Article content continued

The “Vernon” of Mount Vernon is British Admiral Edward Vernon. He was the commanding officer of George’s older half-brother Lawrence Washington, who fought in a conflict between England and Spain in the West Indies called the War of Jenkins’ Ear. (Yes, that is really what it was called, but Jenkins and his ear is a story for another day. Just know that rumours of the ear being exhibited before Parliament are false.)

Lawrence inherited a small house and the land surrounding it from his and George’s father, who died when George was 10 and Lawrence was about 25. Vernon had the unique distinction among British officers of treating colonial soldiers with some respect; hence, Lawrence renamed the property, previously called Little Hunting Creek, after him.

Lawrence became something of a surrogate father to young George, and some of the future president’s happiest childhood memories occurred during his frequent trips to Mount Vernon.

Tragically, Lawrence had contracted tuberculosis while in the West Indies, which killed him 10 years later, just as George was leaving his teens. Lawrence bequeathed Mount Vernon to his daughter upon his death. But, as was common in the colonial era, she died two years later, and the deed went to Lawrence’s widow, who by then had remarried. She no longer lived at Mount Vernon and leased it to George. Then, in 1761, she died too.

There were no other heirs but George, who began transforming the house into a 21-room mansion over the course of decades. According to Mount Vernon’s website, “Washington personally supervised each renovation; advising on design, construction and decoration – even during the Revolutionary War.”