George Augustine Washington (1732 – 1799) Surveyor, Freemason, Founding Father and First President of the United States of America, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army

Post author By Steven Wood Collins
Post date March 24, 2022
105 Comments on George Augustine Washington (1732 – 1799) Surveyor, Freemason, Founding Father and First President of the United States of America, Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army

Mount Rushmore with the sculpted heads of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln (left to right), by Gutzon Borglum

Alexandria Masonic Lodge No. 22

28 Presidents of the United States of America

14 Founding Fathers of the United States of America

Initiated into Freemasonry at the age of 20, George declined his election as the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Virginia during the Revolutionary War, primarily due to pressing demands on his time as Commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. He later served as Grand Master of the Alexandria Masonic Lodge No. 22 from 1788 until his death.

Other notable Masonic Lodge members who served in the American Revolutionary War include:

– Major General Johann de Kalb (1721 – 1780_ Pennsylvania Lodge No. 29
– French General Gilbert du Motier, the Marquis de Lafayette He commanded the Garde Nationale during the French Revolution.
– John Hancock (1737 – 1793) He was a member of the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew in October 1762.
– Major General Benjamin Lincoln (1733 – 1810) Rising Sun Lodge, Massachusetts
– Rufus (Gen) Putnam (1738 – 1824). Elected first Grand Master of Masons in Ohio
– Paul Revere (1734 – 1818), St. Andrew’s Lodge, Boston, Massachusetts; Grand Master of Massachusetts 1794-97
– Major General Joseph Warren (1741 – 1775), joined the Lodge of Saint Andrew in Boston, later serving as Grand Master of Masons in Massachusetts. KIA at Battle of Bunker Hill. He was the brother of John Warren, M.D. (1753 – 1818) American Revolutionary War Battlefield Surgeon, Founder of Harvard Medical School.

Perhaps of all the personal friendships George enjoyed during the Revolutionary War, including the one he cherished with fellow Mason Lafayette, none was held any less dear to him than his close relationship with Col. John Brinckerhoff (1703 – 1785) as his confidant and military advisor. Nearly an octogenarian at the time, John was a veteran, as was George, of the French and Indian War. George was his frequent house guest while his army was bivouacked at one of the largest Continental Army military encampments located near his home at Fishkill, New York. Alexander Hamilton, George’s aide-de-camp, also frequently visited his home as a dinner guest. George’s wrote many secret military dispatches to comte Rochambeau while quartered in a bedroom situated at the back of the house.

The French contribution to General Washington’s decisive victory at the Battle of Yorktown shouldn’t be underestimated. King Louis XVI (4th great-grandson of Louis XIV (1638 – 1715)) supplied 8,000 battle-hardened French troops and 29 warships to comte Rochambeau at his request. On 29 September 1781, the first day of the battle, George was the supreme commander of both his Continental Army troops as well French troops previously under the command of Rochambeau. Vastly outnumbered and outflanked, Maj Gen Charles (Marquis) Cornwallis (1738 – 1805) surrendered three weeks later.

François de Rohan-Polduc (1725 – 1797) Grand Master of the Order of Malta and his military order hold a rather august, though unheralded today, place in American Revolutionary War history. Specifically, at Benjamin Franklin‘s urging, he enlisted 1,800 Maltese seamen and Knights of Malta to serve in the French Navy. In 1781 the French Navy assisted by the Maltese sailors defeated the British in the Battle of the Chesapeake. The defeat prevented the British from regrouping and resupplying their troops. As a result, almost a month later the American army won a decisive sea battle victory at the Battles of Saratoga, which marked the end of the American Revolutionary War.

The American battlefield victory at Yorktown effectively ended hostilities between both sides. With the ratification of the Treaty of Paris on 3 September 1783, the war formally ended. Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and John Adams signed the treaty as the official delegation representing the United States of America.

President Washington is ranked #26 in Hart’s Most Influential People in History.

He was an agnatic descendant of Crínán of Atholl (980 – 1045) Primogenitor of Dunkeld Dynasty and Niall Mor Noígíallach of the Nine Hostages (380 – 454) . U.S. President William James McKinley (1843 – 1901) was also Crínán’s and Niall’s agnatic descendant; President Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911 – 2004) was Niall’s agnatic descendant. All except George Washington were subjected to assassination conspiracy; although he would have been a favorite target for the Redcoats.

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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