Nelly Custis Lewis

Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis was the third child of John Parke Custis and granddaughter of Martha Washington. After her father’s 1781 death she and her brother 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 . were raised at Mount Vernon by George and Martha Washington. In 1799 she married Lawrence Lewis Person Lawrence Lewis b. 1767 · d. 1839 Nephew of George Washington and husband of . Built on land carved from the Mount Vernon estate by Washington as a wedding gift in 1799. , George Washington’s nephew, and the couple received as a wedding gift the 2,000-acre Dogue Run tract — the parcel they would develop as 9000 Richmond Highway Place 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] Source 1 Mount Vernon Ladies' Association archive Manuscript

Nelly raised eight children at Woodlawn (four survived to adulthood) and maintained extensive correspondence with the Washington family, which survives as a primary source for the early-republic Mount Vernon circle. She left Woodlawn after Lawrence’s 1839 death and lived with relatives until her own in 1852.