Bushrod Washington

Bushrod Washington was born on June 5, 1762, at Bushfield Manor, a plantation located at Mount Holly in Westmoreland County, Virginia.{{cite web|title=Bushrod Washington|url=https://www.oyez.org/justices/bushrod_washington|work=Oyez: U.S. Supreme Court Multimedia|publisher=Jerry Goldman|access-date=October 25, 2020|archive-date=January 13, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160113141137/https://www.oyez.org/justices/bushrod_washington|url-status=dead}}.{{cite book |first=John Walter |last=Wayland |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=psCawzVzhAkC&pg=PA125 |title=The Washingtons and Their Homes |page=125 |orig-year=1944|year=2009 |location=Baltimore, Maryland |publisher=Clearfield |isbn=0806347759 |oclc=39055916 |via=Google Books |access-date=November 29, 2015 |archive-date=May 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509035421/https://books.google.com/books?id=psCawzVzhAkC&pg=PA125 |url-status=live }} He was a son of John Augustine Washington, the brother of George Washington, and John's heiress wife, Hannah Bushrod.Multiple sources:

• {{cite web|url=http://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/hannah-bushrod_9054481|title=Hannah Bushrod|publisher=Ancestry|year=2016|access-date=January 22, 2016|archive-date=January 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160123034028/http://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/hannah-bushrod_9054481|url-status=dead}}.
• {{cite web|url=http://www.mountvernon.org/visit/plan/index.cfm/pid/348/|title=George Washington's Family Chart|publisher=Mount Vernon Ladies' Association|access-date=January 22, 2016|archive-date=July 17, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717064248/http://www.mountvernon.org/visit/plan/index.cfm/pid/348/#jaw|url-status=dead}}. He had a younger brother and two older sisters, all married into the First Families of Virginia.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

Bushrod Washington received his initial classical schooling from a private tutor who also taught the children of Richard Henry Lee, who lived nearby in Westmoreland County.{{cite book |editor=Cushman, Clare: Supreme Court Historical Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGoEj2tBGMkC&pg=frontsec |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGoEj2tBGMkC&pg=PA45|chapter=Bushrod Washington: 1798-1829|title=The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–2012 |edition=3rd |page=45|publisher=CQ Press, an imprint of SAGE Publications |year=2013 |isbn=9781608718320 |oclc=832697340|lccn=2012031502 |via=Google Books |access-date=February 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240211034420/https://books.google.com/books?id=FGoEj2tBGMkC&pg=PA45#v=onepage&q&f=false|archive-date=February 11, 2024|url-status=live }} He then traveled to Williamsburg for further studies and despite some school closures related to the American Revolutionary War and British raids nearby, graduated from the College of William & Mary in 1778, although only 16 years old. He returned in 1780 to study law under George Wythe and during that time as an alumnus became the 41st member of Phi Beta Kappa.Multiple sources:

• {{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VpUdAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA412|title=Two Portraits of Bushrod Washington|via=Google Books|access-date=February 10, 2024|journal=The Phi Beta Kappa Key|date=March 1921|volume=4 |number=1 |editor-last=Vorhees|editor-first=Oscar M.|publisher=Unionist-Gazette |location=Somerville, New Jersey |pages=112–113|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407191521/https://books.google.com/books?id=VpUdAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA412#v=onepage&q&f=false|archive-date=April 7, 2022|url-status=live}}
• {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H6vcAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA554 |title=John Marshall: Definer of a Nation |first=Jean Edward |last=Smith |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |location=New York |page=554 |year=1996 |isbn=9781466862319 |oclc=874903389 |via=Google Books |access-date=December 29, 2015 |archive-date=April 25, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160425003545/https://books.google.com/books?id=H6vcAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA554 |url-status=live }}

Washington returned to Williamsburg to take a three-month law course with George Wythe in the summer of 1780 and became acquainted with young veteran John Marshall, who was taking a six-week course from Wythe. As discussed below, Washington soon would enlist in the war's final campaign.Lawrence B. Custer, Bushrod Washington and John Marshall, 4 Am.J. Legal Hist 34, 36-38 (1960) A Marshall biographer indicates Marshall recruited soldiers around this time, as well as was admitted to the bar in August and began a legal practice in Fauquier County. Although his friend Marshall was already practicing law in Virginia, after that military service, Bushrod traveled to Philadelphia for further legal studies (financed by his uncle, the President) under James Wilson, then a prominent lawyer and soon-to-be Supreme Court justice as well as law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.Custer pp. 37-38

