John Custis, IV

1678 - 1749  (71 years)

• Name	John Custis  [1, 2]
  Suffix	IV
  Birth	Aug 1678	Arlington, Northampton, Virginia, USA   [1, 2]
  Gender	Male
  Death	14 Nov 1749	Williamsburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA   [1, 2]
  Burial	Eastville, Northampton, Virginia, USA   [1]
  Person ID	I47662	Master
  Last Modified	9 Feb 2023

  
  

  Father	Col John Custis III,   b. 1653, Hungars Plantation, Northampton, Virginia, USA d. 26 Jan 1714, Wilsonia, Northampton, Virginia, USA (Age 61 years)
  Mother	Margaret Michael,   b. 1658, , Accomack, Virginia, USA d. 29 March 1697, , Northampton, Virginia, USA (Age 39 years)
  Family ID	F10821	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Frances Custis,   b. 1687, Williamsburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA d. 14 Mar 1714, Williamsburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA (Age 27 years)
  Children	1. Henry Custis,   b. 1706, , Northampton, Virginia, USA d. 1751, , Accomack, Virginia, USA (Age 45 years)   2. Robinson Custis,   b. 1708, , Accomack, Virginia, USA d. 1764, , Accomack, Virginia, USA (Age 56 years)   3. Simon Custis,   b. 1708, , Northampton, Virginia, USA d. 1709, Arlington, Northampton, Virginia, USA (Age 1 year)   4. Adam Custis,   b. 1710, , Northampton, Virginia, USA   5. Custis Custis,   b. 1711, Arlington, Northampton, Virginia, USA d. 1712, Arlington, Northampton, Virginia, USA (Age 1 year) + 6. Daniel Parke Custis,   b. 15 Oct 1711, Queens Creek, James City, Virginia, USA d. 8 Jul 1757, , New Kent, Virginia, USA (Age 45 years)   7. Frances (Fanny) Custis II,   b. 1713, Arlington Plantation, Northampton, Virginia, USA d. 1739, Arlington Plantation, Northampton, Virginia, USA (Age 26 years)   8. Elizabeth Custis,   b. 27 Aug 1718, Deep Creek, Accomack, Virginia, USA d. 28 Jul 1769, Craddock, Accomack, Virginia, USA (Age 50 years)   9. Ann Custis,   b. 24 Aug 1725, MT Custis, Accomack, Virginia, USA d. 3 Aug 1790, Craddock, Accomack, Virginia, USA (Age 64 years)   10. Leah Custis,   b. 1731, Matomkin, Accomack, Virginia, USA d. 24 Apr 1792, Warwick, Upshur's Neck, Accomack, Virginia, USA (Age 61 years)   11. Black Jack Custis,   b. 1733, Williamsburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA d. 1751, Williamsburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA (Age 18 years)
  Family ID	F10832	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	5 Feb 2023

  
  

• Event Map

  Death - 14 Nov 1749 - Williamsburg, Independent Cities, Virginia, USA  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Notes

  John Custis (August 1678–after 14 November 1749) was a member of the Governor's Council in the British colony of Virginia. Often he is designated as John Custis IV or John Custis, of Williamsburg, to distinguish him from his grandfather, father, and other relatives of the same name. The son of John Custis (ca. 1654–1714) (usually designated John Custis III or John Custis, of Wilsonia), who was also a Council member, and Margaret Michael Custis, Custis was born in Northampton County, Virginia. On 4 May 1706 he married Frances Parke, the elder daughter and heiress of Daniel Parke, governor of the Leeward Islands. Custis had moved to Williamsburg, Virginia by 1717. There he created a magnificent 4-acre (16,000 m2) garden and corresponded with many celebrated horticulturists and naturalists, including John Bartram, Mark Catesby, and Peter Collinson. Custis served on the governor's Council from 1727 until increasingly ill health forced him to request to be suspended in August 1749. In 1744, John Custis took the extraordinary step of petitioning the Governor and Council to set a slave child free. The petition stated the boy was "Christened John but commonly called Jack, born of the body of his Negro wench, Alice."[1] He died soon after completing his will on 14 November 1749. At his request, he was buried on the Eastern Shore of Virginia at the Arlington plantation. In his will Custis instructed his son, on pain of being cut off with only one shilling, to place on his marble tomb the wording that Custis had "Yet lived but Seven years which was the Space of time he kept a Batchelors [sic] House at Arlington on the Eastern Shoar [sic] of Virginia. This Inscription put on this Stone by his own positive Orders." His only surviving son, Daniel Parke Custis, was the first husband of Martha Washington. References Will in Prerogative Court of Canterbury Registered Wills, Searle 287, Principal Probate Registry, London, England. Kneebone, John T., et al., eds. Dictionary of Virginia Biography (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1998- ), 3:636-639. ISBN 0-88490-206-4. Zuppan, Jo. "John Custis of Williamsburg, 1678-1749," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 90 (1982): 177-197. Custis, John (2005) Zuppan, Josephine Little ed. The letterbook of John Custis IV of Williamsburg, 1717-1742 Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. ISBN 094561280X, 9780945612803 http://books.google.com/books?id=EkKUjMmxVS0C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false ^ Wiencek, Henry (2004). 'An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America', p. 73. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 0374529515 "John Custis’s marriage was famously miserable." In an apocryphal story, he once drove a carriage bearing him and his wife Frances Parke right into the Chesapeake Bay. The following exchange is said to have taken place: “Where are you going, Mr. Custis?” Frances asked, with the water swirling around them. “To hell, madam.” Came the reply. “Drive on,” said Frances, “any place is better than Arlington.” Source: Wiencek, Henry. An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America. Farrar, New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003, pg. 72.

  
  

• Sources

  [S751] Ancestry.com, U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.). [S1162] Ancestry.com, Geneanet Community Trees Index, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.).