[1] Washington was born in at his father's Wakefield Plantation on Pope's Creek, in Westmoreland County, Colony of Virginia, in November 1734.

[3] Upon reaching legal age, Samuel Washington inherited two pieces of land from his father: one tract of 600 farmed acres in the Potomac River watershed drained by Chotank Creek in northern Stafford County a mile or two west of the Dahlgren Bridge, and a 1,200-acre undeveloped tract in the Rappahannock River watershed drained by Deep Run southwest of Fredericksburg.

[4] Washington served in numerous posts in Stafford County, Virginia, including justice of the peace (one of 27 men whose duties ranged from administrative to judicial) from November 1766 until he was listed as removed on July 27, 1767.

[2] Either the position or removal may have been caused by his opposition to "taxation without representation", as shown by his being the 5th of 115 signatures on the Westmoreland Resolves against the Stamp Act in February 1766, or because of his travels to develop his western properties.

Beginning in 1775, Washington also served as colonel and led the Berkeley County Virginia Militia, but was forced to resign due to ill health on April 3, 1777.

[4] He hired by the renowned architect John Ariss to design and in 1770 built Harewood, a Georgian-style mansion near then Charles Town, Virginia.