No! Not Another History Lesson! Aaarrrgh!!

Oh yes. As long as I have to celebrate Thanksgiving vicariously through this blog, you're going to have more English history. Well actually, this is American history. Ready?

The American Revolution began in Yorkshire.

It's true. It's a little known fact (at least to most Americans I know - maybe I don't hang around with enough history buffs). I didn't actually learn this until I moved to Yorkshire. George Washington's family were Yorkshiremen.

There are some people who would dispute this, because the family originally came from Northeast England. County Durham to be specific, from a town which is now called - you guessed it - Washington. However, at some point the family moved south to Yorkshire, and there is evidence of this in a couple of places. The first is Selby Abbey, just down the road, where the Stars and Stripes hangs below the de Wessington Window. Another is in the church where my daughter was christened, the (12th century!) Church of St. Lawrence at Adwick-le-Street (the next village over). It contains the Washington Family crypt, as well as their coat of arms carved into the wood above the main door.

So, there you have it. The First President, one of our Founding Fathers, was a Yorkshireman.

But then, as my husband likes to remind me, God is a Yorkshireman.