The Washington immigrant ancestor and great-grandfather of President George Washington was John Washington, who was born in Purleigh, Essex, England, around 1631 and emigrated to the Colony of Virginia in 1656. George Washington's ancestry entirely traces back to England, other than a great-great-great-grandfather, Nicolas Martiau, a Huguenot from Île de Ré, France and naturalized Englishman, who arrived at Virginia aboard the Francis Bonaventure in 1620.