The College of William and Mary had been occupied by soldiers several times during the American Revolutionary War. Washington joined the Continental Army in 1781,{{Cite web |title=Bushrod Washington |url=https://www.oyez.org/justices/bushrod_washington |website=Oyez}} serving as a private of dragoons in Colonel John Francis Mercer’s cavalry, the 3rd Virginia Regiment.{{Cite book |last=Stoner, Jr. |first=James, R. |title=Seriatim: The Supreme Court Before John Marshall |publisher=New York University Press |year=1998 |isbn=0-8147-3114-7 |editor-last=Gerber |editor-first=Scott Douglas |location=New York and London |pages=324 |chapter=Chapter 11. Heir Apparent: Bushrod Washington and Federal Justice in the Early Republic}} Although he remained a private until the war ended and the troop disbanded in 1782, he and his cousin Ludwell Lee fought in the Battle of Green Spring, and he witnessed General Cornwallis’s surrender to George Washington at Yorktown.{{cite web|url=https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/washington-bushrod|title=Washington, Bushrod|work=History of the Federal Judiciary: Biographical Directory of Federal Judges|publisher=Federal Judicial Center|access-date=October 25, 2020|archive-date=October 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201017003413/https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/washington-bushrod|url-status=dead}}.{{cite book|first=Timothy L.|last=Hall|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8AJ7__ph3rgC&pg=PA39|chapter=Bushrod Washington (1762-1829)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8AJ7__ph3rgC&pg=frontsec|title=Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary|pages=39–42|location=New York|publisher=Facts on File, Inc.|year=2001 |isbn=9781438108179 |oclc=234179292 |via=Google Books |access-date=December 29, 2015 |archive-date=May 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507033625/https://books.google.com/books?id=8AJ7__ph3rgC&pg=PA40 |url-status=live }}{{Cite book|last=Tyler|first=Lyon Gardiner|title=Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing|year=1915|location=New York|pages=Vol. II, p. 83}}

Bushrod Washington married Julia Anne (Anna) Blackburn, the daughter of Col. Thomas Blackburn of Prince William County, Virginia, a former aide de camp to General Washington and planter who also served in the Virginia General Assembly. The marriage took place in a panelled ballroom known as “the Best Room” in Blackburn’s house, Rippon Lodge. They had no children, and she died days after her husband while accompanying their niece and nephew to Virginia and her husband's funeral.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

After concluding his studies with Wilson in April 1784, Washington returned to Westmoreland County and opened a law office.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWOWAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA122 |last=Fister |first=Jude M. |title=America Writes Its History, 1650-1850: The Formation of a National Narrative |page=122 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland and Company, Inc. |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-7864-7921-4 |oclc=859384941 |via=Google Books |access-date=December 3, 2015 |archive-date=May 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160522055519/https://books.google.com/books?id=QWOWAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA122 |url-status=live }} He continued his private legal practice from 1784 to 1798. In 1789, he and his new bride moved into a newly constructed house at 521 Duke Street in Alexandria, Virginia, which may have been built as a wedding present, which he kept as one of his residences for decades.Alexandria Times July 15, 2021, and 1988 article in clippings file not brought to this library.

Westmoreland County voters elected Washington as one of their two representatives in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1787, where he served along with veteran Richard Henry Lee.Cynthia Leonard Miller, Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Richmond: Virginia State Library) p. 166 The following year, he won another election and attended the Virginia Ratifying Convention (this time alongside Henry Lee),Leonard p. 174 where he voted for ratification of the U.S. Constitution.{{cite book|last=Grigsby|first=Hugh Blair|editor=Brock, R.A.|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002022185640&seq=7|title=Collections of the Virginia Historical Society: New Series: Vol. IX|chapter-url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=yale.39002022185640&seq=9|chapter=The History of the Virginia Federal Convention of 1788 With Some Account of the Eminent Virginians of that Era who were Members of the Body|pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=3T8SAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA344 344–346]|publisher=Virginia Historical Society |location=Richmond, Virginia |year=1890|oclc=60721004|via=HathiTrust Digital Library|access-date=February 10, 2024}} In 1789 he published a two-volume Reports of the Virginia Court of Appeals, 1790-96, and, three decades later, with R. Peters, published decisions of the United States Court for the Third Circuit, 1803-27 in four volumes.Tyler p. 83

