The Founding Father’s English Farmhouse

The man whose signature leads the U.S. Constitution came from a family whose story stretches back to a Tudor farmhouse in the English countryside.

On Sept. 17, 1787, George Washington presided over the final day of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and became the first delegate to sign the completed document.

But part of the Washington family story can be found an ocean away, in the village of Sulgrave in Northamptonshire, England.

Sulgrave Manor is a Tudor house built by Lawrence Washington, an ancestor of the future president.

Lawrence was a successful wool merchant who twice served as mayor of nearby Northampton.

According to George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Lawrence acquired the Sulgrave property after King Henry VIII dissolved England’s monasteries and began building the manor in 1539.

The Washington family remained associated with Sulgrave for generations.

But even Sulgrave was not the beginning of the family name.

According to the National Trust, the name can be traced to Wessyngton in northeast England. In the Middle Ages, members of the family took the name of the estate where they lived.

Over the centuries, Wessyngton evolved into Washington.

Washington Old Hall, the family’s earlier home near Sunderland, still stands today.

The connection to America came centuries later.

According to Mount Vernon, George Washington’s great-grandfather, John Washington, sailed to Virginia in 1656.

He remained in the colony, beginning the Virginia branch of the family that would eventually produce the commander of the Continental Army and the first president of the United States.

Sulgrave Manor, meanwhile, nearly disappeared.

By the early 20th century, the historic house had deteriorated badly.

In 1914, an Anglo-American group purchased the property as part of an effort to commemorate 100 years of peace between Britain and the United States.

Restoration followed, preserving a physical link between the English Washington family and the American leader whose name would eventually be known worldwide.

Today, Sulgrave Manor remains a historic site associated with Washington’s English ancestry.

That gives Sept. 17 — Constitution Day in the United States — an interesting connection stretching far beyond Philadelphia.

The first signature on the Constitution belonged to a Virginia planter and Revolutionary War general.

But generations before George Washington put his name on that document, his ancestors were already carrying the Washington name through the villages and farms of England.