Martha Washington

Martha Dandridge was born 2 June 1731 at Chestnut Grove plantation in New Kent County, Virginia. In 1750 she married Daniel Parke Custis, a wealthy tidewater planter roughly twenty years her senior, and was widowed in 1757 with two surviving children, John Parke (“Jacky”) Custis and Martha Parke (“Patsy”) Custis. As Custis’s widow she controlled one of the larger estates in colonial Virginia — the “dower” share of which (land, investments, and roughly eighty-four enslaved people) followed her into her 1759 marriage to George Washington Person George Washington b. 1732 · d. 1799 Planter, military commander, and first President of the United States. Master of Mount Vernon from 1761 until his death in 1799, and a regular presence in Alexandria, which he … and shaped the financial foundation of Mount Vernon for the next four decades ^[1] Source 1 Mount Vernon Ladies' Association archive Manuscript .

From 1759 Martha was mistress of 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway Place 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway Five-farm plantation on the Potomac owned by George Washington from 1761 until his death in 1799; home to Washington, his family, and more than three hundred enslaved people. … , overseeing the household, the dairy and spinning operations, and a large enslaved workforce drawn from both the Washington and Custis estates. She spent eight of the Revolutionary War’s winter encampments in camp with George — Cambridge, Morristown, Valley Forge, Newburgh — and served as first First Lady of the United States during her husband’s two presidential terms (1789–1797). After her son Jacky Custis died at Yorktown in 1781 she and George raised his two youngest children, G. W. P. Custis Person G. W. P. Custis b. 1781 · d. 1857 Step-grandson of , raised at Mount Vernon, builder of Arlington House, and father-in-law of . and Nelly Custis Lewis Person Nelly Custis Lewis b. 1779 · d. 1852 Granddaughter of , 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 Vernon estate by … , at Mount Vernon.

George Washington’s 1799 will directed that the enslaved people he owned outright be manumitted at Martha’s death; on 1 January 1801 she executed the manumission early, while she lived, releasing the Washington-owned enslaved population at Mount Vernon roughly a year before her own death ^[1] Source 1 Mount Vernon Ladies' Association archive Manuscript . The dower enslaved people held in trust for the Custis heirs were not within her legal authority to free; they remained in bondage and descended via her grandson G. W. P. Custis to the Arlington and Woodlawn households. She destroyed most of her correspondence with George after his death and died at Mount Vernon on 22 May 1802, where she is interred beside her husband.