On September 29, 1798, President John Adams gave Washington a recess appointment as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court,{{cite report| last=McMillion| first=Barry J.| date= January 28, 2022| title=Supreme Court Nominations, 1789 to 2020: Actions by the Senate, the Judiciary Committee, and the President| url=https://sgp.fas.org/crs/misc/RL33225.pdf| publisher=Congressional Research Service| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=February 15, 2022}} to a seat vacated by James Wilson. He was sworn into office on November 9, 1798. Formally nominated on December 19, 1798, Washington was confirmed by the United States Senate on the following day. He served on the Supreme Court until he died in 1829.

After John Marshall became chief justice in 1801, Washington voted with Marshall on all but three occasions (one being Ogden v. Saunders).{{cite book |editor=Cushman, Clare: Supreme Court Historical Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGoEj2tBGMkC&pg=frontsec |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FGoEj2tBGMkC&pg=PA45|chapter=Bushrod Washington: 1798-1829|title=The Supreme Court Justices: Illustrated Biographies, 1789–2012 |edition=3rd |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=FGoEj2tBGMkC&pg=PA47 47]|publisher=CQ Press, an imprint of SAGE Publications |year=2013 |isbn=9781608718320 |oclc=832697340|lccn=2012031502 |via=Google Books |access-date=February 10, 2024 |archive-date=December 12, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161212171543/https://books.google.com/books?id=FGoEj2tBGMkC&pg=PA47 |url-status=live }} During his Supreme Court tenure, Washington authored the opinion in Corfield v. Coryell, 6 Fed. Cas. 546 (C.C.E.D. Penn. 1823).{{cite book |last=Thayer |first=James Bradley |title=Cases on constitutional law: With notes, Part 2 |publisher=C.W. Sever |year=1894 |pages=453–56 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CFwPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA453 |via=Google Books |access-date=November 26, 2015 |archive-date=April 30, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160430051124/https://books.google.com/books?id=CFwPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA453 |url-status=live }} In Corfield, Washington listed several rights that he deemed were fundamental "privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."{{cite web|url=http://law.justia.com/constitution/us/article-4/16-privileges-and-immunities.html|title=All Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the Several States|work=Justia: US Law|year=2015|access-date=December 29, 2015|archive-date=September 8, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908135944/http://law.justia.com/constitution/us/article-4/16-privileges-and-immunities.html|url-status=dead}}.

By 1787, the year of his father's death and a Virginia tax census, Washington enslaved nine adults and 25 children (all supervised by an overseer) and owned land as well as nine horses (including stud horses), 59 cattle, and six carriage wheels in Westmoreland County.Schreiner-Yantis p. 1125 He also enslaved nine adults and four children in Berkeley County (that became West Virginia after the American Civil War) and his brother Corbin (the other primary beneficiary of J. A. Washington's will) enslaved 27 adults and 26 children there, owning 17 horses including a stud horse and 40 cattle.Schreiner-Yantis p. 1439

File:Coat of Arms of George Washington.svg]]

Around 1795, Washington purchased Belvidere, the former Richmond estate of William Byrd III. Thus, while handling cases and taking the notes that would make him the reporter for Virginia's appellate court, Washington primarily lived in Richmond. Washington sold Belvidere upon being appointed to the Supreme Court in 1798.{{cite book |last=Dabney |first=Virginius |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Auw-cdKZmnoC&pg=PA19 |title=Richmond: The Story of a City: Revised and Expanded Edition |page=19 |year=1990 |location=Charlottesville, Virginia |publisher=University Press of Virginia |isbn=0813912741 |oclc=20263021 |via=Google Books |access-date=November 26, 2015 |archive-date=December 27, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191227043720/https://books.google.com/books?id=Auw-cdKZmnoC&pg=PA19 |url-status=live }}Annis thesis p.

