by Flora Fraser
Nelly’s second child, Martha, aged ten months, contracted measles the night of her great-grandmother’s death and did not survive. That August a son who might have brought happiness died shortly after his birth. Consolation for such misfortunes, guidance for Wash Custis and the other grandchildren, were now for others to afford. Martha, a woman of strong faith, never doubted that when she went to meet her maker, there she would find her husband and, with him, renewed happiness.
Washington, provident to the end, had left instructions in his will: “The family Vault at Mount Vernon requiring repairs, and being improperly situated besides, I desire that a new one of Brick, and upon a larger Scale, may be built at the foot of what is commonly called the Vineyard Inclosure.” In the early 1830s there was no further thought of the removal of Washington’s remains to the Capitol. John Augustine Washington II, then owner of Mount Vernon, acted. Besides the Washingtons themselves and Bushrod Washington, all others who lay in the old tomb at that time—Patsy Parke Custis, George Augustine Washington, and Fanny Bassett Washington Lear included—were transferred to a new vault. There, in marble sarcophagi, side by side to this day, George and Martha Washington lie, “Join’d by Friendship, Crown’d by Love.”
* * *
1 President Theodore Roosevelt, cruising on the Potomac on the yacht Mayflower in 1906, was much impressed by the ceremony observed. Finding that the passing honors were not official, he issued General Order no. 22, June 2, 1906, to apply to all vessels of the U.S. Navy passing Mount Vernon between sunrise and sunset: “Marine guard and band paraded; bell tolled and colors halfmasted at the beginning of the tolling of the bell. When opposite Washington’s Tomb, buglers sound taps, marine guard present arms, and officers and men on deck stand at attention and salute. The colors will be mastheaded at the last note of taps which will also be the signal for ‘carry on.’ ” The playing of the national anthem was subsequently added.
2 Only a few items survive. Martha’s addenda to Lund’s and Jacky’s letters to Washington of 1767 and 1777, respectively, were overlooked. The letters that the general had written in June 1775 before setting out for the war were later found, caught behind a drawer in Martha’s writing desk. Thirdly, the letter of introduction to Martha that Washington wrote in 1782 for James Brown of Rhode Island remained, undelivered, in the latter’s keeping.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am conscious, as a British citizen, of my temerity in writing on that most American of couples, the Washingtons. Throughout the project, however, I enjoyed the expert guidance and editing of my friend Robert Gottlieb, who is something of a legend himself. On the skills of Peter James in London I additionally leaned. I am grateful to Sonny Mehta and those others at Knopf, including Iris Weinstein and Kelly Blair, who have made this book a pleasure to behold and handle. Ellen Feldman performed wonders at all stages of production. At Bloomsbury in the U.K. I thank Michael Fishwick, who believed in the book from the beginning, and Anna Simpson, a fount of calm. In addition, I thank Leonora Clarke for her exemplary typing of the book from manuscript. Last but never least, Georgina Capel, my literary agent, encouraged me when I was faltering, and enthused at other times.
I thank David Lindroth for creating the maps. I also thank Audrey Silverman at Knopf and Lesley Robertson Allen, at home, for energetic picture research.
Though I live in London, I roved the eastern seaboard of the United States for several years in pursuit of my subjects and encountered generous responses to my inquiries wherever I went. I first visited Mount Vernon in some style, thanks to the good offices of my friend Cate Magennis Wyatt, founder and president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership. Mount Vernon soon became ground that I trod frequently. Michele Lee, special collections librarian, and Dawn Bonner, photographic resources and rights coordinator, gave me much welcome assistance. Elsewhere in Virginia I enjoyed happy hours with family albums at Chestnut Grove, New Kent—Martha Washington’s birthplace—thanks to the kindness of Richard Potter and his cousin William Richardson III of Chelsea Plantation. I would also like to thank those National Historical Park volunteers, at different Revolutionary War headquarters and battlefields, who contributed to my understanding of eight years of war so long ago in a different America. I visited Morristown and other sites in New Jersey alone and in the dead of winter. On research trips to New York, Philadelphia, Brandywine, and Valley Forge, however, I had the stimulating company of my daughter, Stella Powell-Jones. With her brothers, Simon and Tommy Soros, and their father, Peter, I paid energetic and fruitful visits to Boston and Washington, D.C. I thank them all four, volunteers extraordinaires. I thank my mother, Antonia Fraser, for the excellent suggestions she made when the book was at draft stage and Stella Tillyard for her later commentary. Munro Price also kindly reviewed the sections relating to French history and politics.
The British Library and the London Library were rich resources, and the librarians at both institutions, as ever, helpful. Mary V. Thompson, research historian at Mount Vernon, shared with me—in person and in correspondence—some of her great fund of knowledge about the Washingtons and read the book in manuscript. I owe her many thanks. Other distinguished scholars were kindness itself in person and in correspondence. Frances S. Pollard, vice president for research services at the Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, guided me through the Custis and Lee Papers and read the book in manuscript. Jeffrey M. Flannery, head of reference and reader services, steered me toward pertinent papers in the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. I must also record my thanks to Theodore Crackel, Edward G. Lengel, and others at the University of Virginia who have led the publishing project The Papers of George Washington. I have communed daily with the digital edition from my desk in London. In particular I thank William M. Ferraro, associate editor, who kindly read my manuscript and offered many helpful suggestions. All errors are my own, but I am grateful to all of the above.
