SULGRAVE MANOR, the early English home of the ancestors of George Washington. Situated 21m. N.W. of Helm don in Northamptonshire, England, it is a notable shrine. Laurence Washington, twice mayor of Northampton, bought the property from King Henry VIII. in 1539, on the dissolution of the smaller religious houses. It had previously belonged to the priory of St. Andrew, Northampton. Laurence Washington, from whom George Washington was seventh in direct descent, and his children and grandchildren lived in the manor house until 1610.
Sulgrave Manor was purchased, in Jan. 1914, for £8,400, by the British committee for the celebration of ioo years of peace between Great Britain and the United States (1814-1914), and is vested in three ex-officio trustees : the American ambas sador in London, the British ambassador in Washington and the regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union.
It is partly restored to its original condition, and furnished with choice furniture of the period. A formal reopening took place, on
June 21 1921. In 1927 the restoration was completed by the rebuilding of the western wing, which had been demolished in the i8th century. The funds were collected by the American Society of Colonial Dames, which body had, two years previously, raised a permanent endowment of over £20,000.
On the gable of the central porch are the royal arms of the Tudors; and in the right spandrel of the arch of the main door way, the Washington Arms, three mullets and two bars, which were reputedly the origin of the Stars and Stripes, the American national flag. The furnishings are gifts from British and Ameri can donors, and include an original Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington and many other treasures. (L. OF F.) SULIDAE: see GANNET.