Ensign Washer

Who is Ensign Washer?

Ensign Washer or Ensign Thos Washer was an early Virginia colonist who settled in the area that became Isle of Wight County, Virginia. Washer and Christopher Lawne represented Lawne's Plantation as burgesses in the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619.

"Ensign" is a military grade or rank, not the colonist's first name, and there is some suggestion that he was a lower ranking military officer before he arrived in Virginia. He also would have been a member of the local militia after his arrival in Virginia. Sources seem to be uniform in their identification of Washer as "Ensign" and only one source has been found which states that his name was "Thos". Even if this is true and can be verified, the colonist is shown as Ensign Washer here because that is how he is shown in sources which identify him as a member of the first session of the House of Burgesses.

Before 1619, Ensign Washer, Captain Nathaniel Basse and Giles Jones received patents for land along the Pagan River. Captain Christopher Lawne then settled near the mouth of Lawne's Creek in the same vicinity. Although the area was known as Lawne's Plantation and its representatives were listed as representatives from the plantation, the colonists also had named the area "Warresqueak County" after the Native American tribe who lived there. Washer and Christopher Lawne represented Lawne's Plantation in the first assembly of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1619. In 1620, a movement began to change the name of "Warresqueak County" to "Isle of Wight County" but this was not approved until the Virginia General Assembly itself made the change in 1637.