When former President George Washington died in December 1799, Lawrence Lewis, who had married Nelly Custis and hoped to inherit Mount Vernon, initially chose not to invite Bushrod Washington to the funeral, only Dr. Stuart (the guardian for the Custis children), Mr. Law and Mr. Peter (who had married the other Custis daughters) and G.W.P. Custis. Dispatches were sent to the rest of the late President's possible heirs the following day so that none could attend the funeral held on the fourth day after the President's death. When the will was read, Lewis was named an executor but only received Woodlawn plantation where he lived. The President named Bushrod Washington to receive Mount Vernon and be an executor. Other executors (who would prove less active in carrying out the will's terms and managing the property) were Martha Washington and one man from each branch of the Augustine Washington family. When Mrs. Washington died, Bushrod Washington was notified. Still, according to tradition, Lawrence and Nellie Lewis did not invite him to the post-funeral dinner, so he asked an enslaved person to prepare and bring food to him in a cabin.Paul Wilstach, Mount Vernon: Washington's Home and the Nation's Shrine (Doubleday Page & Company 1918) pp. 235-236

Upon his aunt Martha Washington's death in 1802, Bushrod Washington inherited all of George Washington's papers as well the largest part of his estate, including the Mount Vernon plantation, according to the terms of his late uncle's will.(1) {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWOWAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA90 |last=Fister |first=Jude M. |title=America Writes Its History, 1650-1850: The Formation of a National Narrative |page=90 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland and Company, Inc. |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-7864-7921-4 |oclc=859384941 |via=Google Books |access-date=November 23, 2015 |archive-date=May 11, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160511151855/https://books.google.com/books?id=QWOWAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA90 |url-status=live }}{{cite web|last=Lossing|first=Benson J.|author-link=Benson John Lossing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dQMD93N4LgMC&pg=PA350|year=1870|title=The Home of Washington; Or, Mount Vernon and Its Associations, Historical, Biographical, and Pictorial|location=Hartford, Connecticut|publisher=A.S. Hale & Company|page=350|oclc=1593086|via=Google Books|access-date=November 30, 2015|archive-date=June 10, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610052825/https://books.google.com/books?id=dQMD93N4LgMC&pg=PA350|url-status=live}}{{cite web|last=Washington|first=George|author-link=George Washington|url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-04-02-0404-0001|title=George Washington's Last Will and Testament, 9 July 1799|work=Founders Online|publisher=National Archives|access-date=October 25, 2020|quote=To my nephew Bushrod Washington, I give and bequeath all the Papers in my possession which relate to my Civil and Military Administration of the affairs of this Country; I leave to him also such of my private papers as are worth preserving; and at the decease of my wife, and before; if she is not inclined to retain them, I give and bequeath my Library of books, and pamphlets of every kind.... To my nephew Bushrod Washington and his heirs (partly in consideration of an intimation to his deceased father, while we were Bachelors, & he had kindly undertaken to superintend my Estate during my Military Services in the former War between Great Britain and France, that if I should fall therein, Mount Vernon (then less extensive in domain than at present) should become his property) I give and bequeath all that part thereof which is comprehended within the following limits....|archive-date=October 22, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022043348/https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-04-02-0404-0001|url-status=dead}} [Original source: {{cite book|title=The Papers of George Washington|series=Retirement Series|volume=4: 20 April 1799 — 13 December 1799|editor-first=W. W.|editor-last=Abbot|location=Charlottesville, Virginia|publisher=University Press of Virginia|year=1999 |isbn=0813918553|oclc=985598820|lccn=97006770|pages=479–511}}]{{cite web|url=https://washingtonpapers.org/documents_gw/will/will_manuscript_1.html|title=George Washington's Last Will and Testament|work=The Papers of George Washington|format=Manuscript|pages=[https://web.archive.org/web/20201026004141/https://washingtonpapers.org/documents_gw/will/will_manuscript_14.html 14], [https://web.archive.org/web/20201025233110/https://washingtonpapers.org/documents_gw/will/will_manuscript_19.html 19], [https://web.archive.org/web/20201025233110/https://washingtonpapers.org/documents_gw/will/will_manuscript_20.html 20], [https://web.archive.org/web/20201025233110/https://washingtonpapers.org/documents_gw/will/will_manuscript_21.html 21]|location=Charlottesville, Virginia|publisher=University of Virginia: washingtonpapers.org|date=July 9, 1799|access-date=October 25, 2020|archive-date=October 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201026004141/https://washingtonpapers.org/documents_gw/will/will_manuscript_1.html|url-status=dead}}

