Bondo de Akaris

Holder of Whashton-juxta-Ravensworth (*not* Wessington-on-Tyne, where Washington Old Hall still stands) in the 12th century.

TRANSLATION. CHARTA OF BONDO DE WYSSINGTON.

WASHTON YORK.

To all of the Sons of the Church, greeting.

Know that I, Bondo de Wassington, have given, and the present charta confirms the gift, the fees of Marring, which the Lord Hervey son of Acery gave my heirs. One half a carrucate of land in Wyssington [Whashton], and one toft belonging to the aforesaid territory. And this half a carrucate of land is given in pure and perpetual charity, free of all service and of any tax whatsoever, in plain, or meadow, or pasture, and in crop or in seed, or water, in any place belonging to said village.

Witnesses : Hervey, son of Ackery, Henry, his son, Robert de Lascelles, Gerard, his son, Roger de Ask, William, son of Bond, and others.

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The charter is undated, but the names of Hervey FitzAcarius and Henry FitzHervey, of what was to become the FItzHugh family, suggest it was near the end of the 12th century or possibly the beginning of the 13th.

The last known subholder under this charter was Robert son of Eudo de Whashton, son of Bonde, a minor, circa 1250-52. By the end of the 1280s the overlords, probably represented by Hugh FitzHenry "FitzHugh" (he was the first to use "FitzHugh" as a surname), had reacquired the whole property. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/north/vol1/pp87-97

First proposed as "the true Washington ancestor" by one James Phillippe of London, who presented a handsomely illuminated - and mainly bogus - pedigree to President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2014/02/03/george_washington_a...

What Phillippe didn't realize, nor Albert Welles after him, nor anyone using either one as a source, is that Whashton-juxta-Ravensworth was not the location of Washington Old Hall and had no connection with it or the De Wessington family who held the Hall (for about twice as long as Bondo's descendants were able to hang onto Whashton).

Undetermined relationship to Akaris FitzBardolf, of Ravensworth - the "de Akaris" in his name implies a younger or perhaps extramarital son, or a loyal servitor.

Wife "Agnes" may possibly be Agnes de Welleburne

Two documented sons, William (mentioned in charter) and Eudo (noted in land records). No documented son Robert, but Eudo had a son by that name (who was still a minor in 1250).