George Washington’s father, Augustine Washington, was born at Mattox Creek, Westmoreland County, Va., in 1694. He remembered little of his father, as Lawrence Washington died when Augustine was only 4 years old. Two years later his mother married George Gale, and during the autumn of 1700, the family moved to England. Their family life abroad was short-lived, however, as Augustine’s mother died a year later, when he was only seven. His stepfather, who seems to have been a kindly man, sent Augustine and his brother, John, to Appelby School. Their schooling, too, was cut short, for a year or two later the boys returned to Virginia to live with their elder cousin, John Washington of “Chotank,” whose plantation was located on the Potomac, about 20 miles up the river from Bridges Creek. While little is known of Augustine’s teen-age activities one can surmise that he enjoyed plantation life to the utmost while living with various relatives whose farms were located on the wooded south shore of the Potomac River. FIRST MARRIAGE. Augustine Washington became of age in 1715, and shortly thereafter married Jane Butler, daughter of Caleb Butler, a successful Westmoreland County lawyer and planter. Four children were born of this union: Butler, 1716 (who died in infancy); Lawrence, 1718 (who built and named Mount Vernon); Augustine, Jr., 1719 or 1720; and Jane, 1722. [Illustration: _Popes Creek._] PURCHASE OF POPES CREEK FARM. In 1717-18 Augustine Washington bought from Joseph Abbington 150 acres of land on Popes Creek—a beautiful tract overlooking the tidal creek and the Potomac River. Popes Creek, running along the east side of the tract, was approximately one-half mile wide, and joined the Potomac half-a-mile away. From Augustine’s land the river could be seen clearly, as it was over 5 miles wide from the Virginia side to the distant Maryland shore. Augustine’s historic piece of property is described in _Westmoreland Deeds and Wills_: All that one hundred and fifty acres of lands scituate in the said County of Westmoreland aforesd and bounded Viz. Beginning at a marked hiccory on the head of the dancing marsh and so running down the said line to Popes Creek thence up the said Creek to the line of Nathaniel Washingtons and then up that line to include the aforesd One hundred and fifty acres of land which was given to Lawrence Abbington & his daughter Lydia Abbington together.... The tract probably included Joseph Abbington’s home, for the purchase covered “all houses, edifices, buildings, tobacco houses, fences, orchards, and gardens.” BUILDING THE BIRTHPLACE HOME.