Pope's Greek Plantation in Westmorland County, Virginia, on February 22, 1732. When George

was three years old, the Washingtons moved further up the Potomac River to another family tract.

At the time, this plantation consisted only of a modest house and a few outbuildings surrounded

by trees. " Later the sight of this magnificent home and exquisitely tended gardens, orchards, and

croplands would be called Mount Vernon.

George's family moved again when he was six, this time to Ferry Farm another of

George's father Augustine Washington's Properties. In 1738 George's half brother Lawrence

returned from England, where he had been educated. Lawrence was the son of Augustine

Washington's first wife who had died in 1729. Lawrence was a charming and sophisticated twenty

year old who soon became George's idol.( Bruns 1987)

George was privately tutored. He showed interest and aptitude in reading,

spelling and arithmetic. His early schoolbooks are filled with mathematical tables and notations on

land surveying. Unlike Thomas Jefferson and other influential Virginians of his day, Washington

neither attended college nor received any higher education. In fact, he was the only one of the

nation's first six presidents who did not go to college. His main interests were more physical, he

loved fishing. swimming, shooting and riding, later gaining a reputation as one of the best

Only eleven years old when his father died, George was shuttled between the

several Washington farms during his youth. He especially enjoyed the time he spent with his

brother Lawrence. Lawrence lived at the little hunting creek home which he had named Mount