abodes, still hovered and cawed about their hereditary nests. In the
pavement of the parish church we were shown a stone slab bearing effigies
on plates of brass of Laurence Wasshington, gent., and Anne his wife, and
their four sons and eleven daughters. The inscription in black letter was
dated 1564.]

One of the direct descendants of the grantee of Sulgrave was Sir William
Washington, of Packington, in the county of Kent. He married a sister of
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, the unfortunate favorite of Charles I.
This may have attached the Sulgrave Washingtons to the Stuart dynasty, to
which they adhered loyally and generously throughout all its vicissitudes.
One of the family, Lieutenant Colonel James Washington, took up arms in the
cause of king Charles, and lost his life at the siege of Pontefract castle.
Another of the Sulgrave line, Sir Henry Washington, son and heir of Sir
William, before mentioned, exhibited in the civil wars the old chivalrous
spirit of the knights of the palatinate. He served under prince Rupert at
the storming of Bristol, in 1643, and when the assailants were beaten off
at every point, he broke in with a handful of infantry at a weak part of
the wall, made room for the horse to follow, and opened a path to victory.
[Footnote: Clarendon, Book vii.]

He distinguished himself still more in 1646, when elevated to the command
of Worcester, the governor having been captured by the enemy. It was a time
of confusion and dismay. The king had fled from Oxford in disguise and gone
to the parliamentary camp at Newark. The royal cause was desperate. In this
crisis Sir Henry received a letter from Fairfax, who, with his victorious
army, was at Haddington, demanding the surrender of Worcester. The
following was Colonel Washington's reply:

SIR,