Augustine Warner, Sr. (September 28th 1611 – December 24th, 1674), was an English-born Virginia planter and politician. The progenitor of a prominent colonial family, and great-great grandfather of President

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

, he was born in

Norwich, Norfolk Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, w ...

, the son of Thomas Warner and Elizabeth Sotherton. Augustine arrived in Virginia in 1628 at the age of seventeen, one of a group of thirty-four settlers brought in by

Adam Thoroughgood Adam Thoroughgood horowgood'' (1604–1640) was a colonist and community leader in the Virginia Colony who helped settle the Virginia counties of Elizabeth City, Lower Norfolk and Princess Anne, the latter, known today as the independent city of ...

. His first land acquisition came seven years later, when he patented . Continuing the typical pattern of 17th-century success in

colonial Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...

as a merchant, landowner, and politician, he rose through the hierarchy to become a member of the

House of Burgesses The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, which had been establishe ...

in 1652 and then in 1659 a member of the King's Council, which he held until his death. About 1657, he moved across the York River to Gloucester County, where he settled and built the first house at Warner Hall. Augustine Warner died in 1674, at sixty-three, and was succeeded at Warner Hall by his only son, Augustine Warner, Jr. (1642–1681). After his English education in London and at Cambridge, the younger Warner returned to Virginia, and by 1666 became a member of the House of Burgesses, and then

Speaker of the House The speaker of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body, is its presiding officer, or the chair. The title was first used in 1377 in England. Usage The title was first recorded in 1377 to describe the role of Thomas de Hungerf ...

in 1676. In 1677 he took his seat on the King's Council, but his career was cut short by his early death in 1681 at the age of thirty-nine.

Descendants

Besides a son, Augustine Sr. had two known daughters. One married David Cant, the other, Sarah, to Lawrence Towneley, an ancestor of General Robert E. Lee. It is recorded that Augustine Jr. had three sons, all of whom died unmarried, and three daughters, who inherited the Warner property and left many descendants: * Mary, who married in 1680 John Smith of Purton; they were ancestors of

Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

.Albert H. Spencer, ''Genealogy of the Spencer family'' (1956)
p. v (snippet)
/ref> * Mildred, who married about 1690

Lawrence Washington (1659–1698) Lawrence Washington (September 1659 – February 1698) was a colonial-era Virginia planter, slave holder, lawyer, soldier and politician, now principally remembered as the paternal grandfather of George Washington. Early life and education La ...

; they were the paternal grandparents of

; and * Elizabeth, who married about 1691 to John Lewis, and kept the Warner Hall house in the division of the Warner properties after the brothers’ deaths. Elizabeth and John Lewis were the grandparents of Fielding Lewis, who married first George Washington’s cousin, and second his sister, both ladies also being grandchildren of Mildred Warner. In addition, Elizabeth and John Lewis were the ancestors of Captain Meriwether LewisThe Meriwether Lewis Connection
/ref> of the

Lewis and Clark Expedition The Lewis and Clark Expedition, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country after the Louisiana Purchase. The Corps of Discovery was a select gr ...

. Warner Hall stayed in the eldest male line of the Lewis family, through a succession named Warner Lewis, until 1834, when it was sold by a daughter of the last, Elizabeth Lewis. The Lewis descendants became known as the "Warner Hall Lewises".

References

Bibliography

* Sorley, Merrow Egerton ''Lewis of Warner Hall: The History of a Family, Including the Genealogy of Descendants in Both the Male and Female Lines, Biographical Sketches of Its Members, and Their Descent from Other Early Virginia Families'' * Moses, Grace MacClean. ''The Welsh Lineage of John Lewis''.
The Queen's American Ancestors
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warner, Augustine Virginia colonial people Genetic genealogy Augustine Sr. English emigrants Politicians from Norwich 1611 births 1674 deaths