John Washburn was born on April 6, 1764. He married Jenney Drew of Kingston on March 15, 1787, by whom he was the father of four children. He died on October 5, 1801.

At present we have only two brief passages giving information about Washburn's career as a tool maker and inventor:

T.D. Stetson, in his article about Kingston inventors, wrote in 1876 that: "John Washburn, of Kingston, Mass., was the inventor [of the screw auger] in the latter part of the last [18th] century. He also invented cut nails and tacks. He cut the blanks in one machine, and employed children to pick them up one by one with their fingers, and insert them in the places where they were to be headed."

Emily F. Drew in her article on Kingston industries, published in 1926, wrote: "Far be it from me to deprive a man of honor where honor is due, but I cannot accept the statement that John Washburn invented the screw auger, without qualifications, much as I would like to have the credit given to Kingston. Various men at various places claim the honor, long before Mr. Washburn's day. A story is left to us among C.A. Bartlett's papers which sounds credible to me. It is to this effect: In 1776, a man in Philadelphia named John Henry Rauch made a screw auger. Some years later, after the war was over, an illustrated article describing the invention was published in an English magazine. Mr. William Drew of Kingston, a progressive man, was a subscriber to the magazine. His son-in-law, John Washburn, who was a young man of great mechanical ability, saw the article and was much interested in the new type of auger. He determined to make one. His first results were crude, but by persistent effort, Mr. Washburn succeeded in making screw augers, which were practical and usable, the first made in Kingston, or, apparently, in this part of the world. "Old Uncle John Drew," who lived from 1789 to 1877, was Mr. Bartlett's authority for the story. At the time Rauch made the auger "with a screw" which replaced the old-time auger "with a pod" or cup, John Washburn was twelve years old. He was a genius, or he could not have done what he did, and due credit should be given him, but I scarcely think we may claim the invention, as an original one for Kingston. Mr. Washburn did make a nail machine which was a tremendous advance over the earlier methods and which for some fifteen or twenty years before it was superceded by the Reed machine was a great invention. He also brough back from England the art of making sleighbells with a movable ball cast inside the bell."

An auger attributed to John Washburn is reported; it is marked WASHBURN and KINGSTON. Another auger, which the compiler supposes to have probably also been made by John Washburn, is marked only JW.