Lawrence Lewis
b. 1767 · d. 1839
Nephew of George Washington and husband of Nelly Custis Lewis Nelly Custis Lewis b. 1779 · d. 1852 Granddaughter of Martha Washington, raised at Mount Vernon by George and Martha after her father's death. With her husband Lawrence Lewis she built on land carved from the Mount … . Built 9000 Richmond Highway 9000 Richmond Highway Federal-style brick mansion built 1800–1805 by and on a 2,000-acre tract carved from the Mount Vernon estate as their wedding gift from . on land carved from the Mount Vernon estate by Washington as a wedding gift in 1799.
Lawrence Lewis was the son of Washington’s sister Betty Washington Lewis and Fielding Lewis of Kenmore. After service as a private secretary to George Washington at Mount Vernon during the latter’s retirement, he married Eleanor Parke Custis in February 1799. Washington gave the couple a 2,000-acre tract from the Mount Vernon estate; Lewis commissioned William Thornton — architect of the U.S. Capitol — to design the brick Federal-style house that became 9000 Richmond Highway 9000 Richmond Highway Federal-style brick mansion built 1800–1805 by and on a 2,000-acre tract carved from the Mount Vernon estate as their wedding gift from . . [1] Mount Vernon Ladies' Association archive Manuscript
Lewis managed the Woodlawn plantation as an enslaved-labor agricultural operation until his death in 1839. The household held dozens of enslaved people across its operating decades, documented in the Lewis estate inventories at the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association archive.
Associated places
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1805–1839
Lawrence Lewis built and lived at Woodlawn from its 1805 completion until his death in 1839.
Sources
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1.
George Washington's Mount Vernon, manuscript collections, Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, Mount Vernon, Virginia.
Manuscript
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