• {{cite encyclopedia|last=Smith|first=M. Earl|url=http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/bushrod-washington/|title=Bushrod Washington |encyclopedia=Digital Encyclopedia |publisher=George Washington's Mount Vernon|location=Mount Vernon, Virginia|access-date=November 16, 2016|date=|archive-date=November 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116185522/http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/bushrod-washington/|url-status=dead}}. George Washington's will freed the people George enslaved after his wife Martha died, giving her control of them during her lifetime.Multiple sources:
• {{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.mountvernon.org/research-collections/digital-encyclopedia/article/george-washington-and-slavery/|title=George Washington and Slavery|encyclopedia=George Washington's Mount Vernon: Digital Encyclopedia|publisher=Mount Vernon Ladies' Association|year=2015|access-date=November 30, 2015|archive-date=September 5, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905132035/http://www.mountvernon.org/research-collections/digital-encyclopedia/article/george-washington-and-slavery/|url-status=dead}}
• {{cite web|last=Washington|first=George|author-link=George Washington |url=http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/livingrev/equality/text2/washingtonwill.pdf|title=The Last Will & Testament of George Washington|location=Research Triangle Park, North Carolina|publisher=National Humanities Center|date=July 9, 1799|access-date=October 25, 2020|quote=Upon the decease of my wife, it is my Will & desire that all the Slaves which I hold in my own right, shall receive their freedom.|archive-date=November 26, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191126130547/http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/livingrev/equality/text2/washingtonwill.pdf|url-status=dead}}. [Source: {{cite book|title=The Papers of George Washington|series=Retirement Series|volume=4: 20 April 1799 — 13 December 1799|editor-first=W. W.|editor-last=Abbot|location=Charlottesville, Virginia|publisher=University Press of Virginia |year=1999|isbn=0813918553 |oclc=985598820 |lccn=97006770|pages=479–511}}] However, Martha feared she might be poisoned, and so after consulting with Bushrod, signed a deed of manumission in 1800 and freed the enslaved people before she died.

Thus, when Bushrod Washington and his wife moved to Mount Vernon in 1802, he brought people he enslaved.{{cite web |last=Lossing |first=Benson J. |author-link=Benson John Lossing |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dQMD93N4LgMC&pg=PA351 |year=1870 |title=The Home of Washington; Or, Mount Vernon and Its Associations, Historical, Biographical, and Pictorial |location=Hartford, Connecticut |publisher=A.S. Hale & Company |page=351 |oclc=1593086 |via=Google Books |access-date=December 28, 2015 |archive-date=May 13, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513091204/https://books.google.com/books?id=dQMD93N4LgMC&pg=PA351 |url-status=live }} In 1803, Bushrod Washington and Lawrence Lewis (with the consent of the remaining executors) allowed the other heirs to buy various parcels of real estate in the estate. Not all potential heirs chose to participate, and some of those who bought parcels never paid for them, which led to further legal problems.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

The contrast in his treatment of two groups of enslaved people would later become an issue. At the request of his mother, Hannah Bushrod, before her death, Bushrod and his brothers freed an enslaved mulatto man named West Ford. Ford was likely their brother or nephew, born in Westmoreland County in 1784, and who would become the overseer of enslaved domestic workers at Mount Vernon. Ford would help protect George Washington's house and tomb from the British during the War of 1812 (and from many visitors before and after the conflict), alongside a man named Oliver Smith, who had been raised alongside Bushrod Washington as his personal servant, as was the custom of the time.

Although Ford's mother was Venus, a woman enslaved by Bushrod's mother, who died in 1801 and freed him in her will, the precise identify of his white father is unknown,{{cite journal |first=Henry S. |last=Robinson |title=Who was West Ford? |volume=66 |journal=Journal of Negro History |issue=2 Summer 1981 |date=1981|pages=167–174 |doi=10.2307/2717299 |jstor=2717299 |s2cid=149346767 }}, available on JSTOR only that his grandson, George W. Ford, born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1847 would become a Buffalo soldier and the first African American national cemetery superintendent.{{cite web|url=http://www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage/45829/buffalo-soldier-makes-history-serving-as-superintendent-of-va-cemeteries/|title=Buffalo Soldier makes history serving as superintendent of VA cemeteries|website=Blogs.va.gov |date=February 28, 2018 |access-date=November 9, 2021}} Bushrod Washington's will also gave land to West Ford.

