WASHINGTON, 13i:stilton, was the son of John A. Washington, Esquire, of Westmoreland county, Virginia, who was the next eldest brother of General Washington. His father was a gentleman of strong mind, and possessed the consideration and confidence of all who knew him. He was, with honour to himself, a delegate in the state legisla ture of Virginia, and a magistrate of the county in which he resided. Bushrod Washington, his son, received a part of his classical education in the house of the inflexible patriot Richard Henry Lee, under a private tutor; his studies were continued under his paternal roof and afterwards at William and Mary College. At that respectable institution commenced his intimacy and friendship with Mr Chief Justice Marshall, with whom he became afterwards associated in the Supreme Court of the United States; and whose esteem, confidence and respect, he continued to possess, in the fullest ex tent, to the close of his life.
The invasion of Virginia. by lord Cornwallis, called from their studies, for its defence, the gallant youth of the state, and among them Bushrod Washington, who joined a volunteer troop of cavalry under colonel John F. Mercer, in the army commanded by ihe Marquis La Fayette. During the whole of the summer he remained in the field, and until Cornwallis had crossed James River. It was then supposed that the invaders intended to move on South Carolina; the troop was disbanded, and its members returned to their homes. In the following winter he came to Philadelphia, and, under the auspices and affectionate care of general Washington, he was placed, as a student at law, in the office of Mr Wilson; a gentleman of great legal learning and high character, and who was after wards appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. After completing his studies, he returned to Virginia, and pi actiscd his profess ion in his native county with reputation and success. In 1787 he was chosen a member of the house of delegates of Virginia; and the following year, as one of that body, he assisted in the adoption and ratification of the constitution of the United States by the state of Virginia.
From Westmoreland he removed to Alexandria, a wider sphere for the exercise of his talents as an advocate and a jurist; and he went afterwards from thence to Richmond, and there assumed and main tained an equal station with the gentlemen of that bar; whom to equal, has always been, and continues to be, conclusive, evidence of the highest professional attainments and character.
During his arduous, industrious and extensive practice at the bar in Richmond, and throughout the state, Mr. Washington undertook to report the decisions of the supreme court of Virginia; a work in two volumes, of high authority in the courts of that state, and in those of the union.
He was married in 1785 to Miss Blackburn; he had no children. He was a devoted husband, to an affectionate wife; and such was the strength of her conjugal attachment to her deceased husband, that she survived him but three days.
His and just reputation as a lawyer, the purity and Integrity of his character, and the con fidence and respect of the whole community with whom he lived, induced Prudent Adams, in 1798, to appoint him an associate justice of the supreme court of the United States, to fill the vacancy which had occurred by the decease of Mr Justice Wilson. He continued to hold that honoured and honourable station until his death; and presided in the. circuit court of New Jersey and in that of Pennsylvania from April 1803, having been in the year 1798 assigned to the circuit courts composing the third circuit.
Judge Washington was the favourite nephew of President Washington, and the devtsce of Mount Vernon; the much loved residence of that pure, distinguished and venerated patriot. To Judge Washing-ton he also gave his library, and he also bequeathed to him his public and private papers; at the same time appointing him one of his execu tors. These high and affectionate testimonials of confidence and esteem must have ever been held in proud possession by hint on whom they were be stowed, and by whom they were deserved.