John Dandridge

Colonel John Dandridge (July 14, 1700 August 31, 1756) was an English-born planter and politician who served as clerk of New Kent County, Virginia from 1730 to 1756. He may be best known as the father of Bartholomew Dandridge and the first First Lady of the United States Martha Dandridge Washington. His grandson John Dandridge also served in the Virginia General Assembly.

Ancestry and early life Born on 13 July 1700 in England (either London or Oxfordshire), An 1871 Congressional report about DC public schools quotes Ann's granddaughter "Ann Dandridge was the daughter of a half-breed, (Indian and colored), her grandfather being a Cherokee chief, and her reputed father was the father of Martha Dandridge, afterwards Mrs. Custis, who, in 1759, was married to General Washington." though others say that it was not Ann who was a descendant of John Dandridge but rather a William Costin who was Martha Dandridge Custis Washington's grandson through her son John Parke Custis, (commonly referred to as "Jacky" or "Jack"). Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (1731–1802) John Dandridge III (1733–1749) William Dandridge III (1734–1776) Bartholomew Dandridge II (1737–1785), father of John Dandridge (delegate) Anna Maria Dandridge Bassett (1739–1777) Frances Dandridge (1744–1757) Elizabeth Dandridge Aylett Henley (1749–1800) Mary Dandridge (1752–1777)

Career and residences Following their marriage in 1730, John and Frances moved to their new home on the banks of the Pamunkey River in New Kent County, Virginia, Chestnut Grove. John Dandridge became Clerk for New Kent County and kept that position for the next 26 years. He was a prominent planter, and a colonel in his military district, as well as a vestryman and churchwarden for St. Peter's Church.

Along with Chestnut Grove in New Kent County, John Dandridge also owned a house in the colony's capital, Williamsburg, and visited there frequently.

While not at sea as a merchant or royal naval officer, his older brother, William Dandridge II (1689–1743), operated a plantation on the opposite bank of the river with his wife Unity West Dandridge, daughter of prominent landowner Capt. Nathaniel West and his wife Martha Woodard Macon. Their estate, Elsing Green, was in King William County.

Later life Dandridge died on 31 August 1756 at the age of 56 while visiting his niece and her husband, Alexander Spottswood, in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Dandridge is interred at St. George's Episcopal Church burial ground in Fredericksburg. Chestnut Grove burned down in 1926, but its former site was only four miles from the location of the current county courthouse for New Kent.