The Mount Vernon estate did not include much cash, and Washington would not support elderly formerly enslaved people as required by his late uncle's will. Washington instead maintained the plantation's mansion on the proceeds from the property and his Supreme Court salary.{{cite book |first=P. J. |last=Staudenraud |title=The African colonization movement 1816-1865 |location=New York |publisher=Columbia University Press |date=1961 |page=173}}{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QWOWAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA124 |last=Fister |first=Jude M. |title=America Writes Its History, 1650-1850: The Formation of a National Narrative |page=124 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=McFarland and Company, Inc. |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-7864-7921-4 |oclc=859384941 |via=Google Books |access-date=November 24, 2015 |archive-date=June 17, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617164543/https://books.google.com/books?id=QWOWAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA124 |url-status=live }} Over time, Washington sold many enslaved people, stating that he could thereby support the main house, property, and elderly formerly enslaved people.

Justice Joseph Story said the mansion appeared deteriorated when he visited his colleague.{{cite web|last=Dunne|first=Gerald|url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c16_e.html|title=Bushrod Washington and The Mount Vernon Slaves|publisher=Supreme Court Historical Society|work=1980 Yearbook|access-date=November 30, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021009061618/http://supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c16_e.html|archive-date=October 9, 2002}}.{{cite web |url=http://www.mountvernon.org/visit/plan/index.cfm/pid/809/|title=The Formation of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association and the Dramatic Rescue of George Washington's Estate|publisher=Mount Vernon Ladies' Association|access-date=November 23, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081229075342/http://www.mountvernon.org/visit/plan/index.cfm/pid/809/|archive-date=December 29, 2008}} However, other visitors to the American South also noticed many examples of property deterioration there, especially compared to the Northern States, including Philip Fithian (who tutored the children of Councilor Robert Carter in Westmoreland County in 1773–1774, but whose letters were not published until the 20th century), Alexis de Tocqueville (who toured the county in 1831 and wrote about the subject in 1835 and again in 1855) and Frederick Law Olmsted (who toured the South from 1852 until 1857, publishing dispatches in the New York Daily Times which were collected and republished in 1856, 1857 and 1860). For many years, Bushrod Washington and his cousin Lawrence Lewis administered George Washington's estate.{{cite book |first=Eugene E. |last=Prussing |title=The Estate of George Washington, Deceased |location=Boston |publisher=Little, Brown and Company |date=1927}} In fact, the estate would not be closed until more than a decade after Bushrod Washington's death.

File:"Notice" Alexandria Gazette, April 4, 1821.jpg in the Alexandria Gazette of April 4, 1821, seeking the return of Fielding, reward $10]]

Meanwhile, Bushrod Washington helped found the American Colonization Society (ACS) to encourage and support the migration of freeborn people of color and emancipated slaves to the continent of Africa at the Davis Hotel in Washington, D.C., on December 21, 1816. He became its national president (lending the prestige of the Washington name to its fundraising) and remained so until he died in 1829. His decades-long friend, Chief Justice John Marshall, joined the organization as a life member shortly after its founding and became president of its Richmond branch.{{Cite book|last=Finkelman|first=Paul|title=Supreme Injustice: Slavery in the Nation's Highest Court|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2018|isbn=978-0-674-05121-8|pages=50}} In the 1810 census, the Mount Vernon plantation included 71 enslaved people,1810 U.S. Federal Census for Fairfax County, Virginia p. 88 of 91 and one of his nephews of the same name also enslaved people in Fairfax County. A decade later, Bushrod Washington enslaved 83 people at Mount Vernon.Fifteen boys under 14 years old and 16 girls, 10 males and 7 females between 14 and 25, 7 males and 5 females between 26 and 44, and 7 males and 11 females older than 45 in 1820 U.S. Federal Census for Truro Parish, Fairfax County Virginia p. 15 of 15 His practice of selling enslaved people to support Mount Vernon's upkeep or his lifestyle angered abolitionists, who questioned why the ACS president could not set an example by freeing the people he enslaved, as had his uncle George Washington. Some believed that Washington should have sent them to Liberia.

