who was allowed to maintain the status quo regarding the children. By 1705, George had remarried and returned to the eastern shore of the Chesapeake, leaving the status of the Washington stepchildren ambiguous. In August of 1705, an agreement seems to have been reached between George Gale and the Washingtons outside of court. At that point, the legal control of the Washington orphans and their property was entrusted to their Stafford County relatives. John, Augustine, and Mildred took up residence in their cousin’s home, where they remained until 1713. Mildred Warner Washington Gale was buried in the grounds of St. Nicholas's Church in Whitehaven in January 1701. All the information provided in this article is sourced from our Historic Resources Study, Upon This Land by Philip Levy, where you can discover more stories connected to the Washington family and the residents of Popes Creek. |
Last updated: January 2, 2025