This surname is derived from a geographical locality. 'of Washington': (1) a parish in County Durham, five miles from Gateshead; (2) a parish in Sussex, ten miles from Shoreham.

Laurence Wasshington, 1567: Register of the University of Oxford.

1588. Christopher Washington, Norfolk: ibid.

1594. Laurence Washington, Hertfordshire, gent: ibid.

1605. Philip Washington, Yorkshire: ibid. pt.

1780. Married — Thomas Read and Mary Washington: St. George, Hanover Square.".

(English) belonging to Washington (Suss., Durham, Derby), Anglo-Saxon Hwœs(s)- inga-tún = the Estate of the HwÆs(s- Family [the pers. name is from Old English hwœs(s (= O.H.Ger. h)was), sharp, keen + -inga, genit. pl. of the son suff. -ing + tún, estate, farm, &c.] The Sussex place occurs in the 10th cent. as Wasinga-tún, Wassinga-tún, and Hwessinga-tún; the Durham village was Wessinton in the 13th cent., Wassyngton in the 12th cent. (Boldon Book); the Derbyshire township is also known as Wessington.

The ancestors of the first President of the United States are believed to have come from the Durham village.

(English) One who came from Washington (the homestead of Wassa's people, or the manor of the Wessyng family), the name of places in Durham and Sussex. The name has been adopted by many Negroes.

Parishes in Durham and Sussex, and a village in Perthshire, are so called. The ancestors of George Washington, the American patriot, are presumed to have been the old gentry stock seated in Northamptonshire, and previously in Lancashire (Shirley's Stemmata Shirleiana, p. 136.); but the county from which the first assumer of the name sprang, is unknown. The following ingenious and almost poetical passage from Mr. Ferguson (pp. 115,116), is worthy of quotation, though the derivation of the heritable surname Washington from an Anglo-Saxon called Wass, and his Wassings, is clearly untenable. The first De Washington-whenever and wherever he flourished-was more likely a Norman, who had settled upon the conquered soil, than a descendant of Wass, who had colonized the spot centuries before the Conquest.

Local. Originally Wessyngton or De Wessyngton. The name was taken from the place in England where the family originated; from weis, a wash, a creek setting in from the sea, the shallow part of a river, ing, a meadow or low ground, and ton, for dun, a hill or town—the town on the wash or salt river or creek.

Jared Sparks (Life of Washington, App. No. I.) derives the family of Washington from William de Hertbum, who came into possession of Wessington (Washington), Durham, prior to the compilation of Bold on Book 1183 (Hutchinson, Durham, ii. 489; Surtees, ii. 40). The family soon after assumed the name of Washington. Hertburn, in the wapentake of Sadberge, Durham, was granted by Richard I. to the See of Durham, including, amongst others, 'the service (or fief) of the son of Godfrey Baard for two parts of a knight’s fee in Middleton and Hertburn’ (Surtees, iii. 265), and as late as 1364 the Baards or Barts had lands there (iii. 221).

William de Hertburn appears to have been a son of Godfrey Baard or Bayard. The family of Baird or Bayard in Scotland is the same, and originally the arms of that family were a fesse, in chief three mullets, the same arms as those of the De Washingtons, to which the Bairds added a boar passant, by way of difference (Geneal. Coll, regarding the name of Baird, by W. Baird, Esq., 2nd ed. 1870). Godfrey Bayard or Baiard, above named, held a barony in Northumberland in 1165 (Lib. Niger), and was descended from a Norman family, mentioned amongst the Conqueror’s companions as ‘Barte.’ Jordan Baard occurs in Essex and Hertf. 1130 (Rot. Pip.), and from him descended William B., who in 1165 held two fees from the See of London, and was the probable an­cestor of Bard, Viscount Bellamont. Another branch was seated in Lin­coln in 1165, when Richard B. held lands there from Earl Simon de Senlis. Of this family Dodo Bard granted his manor of Folingham to Blancheland Abbey, Normandy (Mon. Angl. ii. 1015), and with Hugh and Hamelin B. witnessed the charter of Richard de la Haye to the same house (Ibid.). The ancestor of this family, Raoul Baiart, of Normandy c. 1050, granted lands in Fontenay to Barberie Abbey (MSAN, vii. 144).

(English), Wassingatun, Town of Wasa's race or descendants. Wasa or vasa, faun, satyr.

William de Hertburn, Lord of the manor of Washing­ton, co. Durham, was living in the thirteenth century. His descendant, John Washington, of Whitfield, is believed to have been the first who assumed the name of Washington. From him sprang John Washington, who emigrated to America, and was great-grandfather of George Washington, Pater Patriæ, n. 1732, ob. s. p. 1799.

A location name in Sussex.