In particular, Hezekiah Niles in his nationally distributed Weekly Register questioned Washington's sale of 54 enslaved people from Mount Vernon in 1821 and reprinted a letter Washington had sent to the editor of a Baltimore federalist paper on the subject, as well as an August article in a Leesburg, Virginia paper that noted that a "drove of 100 negroes" were walked westward through the town the previous Saturday. Washington responded in print several times, advising that he had sold 54 enslaved people the previous March for $10,000 for use on plantations in Louisiana's Red River area, and the contract promised that families would not be broken up. Niles questioned the justice of the action, insisted that he was not disrespecting Washington, and did not discuss the economics of shipping from the port of Alexandria compared to the lengthy foot journey the coffle was undertaking. Washington insisted the sale was justified by the economics of plantation management, insubordination of the enslaved people, and the likelihood that more would escape northward.Dunne article archived from 1980 Supreme Court Historical Society

In 1805 Washington was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Bushrod+Washington&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=April 1, 2021|website=search.amphilsoc.org|archive-date=July 25, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210725020937/https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Bushrod+Washington&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|url-status=live}} He was elected to membership in the American Antiquarian Society in 1813, a year after the Society's founding in 1812.{{cite web|url=http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistw|title=Members|year=2020|location=Worcester, Massachusetts|publisher=American Antiquarian Society|access-date=October 25, 2020|archive-date=July 28, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200728022136/http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistw|url-status=dead}}.

File:Tomb of George Washington - wide - Mount Vernon.jpg

Washington died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 26, 1829, while riding circuit. His wife died two days later while transporting his body for burial.Binney p. 24{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.mountvernon.org/research-collections/digital-encyclopedia/article/burials-at-mount-vernon|title=Burials at Mount Vernon|encyclopedia=Digital Encyclopedia|publisher=George Washington's Mount Vernon|location=Mount Vernon, Virginia|access-date=December 28, 2015|date=|archive-date=November 21, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151121134907/http://www.mountvernon.org/research-collections/digital-encyclopedia/article/burials-at-mount-vernon/|url-status=dead}}. Both are interred in a vault within the Washington family tomb at Mount Vernon. An obelisk erected in front of the tomb memorializes Bushrod and his wife.Multiple sources:

• {{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/tomb/|title=Tomb|encyclopedia=Digital Encyclopedia|publisher=George Washington's Mount Vernon|location=Mount Vernon, Virginia|access-date=October 25, 2020|quote=The marble shafts in front of the Tomb were erected to the memory of Bushrod Washington and his nephew, John Augustine Washington, the next proprietor of Mount Vernon. Both are buried in the inner vault|date=|archive-date=October 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191002141259/https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/tomb/|url-status=dead}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.fxgs.org/cemeteryRecords.php?cid=242|title=Washington Family Tomb at Mount Vernon|work=Original Information from Volume 5 of the Gravestone Books|publisher=Fairfax Genealogical Society|year=2016|location=Merrifield, Virginia|access-date=November 16, 2016|quote=Two large marble obelisks which stand in front of the new vault were erected as memorials to the private owners of Mount Vernon after George Washington's death. Both shafts were carved by "A. Gaddis Fecit. Balto": Within the vault Lie buried the mortal remains of Bushrod Washington, An associate Justice, of the Supreme Court of the U. S. He died in Philadelphia, Nov'r 26th 1829; Aged 68 By his side is interred his devoted Wife Anna Blackburn, Who survived her beloved Husband but two days. Aged 60. Judge Washington. Was the Son of John Augustine Washington and the Nephew of Genl George Washington, Who appointed him one of his Executors. And bequeathed him Mount Vernon. As a Judge he was Wise and Just. "A man of Truth, hating covetousness." Firm in every honourable purpose and pursuit, Yet gentle humane and condescending. A sincere Christian, Doing in all things the will of his Master, And resting his hope of eternal happiness, []ove on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This humble Monument to the memory of the venerated Judge and his beloved Wife Is placed here by her Niece the Widow of his nephew, John A. Washington....|archive-date=November 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116191850/http://www.fxgs.org/cemeteryRecords.php?cid=242|url-status=dead}}

