Mason Locke Weems

1759–1825 · American clergyman, book agent, and Washington biographer

Mason Locke Weems (1759–1825), universally known as “Parson Weems,” was an Episcopal-ordained preacher turned traveling bookseller who wrote wildly popular, moralizing biographies. His Life of Washington first appeared in 1800 and went through dozens of editions; in the fifth edition of 1806 he added the cherry-tree anecdote to dramatize Washington’s honesty. Weems freely embellished for effect, and the story — sourced only to an unnamed elderly woman — is regarded by historians as his own invention rather than fact.

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“I cannot tell a lie, I did it with my little hatchet”

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