I thank Nancy Roosevelt Ireland for kind permission to quote from the papers of Eleanor Roosevelt. I am grateful, additionally, to many American archivists and librarians for information about manuscript collections in their care. At Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia, where so many souvenirs of the Washingtons’ marriage are gathered, I profited greatly from conversation with Vaughan Stanley, special collections and reference librarian in Leyburn Library. I also thank, at Washington and Lee, Kim Ruscio, Peter Grover, Linda Donald, and Patricia Hobbs. At the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Ellen G. Miles was kind enough to discuss with me, in front of the canvases, the Gilbert Stuart portraits of George and of Martha Washington. In addition Leslie Buhler, director of Tudor Place Historic House and Garden, shared her knowledge of Washington artifacts. Thanks to the good offices of Carlos Picon and Carrie Rebora Barratt at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I enjoyed an early viewing of Leutze’s Washington Crossing the Delaware, restored and reframed, in the new American Wing. To Helen A. Cooper, among others at the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, I am indebted for information and assistance regarding images of the Washingtons in that rich collection. I thank also Robin Jaffee Frank, director of the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, for showing me, when she was at Yale, Robert Field’s miniatures of the couple. Elizabeth Fairman, at the Yale Center for British Art, kindly helped me to an understanding of colonial cartography. Lastly, Dr. E. Quinn Peeper, MD, offered invaluable insight into Patsy Parke Custis’s epilepsy.
I am grateful additionally for various kindnesses and also for concrete assistance shown me by friends here in London and in America during my researches. David Michaelis paused often in his own work on Eleanor Roosevelt to pass me nuggets of information relevant to mine. Daisy Soros, Stephen and Cathy Graham, and Jeffrey and Elizabeth Leeds, in America, and Juliet Hughes-Hallett and Amelia Mendoza, in London, were generous with their enthusiasm for the project. Katherine Bucknell, Marjorie Susman, Megan Gabriel, Amy Meyers, Joseph Gordon, Philip Mansel, Lowell Libson, Aileen Ribeiro, Anne Somerset, and the l
ate Rick Mather all offered helpful suggestions or introductions. Annabel Fairfax kindly introduced me to her brother-in-law, Hugh Fairfax, when I was investigating his forebears.
To the late Paul Soros I am indebted for raising numerous points that required answering. I shared early thoughts on the book with Catharine Soros, Eileen West, Susan Golden, Val Paley, and Julia Ogilvy, among other Sconset book club members, and with Bonnie Block, Deborah Walker, and Beth Singer. Pie Friendly in Washington, D.C., thanks to Carla Powell in Europe, became a friend and made introductions for me there in the museum and library world. Diana Walker, a long-standing friend in D.C., was both energetic in introductions and a generous hostess. I am also grateful to Lea Carpenter Brokaw and to her godmother, Virginia Massie Valentine, for assistance and hospitality in Richmond, Virginia. For facilitating, with Walter Robertson, introductions at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, and for a memorable Easter Sunday with her parents, Dr. and Mrs. Herbert A. Claiborne, I thank Mary Frediani, also of Richmond. And I bless my brother-in-law Edward Fitzgerald’s Claiborne roots.
ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
FAMILY
AMB Anna Maria “Nancy” Dandridge Bassett: wife of BB, sister of MW
BB Burwell Bassett: husband of AMB, father of FBW, brother-in-law of GW and MW
DPC Daniel Parke Custis: first husband of MW; father of JPC and EPC
ECC Eleanor “Nelly” Calvert Custis (Stuart): wife of JPC, as widow of JPC, wife of David Stuart: mother of Eliza, earlier Bet and Betsy Parke Custis; Martha, earlier Pat and Patty Parke Custis; EPC; and GWPC; later mother of other Stuart children
EPC Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis (Lewis): daughter of JPC and ECC, granddaughter of MW, later wife of Lawrence Lewis
FBW Frances “Fanny” Bassett Washington (Lear): daughter of AMB and BB, niece to MW, wife of GAW and, as widow of GAW, wife of Tobias Lear
GAW George Augustine Washington: son of JAW, nephew of GW, sometime Mount Vernon agent, husband of FBW
GW George Washington
GWPC George “Wash” Washington Parke Custis, later known as Washington Custis: son of JPC and ECPC, grandson of MW
JAW John Augustine “Jack” Washington: younger brother of GW
JPC John “Jacky” Parke Custis: son of MW and of DPC: father of Eliza, earlier Bet and Betsy Parke Custis, Martha, earlier Pat and Patty Parke Custis; EPC; and GWPC
LW Lund Washington: cousin of GW, sometime Mount Vernon agent
MPC Martha “Patsy” Parke Custis: daughter of MW and of DPC
MW Martha Dandridge Washington, wife of GW; earlier wife of DPC, mother of JPC and MPC
SW Samuel Washington: younger brother of GW
DOCUMENTARY SOURCES AND JOURNALS
AFP Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive, http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive
AHR American Historical Review
AM American Memory, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/html
AP Adams Papers, Digital Edition, ed. C. James Taylor, http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/ADMS.html
AP/EA Adams Papers, Digital Edition, ed. C. James Taylor, Founders Early Access [draft, unannotated material], Charlottesville, Va.