In 1830, his former colleague, U.S. District Judge Joseph Hopkinson, published a memorial.Joseph Hopkinson, In Commemoration of the Hon. Bushrod Washington, late one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States (Philadelphia: T.S. Manning 1830) In 1858, Horace Binney privately printed a short encomium.{{cite book|last=Binney|first=Horace|author-link=Horace Binney|year=1858|url=https://archive.org/details/bushrodwashington00binnrich|location=Philadelphia|title=Bushrod Washington|publisher= Printed by C. Sherman & Son|oclc=183226515|via=Internet Archive}}

Although one source claimed that Bushrod Washington kept meticulous correspondence files, his correspondence is believed to have burned after his death.Annis p. Various institutions have partial collections, including the Library of Congress, the Pennsylvania Historical Society and the Chicago Historical Society. The University of Virginia's library is collecting and digitizing them.[https://washingtonpapers.org Washington Papers]

Because of his role in the ACS and his assistance in founding the Republic of Liberia, Bushrod Island near the national capital of Monrovia was named for him.{{cite book |last=Starr |first=Frederick |author-link=Frederick Starr |title=Liberia: Description, History, Problems |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-7JWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA9 |page=9 |year=1913 |location=Chicago |publisher=Frederick Starr |isbn=9780598450234 |oclc=6791808 |via=Google Books |access-date=November 28, 2015 |archive-date=July 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210708102515/https://books.google.com/books?id=-7JWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA9 |url-status=live }}

• List of federal judges appointed by John Adams
• List of United States federal judges by longevity of service

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book |last=Abraham |first=Henry J. |title=Justices and Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court |url=https://archive.org/details/justicespresiden0000abra |url-access=registration|edition=3rd |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-506557-3}}
• {{Cite book |last=Casper |first=Scott E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lABEoNXxCIwC |title=Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon: The Forgotten History of an American Shrine |date=January 20, 2009 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-8090-8415-9 |pages=1–30 |language=en}}
• {{cite book|last=Flanders|first=Henry|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_eEQEAAAAYAAJ|title=The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court|location=Philadelphia|publisher=J. B. Lippincott & Co.|year=1874|lccn=12016783|oclc=13189441|via=Internet Archive}}
• {{cite book |last=Frank |first=John P. |editor-last=Friedman |editor-first=Leon |editor2-last=Israel |editor2-first=Fred L. |title=The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions |publisher=Chelsea House Publishers |year=1995 |isbn=0-7910-1377-4}}
• {{cite book|editor-last=Hall |editor-first=Kermit L. |title=The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordcompaniont00hall |url-access=registration |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1992 |location=New York |isbn=0-19-505835-6 }}
• Magliocca, Gerard (2022). Washington's Heir: The Life of Justice Bushrod Washington. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|978-0190947040}}.
• {{cite book |last=Martin |first=Fenton S. |author2=Goehlert, Robert U. |title=The U.S. Supreme Court: A Bibliography |url=https://archive.org/details/ussupremecourtbi0000mart |url-access=registration |publisher=Congressional Quarterly Books |year=1990 |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=0-87187-554-3 }}
• {{cite encyclopedia|last=Smith|first=M. Earl|url=http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/bushrod-washington/|title=Bushrod Washington|encyclopedia=Digital Encyclopedia|publisher=George Washington's Mount Vernon|location=Mount Vernon, Virginia|access-date=November 16, 2016|date=|archive-date=November 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116185522/http://www.mountvernon.org/digital-encyclopedia/article/bushrod-washington/|url-status=dead}}
• {{cite book |last=Urofsky |first=Melvin I. |title=The Supreme Court Justices: A Biographical Dictionary |url=https://archive.org/details/supremecourtjust00melv |url-access=registration |publisher=Garland Publishing |year=1994 |location=New York |pages=590 |isbn=0-8153-1176-1 }}
• White, G. Edward (1988). The Marshall Court and Cultural Change, 1815-35. New York: Macmillan Library Reference. {{ISBN|978-0029345511}}. Published in an abridged edition, New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. {{ISBN|978-0195070590}}.

{{wikisource|works=or}}

{{Commons category|Bushrod Washington}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090209183436/http://www.michaelariens.com/ConLaw/justices/washington.htm Ariens, Michael, Bushrod Washington.]
• {{OL author|6011418A}}

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