Mary Ball Washington

by Craig Shirley

  24. General ledger A, cash account, May 17, 1757, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

  25. William Johnson, George Washington the Christian (New York: Abingdon Press, 1919), 42–46.

  26. Letter from Mary Ball Washington to Joseph Ball, July 26, 1759; as quoted in Hayden, Virginia Genealogies, 81.

  27. James Thomas Flexner, George Washington and the New Nation, 1783–1793 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970), 228.

  28. Pryor, The Mother of Washington and Her Times, 171–72.

  29. Freeman, George Washington, vol. 1, 103.

  30. Freeman, George Washington, vol. 1, 103; Robert Beverley, The History and Present State of Virginia (Richmond: J. W. Randolph, 1855), 237, 242.

  31. Freeman, George Washington, vol. 1, 103; King, “Washington’s Boyhood Home,” 270.

  32. Harland, The Story of Mary Washington, 63.

  33. Michelle Hamilton, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 10, 2018.

  34. Freeman, George Washington, vol. 1, 193.

  35. Michelle Hamilton, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 24, 2018.

  36. Gary Hayes, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 25, 2018.

  37. Washington, “The Mother and Birthplace of Washington,” 834.

  38. Michelle Hamilton, Mary Ball Washington: The Mother of George Washington (Ruther Glen, VA: MLH Publications, 2017), 15.

  39. Virginia Gazette, June 15, 1769, July 20, 1769, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  40. Court case, December 3, 1751, PGWCol, vol. 1, 48–49.

  41. Galke, “The Mother of the Father of Our Country,” 36.

  42. Pryor, The Mother and Washington and Her Times, 169; William H. Snowden, Some Old Historic Landmarks of Virginia and Maryland (Alexandria, Virginia: G. H. Ramey & Son, 1904), 121.

  43. Galke, “The Mother of the Father of Our Country,” 39–40; Levy, Where the Cherry Tree Grew, 207.

  44. Galke, “The Mother of the Father of Our Country,” 37–38.

  45. Letter from Joseph Ball to Betty Washington, November 2, 1749; as quoted in Paula S. Felder, Fielding Lewis and the Washington Family, 68.

  46. Levy, Where the Cherry Tree Grew, 70.

  47. Ford, The True George Washington, 21–22.

  48. Felder, Fielding Lewis and the Washington Family, 60.

  49. Letter from George Washington to John Augustine Washington, January 16, 1783, George Washington Papers, series 2, letterbook 11; manuscript/mixed material, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

  50. Letter from George Washington to Henry Knox, April 27, 1787, PGWCon, ed. W. W. Abbot, vol. 5 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1997), 157–59.

  51. Pryor, The Mother of Washington and Her Times, 169.

  52. Letter from Mary Ball Washington to John Augustine Washington, no date; Mary Washington House Archives, Fredericksburg, Virginia; Michelle Hamilton, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 24, 2018.

  53. Ford, The True George Washington, 27.

  54. Michelle Hamilton, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 24, 2018; Katie King, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 24, 2018.

  55. Pryor, The Mother of Washington and Her Times, 186.

  56. Diary entries, January 16 and 17, 1760, DGW, vol. 1, 224–26.

  57. General ledger A, cash account, June 4, 1760, PGWCol, vol. 6, 429–31.

  58. Diary entries, March 6, 1769, November 1, 1769, DGW, vol. 2, 132, 193.

  59. Virginia Gazette, December 11, 1766, December 24, 1767, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  60. Carmichael, Mary Ball Washington, 26.

  61. Turner, The Mother of Washington, 206.

  62. Michelle Hamilton, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 24, 2018; The fan and case are now housed at the Mary Washington House in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

  63. Diary entries, June 25, June 26, July 31, August 1, August 9, 1770, DGW, vol. 2, 249, 257, 260, 262.

  64. Freeman, George Washington, vol. 3 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1951), 280.

  65. Michelle Hamilton, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 24, 2018.

  66. Diary entry, September 13, 1771, DGW, vol. 3, 53.

  67. Lawrence Martin, ed., The George Washington Atlas (Washington, DC: George Washington Bicentennial Commission, 1932), 9.

  68. Hugh Mercer ledger, December 1771, Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop, Fredericksburg, Virginia.

  69. Genevieve Bugay, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 24, 2018; Hugh Mercer ledger, December 1771; Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop, Fredericksburg, Virginia.