ATC An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/rbpehtml
CL A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amllaw
FDRL Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, http://fdrlibrary.marist.edu
FO Founders Online, http://founders.archives.gov
FUL Fordham University Library, http://www.library.fordham.edu
GLC Gilder Lehrman Collection, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, http://www.gilderlehrman.org/collections
GWP George Washington Papers, 1741–1799, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gwhtml/gwhome.html
HJ House Journal, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwhj.html
HSP Historical Society of Pennsylvania, https://www.hsp.org
JCC Journals of the Continental Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwjc.html
JHB Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1770–1772, ed. John Pendleton Kennedy, https://archive.org/details/journalsofhouseo12virg
LDC Letters of Delegates to Congress, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwdg.html
LOC Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss
MHS Massachusetts Historical Society, http://www.masshist.org
MVDE Mount Vernon Digital Encyclopedia, http://www.mountvernon.org/research-collections
MVLA Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, Mount Vernon, Va.
NYHS New-York Historical Society, http://www.nyhistory.org
NYHSQ New-York Historical Society Quarterly
PBF Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Digital Edition, http://franklinpapers.org/franklin
PGW Papers of George Washington, Digital Edition, ed. Theodore J. Crackel et al., http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/GEWN.html
PGW/EA Papers of George Washington Digital Edition, ed. Theodore J. Crackel et al., Founders Early Access [draft, unannotated material], Charlottesville, Va.
PHP President’s House in Philadelphia, http://www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse
PMHB Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
Proc. MHS Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society
PSC State Society of the Cincinnati of Pennsylvania, http://pasocietyofthecincinnati.org
PTJ Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Digital Edition, ed. Barbara B. Oberg and J. Jefferson Looney, http://rotunda.upress.virginia.edu/founders/TSJN.html
PTJ/EA Papers of Thomas Jefferson Digital Edition, ed. Barbara B. Oberg and J. Jefferson Looney, Founders Early Access [draft, unannotated material], Charlottesville, Va.
SC Society of the Cincinnati, http://www.societyofthecincinnati.org
SJ Senate Journal, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsj.html
TJP Thomas Jefferson Papers, 1606–1827, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/jefferson_papers
VHS Virginia Historical Society, http://www.vahistorical.org/collections-and-resources
VMHB Virginia Magazine of History and Biography
WFC Washington Family Collection, LOC Manuscript Division, LCCN MM 7605–6408.
WGW Writings of George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799, ed. John C. Fitzpatrick, http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/washington/fitzpatrick/
WLU Washington and Lee University, Special Collections, http://libguides.wlu.edu/specialcollections
WMQ William and Mary Quarterly
YUAG Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn.
NOTES
PROLOGUE: CASTING LOTS FOR HIS GARMENTS, JULY 1802
and a hat: “Private sales, which took place upstairs [sic] among the legatees…22 July 1802,” Box 1, WFC.
his predecessor’s library: William Thornton to Thomas Jefferson, July 28, 1802, TJP.
a century earlier: Prussing, Estate of George Washington, Deceased, 453.
of the war: “Account of Sales…” 1802, in Fields, “Worthy Partner,” 412; Detweiler, George Washington’s Chinaware, 185.
“affections exemplarily tender”: Lee, Funeral Oration, 10.
a remarkable union: Robert Field, George Washington and Robert Field, Mrs. George Washington, both at YUAG.
“of Mr. Custis?”: Adams, ed., John Adams, Works, 6:462.
costly looking glasses: “Account of Sales…” 1802, in Fields, “Worthy Partner,” 414–15.
a central attraction: Custis, Recollections, 65.
overgrown with cedars: Rasmussen and Tilton, Washington: Man Behind Myths, 266.
“were perfectly illegible”: Horrell and Oram, “Washington’s ‘Marble colour’d folio book,’ ” 253.
tattered quarto books. Sections 25, 27, Custis Family Papers, VHS.
“folio Book” ledger: Ledger Book 2, f. 111 [1774], Ser
ies 5, GWP.
restored, and reordered: Horrell and Oram, “Washington’s ‘Marble colour’d folio book,’ ” passim.
“not do it?”: Thane, Mount Vernon Is Ours, 16.
“lived and died!”: Ann Pamela Cunningham to MVLA Board, June 1, 1874, Minutes (1874), 5, MVLA.
constituted “love letters”: GW to Elizabeth Powel, March 26, 1797, PGW.
“in each other”: Showman et al., eds., Greene Papers, 2:54.
on his tomb: Eleanor Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Soong May-ling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek), February 22, 1943 [photograph: George R. Skadding], MVLA.
“of the day”: Radio broadcast text, February 22, 1935, Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Box 1401, FDRL, courtesy of Nancy Roosevelt Ireland.
“cosy little place”: Johnson, Story of a Shrine, 75; Mount Vernon lore.
