12, 1869. Theoretical American royal succession According to a May 1908 article in The Scrap Book entitled "If Washington Had Been Crowned" and later in a February 1951 article in Life entitled "If Washington Had Become King: A Carpenter or an Engineer Might Now Rule the U.S.," Lawrence Berry Washington would have succeeded his father, John Thornton Augustine Washington, as "king" of the United States had his great-granduncle, George Washington, accepted the position of monarch rather than that of president. Throughout the course of 1908 and 1909, the theoretical Washington family royal succession was further publicized in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Washington Post, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Pittsburgh Daily Post, The Oregon Daily Journal, and The Wichita Daily Eagle. Following the laws of male preference primogeniture succession recognized by the Kingdom of Great Britain at the time of American independence, Lawrence Berry Washington would have been the lawful heir apparent to his father, who was the eldest son of Thornton Augustine Washington, who in turn was the eldest son of Samuel Washington, George Washington's eldest full brother. A theoretical "King Lawrence I of the United States" would have had a reign spanning from his father's death in 1841 until his own death in 1856. Following his death, the American crown would have passed to his next eldest brother, Daniel Bedinger Washington. References Bibliography 1811 births 1856 deaths Lawrence Berry Lawrence Berry 19th-century American Episcopalians 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century American military personnel 19th-century American novelists 19th-century American poets Accidental deaths in Missouri American male novelists American male poets American military personnel of the Mexican–American War Bleeding Kansas Deaths by drowning in the United States Episcopalians from West Virginia Military personnel from West Virginia Novelists from Virginia Novelists from West Virginia People from Charles Town, West Virginia People of the California Gold Rush Poets from Virginia Poets from West Virginia United States Army officers Virginia lawyers West Virginia lawyers