27 Facts About Bushrod Washington

1.

Bushrod Washington was an American attorney and politician who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1798 to 1829.

2.

The nephew of American Founding Father and President George Bushrod Washington, he inherited his uncle's papers and Mount Vernon, taking possession in 1802 after the death of Martha Bushrod Washington, his uncle's widow, and with Marshall's help, published a biography of the first president.

3.

Bushrod Washington had a younger brother and two older sisters, all of whom married into the First Families of Virginia.

4.

Bushrod Washington's sister Mildred Corbin Washington Lee married Col.

5.

Bushrod Washington received his initial classical schooling from a private tutor who taught the children of Richard Henry Lee, who lived nearby in Westmoreland County.

6.

Bushrod Washington returned in 1780 to study law under George Wythe and during that time as an alumnus became the 41st member of Phi Beta Kappa.

7.

Bushrod Washington returned to Williamsburg to take a three-month law course with George Wythe in the summer of 1780 and became acquainted with young veteran John Marshall, who was taking a six-week course from Wythe.

8.

Bushrod Washington joined a cavalry unit of the Continental Army during 1781, serving under Col.

9.

Bushrod Washington married Julia Anne Blackburn, the daughter of Col.

10.

Bushrod Washington continued his private legal practice from 1784 to 1798.

11.

Bushrod Washington served on the Supreme Court until his death in 1829.

12.

Bushrod Washington owned nine adult and four child slaves in Berkeley County and his brother Corbin owned 27 adult and 26 child slaves there, as well as 17 horses including a stud horse and 40 cattle.

13.

Around 1795, Bushrod Washington purchased Belvidere, the former Richmond estate of William Byrd III.

14.

The President named Bushrod Washington to receive Mount Vernon as well as an executor.

15.

When Mrs Washington died, Bushrod Washington was notified, but according to tradition, Lawrence and Nellie Lewis did not invite him to the post-funeral dinner, so he asked a slave to prepare and bring food to him in a cabin.

16.

However, Martha feared she might be poisoned, and so after consulting with Bushrod Washington, signed a deed of manumission in 1800 and freed the slaves before her death.

17.

Bushrod Washington was likely their brother or nephew, born in Westmoreland County in 1784, and who would become the overseer of house slaves at Mount Vernon.

18.

The Mount Vernon estate had not included much cash, and Bushrod Washington found that he was unable to support elderly freed slaves as required by his late uncle's will, as well as to maintain the plantation's mansion on the proceeds from the property and his Supreme Court salary.

19.

Over time, Bushrod Washington sold many slaves, claiming that he could thereby support the main house, property, and elderly freed slaves.

20.

Meanwhile, Bushrod Washington helped found the American Colonization Society at the Davis Hotel in Washington, DC on December 21,1816.

21.

Bushrod Washington became its national president and remained so until his death in 1829.

22.

Niles questioned the justice of the action, insisted that he was not disrespecting Bushrod Washington, and did not discuss the economics of shipping from the port of Alexandria compared to the lengthy foot journey the coffle was undertaking.

23.

Bushrod Washington insisted the sale was justified by the economics of plantation management, insubordination of the slaves and likelihood that more would escape northward.

24.

In 1805 Bushrod Washington was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.

25.

Bushrod Washington was elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society in 1813, a year after the Society's founding in 1812.

26.

Bushrod Washington died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 26,1829, while riding circuit.

27.

Bushrod Washington's wife died two days later while transporting his body for burial.