  70. Michelle Hamilton, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 24, 2018.

  71. Michelle Hamilton, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 24, 2018.

  72. Diary entry, January 27, 1772, DGW, vol. 3, 84.

  73. Freeman, George Washington, vol. 3, 281.

  74. “Evaluations of Sundries belonging to Mary Washington,” October 15, 1771, A-415.1, Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, Mount Vernon, Virginia.

  75. Diary entry, April 11, 1772, DGW, vol. 3, 102.

  76. Virginia Gazette, November 5, 1772, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  77. Katie King and Daniel Hawkins, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 24, 2018.

  78. Gary Hayes, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 26, 2018.

  79. Virginia Gazette, August 6, 1772, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  80. Turner, The Mother of Washington, 222.

  81. Angelo, First Mothers, 404.

  82. Letter from Edward Jones to George Washington, December 7, 1772, PGWCol, vol. 9, 137–38.

  83. Letter from George Washington to Betty Washington Lewis, September 13, 1789, PGWPres, ed. Dorothy Twohig, vol. 4 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1993), 32–36.

  84. Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience, 265.

  CHAPTER 9: BEFORE THE REVOLUTION

  1. Emily J. Salmon and Edward D. C. Campbell Jr., eds., The Hornbook of Virginia History (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1994), 103–6.

  2. Corry, The Life of George Washington, 23.

  3. John Howe, Language and Political Meaning in Revolutionary America (Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2004), 43.

  4. Jay A. Parry and Andrew M. Allison, The Real George Washington (American Classic series; Malta, ID: National Center for Constitutional Studies, 2010), 95–97.

  5. Brooke, King George III, 88, 390.

  6. Virginia Gazette, September 19, 1766, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  7. James L. Stokesbury, A Short History of the American Revolution (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), 29.

  8. As quoted in Brockett and Rock, A Concise History of the City of Alexandria, Va., 16.

  9. Stokesbury, A Short History of the American Revolution, 30.

  10. Letter from George Washington to Lord Botetourt, December 8, 1769, PGWCol, ed. W. W. Abbot and Dorothy Twohig, vol. 8 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1993), 272–77.

  11. Letter from Richard Jackson to Benjamin Franklin, November 12, 1763, PBF, ed. Leonard W. Labaree, vol. 10 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959), 368–72; letter from Benjamin Franklin to Richard Jackson, June 25, 1763, PBF, vol. 11, 234–24.

  12. Kevin Phillips, 1775: A Good Year for Revolution (New York: Penguin Books, 2012), 116.

  13. Brooke, King George III, 125.

  14. Franklin, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, 181.

  15. As quoted in Corry, The Life of George Washington, 28.

  16. Claire Priest, “The Stamp Act and the Political Origins of American Legal and Economic Institutions,” Yale Law School Faculty Scholarship Series, no. 4934, 2015, 886–87.

  17. Letter from Benjamin Franklin to Governor William Shirley, December 4, 1754, PBF, vol. 5, 443–44.

  18. Letter from George Washington to Robert Cary & Company, September 20, 1765, PGWCol, vol. 7, 398–402.

  19. Letter from George Washington to Francis Dandridge, September 20, 1765, PGWCol, vol. 7, 395–96.

  20. Brockett and Rock, A Concise History of the City of Alexa
ndria, Va., 17.

  21. Chernow, Washington: A Life, 137–38.

  22. Virginia Gazette, May 16, 1766, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  23. Letter from Benjamin Franklin to Lord Kames, February 25, 1767, PBF, vol. 14, 62–71.

  24. Corry, The Life of George Washington, 31; Phillips, 1775, 95.

  25. “Resolves of the House of Burgesses, Passed the 16th of May, 1769,” Library of Virginia Special Collections, Richmond, Virginia.

  26. Virginia Nonimportation Resolutions, 17 May 1769, PTJ, ed. Julian P. Boyd, vol. 1 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1950), 27–31.

  27. Letter from George Washington to George Mason, April 5, 1769, PGWCol, vol. 8, 177–81; Parry and Allison, The Real George Washington, 101.

  28. Virginia Gazette, March 29, 1770, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  29. Virginia Gazette, April 5, 1770, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  30. Virginia Gazette, September 20, 1770, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  31. Carmichael, Mary Ball Washington, 27.

