Bushrod Washington

Bushrod Washington (June 5, 1762 – November 26, 1829) was an American attorney and politician who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1798 to 1829. On the Supreme Court, he was a staunch ally of Chief Justice John Marshall. Washington was a co-founder and president of the American Colonization Society, which promoted the emigration of freed slaves to Africa. The nephew of American Founding Father and President George Washington, he inherited his uncle's papers and Mount Vernon, taking possession in 1802 after the death of Martha Washington, his uncle's widow, and with Marshall's help, published a biography of the first president. Early life Bushrod Washington was born on June 5, 1762, at Bushfield Manor, a plantation located at Mount Holly in Westmoreland County, Virginia. He was a son of John Augustine Washington (1736–1787), the brother of George Washington, and John's heiress wife, Hannah Bushrod (1735–1801). He had a younger brother and two older sisters, all of whom married into the First Families of Virginia. Corbin Washington (1765–1799) would marry Hannah Lee and have three sons to carry on the family name, including Bushrod C. Washington who would serve in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Jefferson County three decades later, as well as two daughters who survived childhood. His eldest daughter Jane ("Jenny") Washington (1755–1791) became the first of three wives of then-Capt. William Augustine Washington (1757–1810) in 1777 and bore four sons (one named after this uncle, 1785–1831) who reached adulthood and two daughters. Her sister Mildred Corbin Washington Lee (1760–1796) married Col. Thomas Jesse Lee and moved to his plantation near Nokesville in Prince William County. Education