Martha Dandridge

Notes:

02 Jun 1731 - May 22 1802

First Lady, 30 Apr 1789 - 04 Mar 1797

On 31 Dec 1799, shortly after her husband's death, Martha Washing responded to the congressional request that he be buried in "Washington City," the new American capital. "I must consent to the request made by congress," she wrote, "...and in doing this I need not---I cannot say what a sacrifice of individual feeling I make to a sense of public duty." That principle governed her conduct throughout her 40-year marriage to George Washington. She was raised to be a southern belle and a plantation mistress. She delighted in domesticity, describing herself at Mt. Vernon as "fairly settled downn to the pleasant duties of an old fashioned Virginia house-keeper, steady as a clock, busy as a bee, and as cheerful as a cricket." Yet in the public interest she repeatedly left the home she loved to share with her husband the hardships, discomforts, and dangers of his winter headquarters during the seven years that the American Revolution dragged on. After that war both the Washingtons hoped to spend the rest of their lives in the tranquility of Mt. Vernon. But George Washington bowed to the public will that he serve as the nation's first president and Martha Washington moved with him to New York and then to Philadelphia. Willinly and almost without complaint, she endured her separation from the relative and friends she loved best to undertake the repososibilities of a "very dull life" in which she felt "more like a state prisoner than anything else."

Martha Dandridge was born at Chestnut Grove, a modest 500-acre plantation on the pamunkey River in New Kent County, VA, on 02 Jun 1731. Her father, John Dandridge, came to North America from England when he was at years old with his older brother William. Starting out as merchants, they both rapidly acquired land and status. Her mother, Frances Jones, was the granddaughter of an Oxford-educated Anglican rector. Like most well-off girls of her time, Martha was probably tuaght domestic arts and household management by her mother and the three Rs by her parents and grandparents, an itinerant tutor, or an indentured servant. She learned to dance, perhaps to play an instrument a little, and to ride horseback expertly. She attended church regularly. Her social life and her affections centered in her relations with her seven siblings and the gentry of the countryside. She was slim and petite, just under five feet tall, with brown hair and hazel eyes.

When Martha was 17, she attracted the attention of Daniel Parke Custis, like her father a vestryman in her church. The 39-year-old Custis was a man eager to marry but still under the thumb of his wealthy, eccentric, and irascible father. The elder Custis did not allow Daniel to manage and eventually own one of his estates, White House, until he was far into his maturity. No young woman, the father seemed to think, was worthy of his oly son---or, perhaps more important, of iheriting the considerable Custis fortune. Martha's marriage to Daniel was delayed until she was 19, when in a sudden about-face Custis snior declared he was "as much enamored with her character as you (Daniel) are with her person, and this is owing chiefly to a prudent speech of her own."

They were married at her home and settled down at White House to raise a family. Custis indulged his young bride with fine clothes ordered from London. In the next seven years she bore four babies, two boys and two girls. But the infant deaths so commonplace in the 18th century soon claimed the first two. In 1757 her husband died suddenly, leaving her with her two small children: Martha Parke "Patsy" Custis, born 1754; and John Parke "Jacky" custis, born in 1755. He also left her perhaps the wealthiest widow in Virginia.

Martha married Daniel Parke Custis in 1749. Daniel (son of John Custis, IV and Frances Custis) was born on 15 Oct 1711 in Queens Creek, James City, Virginia, USA; died on 8 Jul 1757 in , New Kent, Virginia, USA; was buried in Williamsburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Daniel Parke Custis, II was born on 19 Nov 1751 in New Kent, New Kent, Virginia, USA; died on 19 Feb 1754 in Eltham, New Kent, Virginia, USA; was buried in Williamsburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA.
2. Frances Parke Custis was born on 12 Apr 1753 in New Kent, New Kent, Virginia, USA; died on 1 Apr 1757 in Williamsburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA; was buried in Williamsburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA.
3. John Parke Custis was born on 27 Nov 1754 in New Kent, New Kent, Virginia, USA; died on 5 Nov 1781 in Eltham, New Kent, Virginia, USA; was buried in Mount Vernon, Fairfax, Virginia, USA.
4. Martha Parke Custis was born in 1756 in New Kent, New Kent, Virginia, USA; died on 19 Jun 1773 in , , Virginia, USA; was buried in Mount Vernon, Fairfax, Virginia, USA.

Martha married George Eskridge Washington on 6 Jan 1759 in , New Kent, Virginia, USA. George (son of Lawrence Augustine Washington and Mary Ball) was born on 22 Feb 1732 in Wakefield Plantation, Westmoreland, Virginia, USA; died on 14 Dec 1799 in Mount Vernon, Fairfax, Virginia, USA; was buried in Mount Vernon, Fairfax, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

John married Frances Orlando Jones. Frances was born on 6 Aug 1710 in St Peters Parish, New Kent, Virginia, USA; died on 9 Apr 1785 in New Kent, New Kent, Virginia, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]