  32. Diary entry, April 11, 1772, DGW, ed. Donald Jackson, vol. 3 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1976), 102.

  33. Diary entry, September 14–17, 1772, DGW, vol. 3, 130–31; General ledger B, cash accounts, September 1772, PGWCol, vol. 9, 91–92.

  34. Diary entry, November 27, 1772, DGW, vol. 3, 144; cash accounts, November 1772, PGWCol, vol. 9, 118.

  35. Corry, The Life of George Washington, 34–35.

  36. Corry, 34–35.

  37. Virginia Gazette, September 1, 1774, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  38. Diary entry, July 29, 1770, DGW, vol. 2, 256.

  39. Flexner, George Washington: The Forge of Experience, 320.

  40. Corry, The Life of George Washington, 35.

  41. Virginia Gazette, May 26, 1774, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  42. Diary entry, June 1, 1774, DGW, vol. 3, 254.

  43. Letter from John Harrower to Mrs. Harrower, June 14, 1744; “Diary of John Harrower, 1773–1776,” The American Historical Review, vol. 6, no. 1, October 1900, 84; Hamilton, Mary Ball Washington, 20–21.

  44. Receipt from Robert Broom to Mary Washington, May 18, 1774; Mary Washington House Archives, Fredericksburg, Virginia.

  45. Turner, The Mother of Washington, 211.

  46. Letter from George Washington to George William Fairfax, June 10–15, 1774, PGWCol, vol. 10, 94–101.

  47. Letter from George Washington to Bryan Fairfax, July 20, 1774, PGWCol, vol. 10, 128–31.

  48. Diary entries, August 23 and 25, 1774, Phillip Vickers Fithian, Journal and Letters, 1767–1774 (Carlisle, MA: Applewood Books, 1900), 234–35.

  49. Virginia Gazette, July 21, 1774, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  50. As quoted in Chernow, Washington: A Life, 171.

  51. Letter from George Washington to Thomas Jefferson, August 5, 1774, PGWCol, vol. 10, 142–43.

  52. Diary entry, August 9, 1774, DGW, vol. 3, 269; cash accounts, August 1774, PGWCol, vol. 10, 138–41.

  53. Wilson, George Washington, 154.

  54. As quoted in Douglas Bradburn, The Citizenship Revolution: Politics & the Creation of the American Union, 1774–1804 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009), 19.

  55. Bradburn, The Citizenship Revolution, 23; diary entry, September 8, 1774, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, ed. L. H. Butterfield, vol. 2 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1961), 128–31.

  56. As quoted in Bradburn, The Citizenship Revolution, 20.

  57. Worthington Chauncey Ford, ed., Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1905), vol. 1, 67–68.

  58. Chernow, Washington: A Life, 173.

  59. Letter to Robert McKenzie, October 9, 1774; as quoted in Chernow, Washington: A Life, 174.

  60. General ledger B, card playing expenses, 1772–1774, PGWCol, vol. 10, 223.

  61. General ledger B, cash accounts, October 1774, PGWCol, vol. 10, 166–68.

  62. Diary entry, October 11, 1774, Fithian, Journal and Letters, 266.

  63. Virginia Gazette, August 11, 1774, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  64. Virginia Gazette, October 20, 1774, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  65. Virginia Gazette, August 11, 1774, August 18, 1774, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  66. Virginia Gazette, November 3, 1774, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  67. Virginia Gazette, December 1, 1774, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  68. Account of the weather in December 1774, January 1775, and February 1775, DGW, vol. 3, 300–30, 305–7, 310–11.

  69. Diary entry, March 23, 1775, DGW, vol. 3, 318.

  70. As quoted in Freeman, George Washington, vol. 3, 403–4.

  71. Freeman, George Washington, vol. 3, 406–7.

  72. Account with Mary Washington, April 27, 1775, PGWCol, vol. 10, 347–49.

  73. Letter from George Washington to Bryan Fairfax, March 1, 1778, PGWRev, vol. 14, ed. David R. Hoth (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2004), 9–11.

  74. Letter from George Washington to Joseph Jones, February 11, 1783; manuscript/mixed material, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

  CHAPTER 10: OFF TO WAR

  1. Virginia Gazette, May 5, 1775, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  2. Freeman, George Washington, vol. 3, 412–13; Chernow, Washington: A Life, 181.

