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Martha Washington
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington
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Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 21, 1731 - May 22, 1802) was the
wife of George Washington, the
first president of the United States, and therefore is seen as the
first First Lady of the United States (although that title was not
coined until after her death, she was simply known as "Lady
Washington").
She was
born in New Kent County, Virginia, the daughter of John Dandridge
and his wife Frances Jones. Frances Jones was the daughter of
Orlando Jones, the founder of the first church in New Kent County,
in 1669, until his death in 1688.
Her first
marriage was to Daniel Parke Custis, with whom she had four
children, two of whom survived to adulthood, John Parke Custis
(1754-1781) and Martha "Patsy" Custis. She also collected
locks of hair from famous people instead of a portrait.
She married
George Washington on January 6, 1759, two years after the death of
her first husband. Content to live a private life on Washington's
Mount Vernon estate, she nevertheless followed him to the
battlefield. She opposed his election as president and refused to
attend his inauguration, but fulfilled her duties as the official
state hostess graciously.
Martha and
George Washington had no children together, but they raised Martha's
grandson, George Washington Parke Custis (April 30, 1781 - October
10, 1857) after his father, John Parke Custis, was killed (while
serving as an aide to Washington) during the siege of Yorktown in
1781.
Martha
Washington died at Mount Vernon, Virginia, and was buried on May 22,
1802 at Mount Vernon. Her remains were moved in 1831 from their
original burial site a few hundred feet to a brick tomb that
overlooks the Potomac River.
The Custis
estate was eventually confiscated from George Washington Parke
Custis's son-in-law, Robert E. Lee, during the Civil War, and became
Arlington National Cemetery. (In 1882, after many years in the lower
courts, the matter of the ownership of Arlington National Cemetery
was brought before the Supreme Court of United States. The Court
affirmed a Circuit Court decision that the property in question
rightfully belonged to the Lee Family. The United States Congress
then appropriated the sum of $150,000 for the purchase of the
property from the Lee Family.)
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