Born into the planter class of the British colony of Virginia, Washington owned several slave plantations, from which he derived the primary source of his wealth.

Augustine Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia, in 1694, to Mildred Warner and her husband, Capt.

The young couple settled on the Bridges Creek property and had four children, only two of whom (Lawrence and Augustine Jr.) lived to adulthood.

After Jane Butler's death in November 1728[3] or 1729,[4] Washington married Mary Ball in 1731, and the couple had five children who survived to adulthood – George, Betty, Samuel, Charles, and John Augustine – and a daughter named Mildred who died in infancy.

[7] In 1725, Augustine Washington entered into an agreement with the Principio Company of England to start an iron works on Accokeek Creek in Stafford County, and he also owned a stake in their Maryland ironworks.

[5] In 1738, Augustine Washington purchased the 150-acre Strother property across the Rappahannock River (now known as Ferry Farm) and moved the family there at the end of that same year.

Lawrence's only surviving child, Sarah, lived until 1754; therefore, George Washington ultimately inherited the Little Hunting Creek property, which was known as Mount Vernon by that time.