573 
W A S H I 
rain-water hath a long time settled, is of great advantage to 
all land. Mortimer.—A bog; a marsh; a fen; a quag¬ 
mire. 
Full thirty times hath Phoebus’ car gone round 
Neptune’s salt wash, and Tellus’ orbed ground. Sha/cspeare. 
A medical or cosmetic lotion.—Try whether children 
may not have some wash to make their teeth better and 
stronger. Bacon. —A superficial stain or colour.—Imagi¬ 
nation stamps signification upon his face, and tells the peo¬ 
ple he is to go for so much, who oftentimes, being deceived 
by the wash, never examine the metal, but take him upon 
content. Collier.- —’The feed of hogs gathered from washed 
dishes. 
The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar. 
That spoiled your summer fields and fruitful vines, 
Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough 
In your embowell’d bosoms. Sha/cspeare. 
The act of washing the clothes of a family; the linen 
washed at once. 
WASH, adj. Washy ; weak. 
He looks lean; 
'Tis a wash knave, he will not keep his flesh well. 
Beaum. and FI. 
WASH, a river of England, in the county of Rutland, 
which joins the Welland. 
WASHAWAY, a hamlet of England, in Cornwall; 3 
miles north-west of Bodmin. 
WA'SHBALL, s. Ball made of soap.—I asked a poor 
man how he did; he said he was like a wash ball, always in 
decay. Swift. 
W ASHBOURNE, Great, a parish of England, in 
Gloucestershire; 4| miles north-north-west of Winchcombe. 
WASHBOURNE, Little, a township of England, in 
Worcestershire; 7 miles from Evesham. 
WASHBROOK, a parish of England, in Suffolk; 4 
miles vest-by-south of Ipswich.—2. A hamlet of England, 
in Gloucestershire; 6 miles from Cirencester.—3. A river 
of England, in Yorkshire, which joins the Wharf, near 
Otley. 
WA'SHER, s. One that washes.—Quickly is his laundress, 
his washer, and his wringer. Sha/cspeare. 
WASHES, a large and noted estuary in England, in the 
counties of Lincoln and Norfolk. When the tide is full, the 
whole is under water; but when the tide is out, it is passable 
by travellers, though not without danger from the quick¬ 
sands. Particular parts of this inlet, which runs into the 
land, have particular names, such as Fossdyke Wash, below 
Spalding; Cross-Keys Wash, below Wisbeach, at the mouth 
of the Nen, &c. 
WASHFIELD, a parish of England, in Devonshire, near 
Tiverton. Population 431. 
WASHFORD, a hamlet of England, in Devonshire, on 
a brook that joins the Taw. 
WASHFORD, Pyne, a parish of England, in Devon¬ 
shire, 85 miles north-by-w'est of Crediton. 
WASHINGBOROUGH, a parish of England, in Lincoln¬ 
shire ; 3| miles east-south-east of Lincoln. 
WASHINGLEY, a parish of England, in Huntingdon¬ 
shire; If mile west of Stilton. 
WASHINGTON (George), first president of the United 
States, the descendant of a respectable family in the north 
of England, was born in February, 1732, on an estate in 
Westmoreland county, Virginia, on which his great-grand¬ 
father, John Washington, settled, after his emigration from 
England, about the year 1657. Having lost his father when 
he was about 10 years of age, his advantages of education 
were inconsiderable; but he acquired a sufficient knowledge 
of mathematics to qualify him for a land-surveyor. In his 
youth he was grave and thoughtful, regular and diligent in 
the management of the business assigned him, dignified in 
his deportment, and exemplary and honourable in his whole 
Vol. XXIV. No. 1657. 
N G T 0 N. 
conduct. Ardent in his temper, he manifested, at the age 
of fifteen, an inclination to enter into the British navy, and 
the place of a midshipman was procured for him; but his 
mother diverted him from his purpose. In his nineteenth 
year he was nominated one of the adjutants-general of Vir¬ 
ginia, with the rank of major; and in 1753 he was entrusted 
with a commission which required prudence and resolution. 
At this time the French were projecting a communication 
between Canada and Louisiana by a chain of forts, which 
would have confined the English to the east side of the Al¬ 
leghany mountains. Washington was the bearer of a letter 
of remonstrance to the French from Mr. Dinwiddie, the 
governor of Virginia. He executed the business committed 
to him, and returned in seventy-eight days. As the French 
persisted in their plans, the assembly of Virginia raised a 
body of three hundred men for the protection of their fron¬ 
tiers, and appointed Washington lieutenant-colonel. Hos¬ 
tilities commenced, though war was not declared between 
Great Britain and France; and Washington, with a de¬ 
tachment of his regiment, falling in with a party of French, 
surprised and made them all prisoners, after their comman¬ 
der was killed. With an augmentation of force, he pro¬ 
ceeded for the purpose of dislodging the French from fort 
Duquesne; but receiving intelligence that a large force was 
approaching, he fell back into a stockaded fort, which he 
had previously erected at a place called Great Meadows, 
where he was attacked by the enemy. However, he de¬ 
fended his post, incompletely fortified, for a whole day, 
and capitulated with the French commander upon honour¬ 
able terms. 
In 1755, war actually took place, and general Braddock 
was sent to command in America. Washington, now a co¬ 
lonel, offered to accompany him as a volunteer; and not¬ 
withstanding a severe illness, made haste to join the army. 
The carnage of the day was dreadful, and proved fatal to 
the general and many of his officers and men; but Washing¬ 
ton maintained the most perfect self-possession, notwithstand¬ 
ing the personal danger to which he was exposed. He 
brought back the shattered remnant of the army; and his 
countrymen generally thought, that if he had had the com¬ 
mand, instead of a man who was unacquainted with the 
Indian mode of fighting, the disaster would have been pre¬ 
vented. The assembly of Virginia determined, after the 
withdrawment of all the regular troops, to raise sixteen com¬ 
panies for the defence of their frontiers, and they entrusted 
the command with Washington; such was the degree of re¬ 
putation which he had acquired at this early age! His situ¬ 
ation was trying and perilous, an extensive frontier being 
open to the incursions of a savage enemy; he recommended 
more vigorous measures, and at length, when fort Duquesne 
was evacuated by the French, in 1758, in consequence of 
the successes of the British troops in the northern colonies, 
the back-settlements of the southern were secured. When 
this service was accomplished, Washington retired from the 
military service with the cordial esteem of his countrymen, 
and with tokens of respect from the officers of the British 
army. Soon afterwards he married Mrs. Custis, an amiable 
and opulent widow ; and by the death of an elder brother 
he obtained an estate on the Potomac, called Mount Ver¬ 
non, whither he removed, and commenced the life of a 
country gentleman, sedulously improving his property by 
his agricultural skill, exercising the office of judge of the 
court in the county where he resided, and attending as a re¬ 
presentative in the house of burgesses of Virginia. This was 
the honourable and useful life he led for fifteen years. But 
after the peace of 1763, contests commenced between the 
American colonies and the British legislature; and Washing¬ 
ton determined in the assembly of Virginia to oppose the 
claim of the parent-state to a right of taxing its colonies. 
Accordingly he was elected a member of the first congress, 
which assembled at Philadelphia in 1774. He was a mem¬ 
ber of all the committees appointed for arranging measures 
of defence; and when it was determined to raise a general 
army, the arduous office of commander-in-chief was unani- 
6 E mouslv 
