This is a video about the Rebel Who Measured America: George Hume, the Jacobite Exile Who Taught George Washington to Survey.
In 1716, a 17-year-old Scottish aristocrat sat in a London prison, sentenced to die for treason. Instead, Britain shipped him to Virginia as convict labor — and accidentally exported a founder.
This is the true story of George Hume of Wedderburn, my 7th great-grandfather: a Jacobite rebel who lost his family’s castle, title, and 600 years of history in the failed Rising of 1715, then rebuilt his life on the Virginia frontier. Rescued by his cousin, Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood, Hume trained as a surveyor at the College of William & Mary, laid out the town of Fredericksburg, ran boundary lines for Lord Fairfax across the Northern Neck — and in 1748, took on a 16-year-old apprentice named George Washington.
The crown thought it was disposing of a traitor. Some of his boundary lines are still in use today.
The video may be found at: https://youtu.be/HmbSApKZJ_Y