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Martha Washington is best known in her role as the wife of the first President of the United States, George Washington. She was a great support to her husband and a wonderful example for the other First Ladies that would come after her.
Martha Washington was born at Chestnut Grove in the county of New Kent, Virginia on June 2, 1731. She was the daughter of John Dandridge and Frances Jones. Martha was the eldest of 9 children . Her father saw that she received a fair education in basic mathematics, reading and writing...something girls primarily did not receive at the time.
At the age of seventeen, she married Col. Daniel Parke Custis, twenty years her senior. They lived in his estate called White House and ran his extensive estate. She had
four children with Mr. Custis. Her eldest was a daughter, Frances, who died in infancy, next was a son named Daniel,
whose early death is supposed to have hastened his father’s death. The third was Martha (nicknamed Patsy), who died in 1770 as a young woman, and last was John, who perished in the service of his country, at the siege of Yorktown at the age of 27.
When she was still quite young, Martha was left a young widow with great wealth. Martha was an extraordinary woman and her early education proved quite helpful in running the estate left in her care. Her husband’s former business manager stayed on to help with the operation of the plantation and she consulted with lawyers when she felt it
was necessary.
In 1759 she married George Washington, then a colonel in the colonial service. The new family consisted of George, Martha, Patsy, and John who soon after the marriage made
their home at George’s estate, Mount Vernon, on the Potomac River.
Even though Martha remained at Mount Vernon when George went to Philadelphia as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, she frequently accompanied him to his headquarters during the war years. She spent the winter of 1775 at his headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in the spring of 1776 she accompanied him to New York. In the spring of 1777 she arrived at his headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, but she returned to Mount Vernon for the summer. The next winter she joined her husband at Valley Forge, and later she stayed with him during campaigns in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland.
Martha was a very loving mother and grandmother. Because of the untimely death of her son the Washingtons raised two of their four grandchildren, Eleanor Parke Custis
(Nelly) and George Washington Parke Custis (called Wash or Tub) at Mount Vernon. Even after her son's widow remarried, the two children stayed on at Mount Vernon under their care.
After General Washington’s election to the presidency of the United States in 1787, Mrs. Washington became the new country’s “first” First Lady. She moved to Washington with George, along with her two grandchildren. She performed the duties of this position with dignity and ease, becoming well-known for her hospitality. Even after the retirement of President Washington, Martha still continued her unbounded generosity.
In December, 1799, George Washington died unexpectantly. Martha was too grief-stricken even to attend the funeral. It is to be noted here that George’s will ordered
the freedom of half of his slaves, leaving the old and the young to remain. Martha freed them all in 1800. Her own health was deteriorating and in March of 1802, sensing her
death, she made a will. She then burned all her letters she and her husband had written to one another over the years, except for two.
Martha is an exquisite example of dignity, grace, and marked ability. She not only ran her home and estate with loving, capable hands, but she fulfilled her role as First Lady with equal ability and generosity.
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