  3. Letter from George Washington to George William Fairfax, May 31, 1775, PGWCol, vol. 10, 367–68; Chernow, Washington: A Life, 181.

  4. Freeman, George Washington, vol. 3, 419.

  5. Diary entry, in Congress, June and July 1775, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, vol. 3, 321.

  6. Diary entry, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 321.

  7. Diary entry, in Congress, June and July 1775, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, vol. 3, 321–24; Ford, Journals of the Continental Congress, 91.

  8. Diary entry, June 15, 1775, DGW, vol. 3, ed. Donald Jackson (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1978), 336.

  9. Ford, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 2, 92.

  10. Freeman, George Washington, vol. 3, 439–40.

  11. Letter from George Washington to Martha Washington, June 18, 1775, PGWRev, vol. 1, ed. Philander D. Chase (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1985), 3–6.

  12. Letter from George Washington to Burwell Bassett, June 19, 1775, PGWRev, vol. 1, 12–14.

  13. Letter from George Washington to John Parke Custis, June 19, 1775, PGWRev, vol. 1, 15–16.

  14. Letter from George Washington to John Augustine Washington, June 20, 1775, PGWRev, vol. 1, 19–20.

  15. Letter from George Washington to Martha Washington, June 20, 1775, PGWRev, vol. 1, 27–28.

  16. Virginia Gazette, July 6, 1775, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  17. Virginia Gazette, May 13, 1775, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  18. Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, 135.

  19. Harland, The Story of Mary Washington, 108.

  20. Conkling, Memoirs of the Mother and Wife of Washington, 43.

  21. Michelle Hamilton, in discussion with Scott Mauer, April 24, 2018.

  22. Letter from George Washington to Samuel Washington, July 20, 2018, PGWRev, vol. 1, 134–36.

  23. Ford, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 2, 158–62.

  24. “His Majesty’s Most Gracious Speech to Both Houses of Parliament,” October 27, 1775; Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

  25. John E. Selby, The Revolution in Virginia, 1775–1783 (Williamsburg: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1988), 62–65.

  26. Virginia Gazette, November 25, 1775, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  27. Virginia Gazette, November 25, 1775, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  28. Selby, The Revolution in Virginia, 67.

  29. Stokesbury, A Short History of the American Revolution, 87
.

  30. Virginia Gazette, September 27, 1776, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  31. Virginia Gazette, February 2, 1776, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  32. Virginia Gazette, July 12, 1776, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  33. Ford, Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 8, 464.

  34. John Mollo, Uniforms of the American Revolution, 1775–1781 (New York: Sterling, 1975), 51–59; Stokesbury, A Short History of the American Revolution, 46.

  35. Stokesbury, A Short History of the American Revolution, 69–70.

  36. Clary, George Washington’s First War, 127–28.

  37. Mollo, Uniforms of the American Revolution, 11–13.

  38. Stokesbury, A Short History of the American Revolution, 72.

  39. Samuel Seabury, A View of the Controversy Between Great-Britain and Her Colonies (New York: Royal Exchange, 1775), 13–14.

  40. Mollo, Uniforms of the American Revolution, 33.

  41. Letter from George Washington to William Shippen Jr., February 6, 1777, PGWRev, vol. 8, 264.

  42. Volo and Volo, Daily Life During the American Revolution, 230.

  43. Virginia Gazette, January 13, 1776, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  44. Virginia Gazette, September 15, 1774, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  45. Petula Dvorak, “This Woman’s Name Appears on the Declaration of Independence. So Why Don’t We Know Her Story?” Washington Post, July 3, 2017.

  46. Virginia Gazette, September 21, 1776, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  47. Volo and Volo, Daily Life During the American Revolution, 232.

  48. Volo and Volo, 233.

  49. Virginia Gazette, April 18, 1777, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  50. Virginia Gazette, July 3, 1779, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  51. Virginia Gazette, May 15, 1779, Colonial Williamsburg Archives.

  52. Volo and Volo, Daily Life During the American Revolution, 240.

  53. Selby, The Revolution in Virginia, 235–36.

  54. “Sketch of Washington,” New York Times, June 27, 1856.

  55. Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, 413–14.

  56. As quoted in Volo and Volo, Daily Life During the American Revolution, 243.

  57. Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington, 139–40.

  58. Pryor, The Mother of Washington and Her Times, 256.