Note 60 — JOURNAL.

Mrs. Aus. Washington evidently refers to Mrs. Augustine Washington, of Westmoreland, the wife of George's half-brother, Augustine, with whom he had made his home while attending Mr. William's Academy. Austin is, or has been, in Virginia a contraction for Augustine. Augustine Moore, a notable character, is recorded interchangeably, in land and other records, as Augustine and as Austin Moore. It is presumed that "The Maryland Housewife" was intended to have been written, that being the name of a popular book on cookery and the art of housekeeping at that period. The date of this memorandum is presumed to be 1748. A charge in his book of accounts kept at this time, and which was among the relics of Lawrence Washington sold in Philadelphia in the spring of 1891, would fix the date as July 28th, 1748. It was not an unusual thing for Washington in his youth to use contractions in writing the first names of his brothers, the following are examples: Aus., Austin for Augustine; Sam for Samuel; Jack and John, simply for John Augustine.