Martha Washington

Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (née Dandridge, formerly Custis; June 2, 1731 O.S. – May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, who was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, she served as the inaugural first lady of the United States, defining the role of the president's wife and setting many precedents that future first ladies observed. During her tenure, she was referred to as "Lady Washington". Washington is consistently ranked in the upper half of first ladies by historians.

Martha Dandridge married Daniel Parke Custis on May 15, 1750. They had four children, only one of whom survived to adulthood. She was widowed in July 1757 at the age of 26, inheriting a large estate, and remarried to George Washington in January 1759 at the age of 27, moving to his plantation, Mount Vernon. Her youngest daughter died of epilepsy in 1773, and the Washingtons were unable to conceive any children of their own. Washington became a symbol of the American Revolution after her husband was appointed commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. During the war, she played a maternal role, visiting encampments when fighting stalled each winter. Her only surviving child, John Parke Custis, died from a camp illness during the war. After the war ended in 1783, she sought retirement at Mount Vernon, but returned to public life when her husband became president of the United States in 1789.

Lady Washington took on the social role of the president's wife reluctantly, becoming a national celebrity in the process. She found this life unpleasant, feeling that she was restricted and wishing for retirement. In addition to hosting weekly social events, Washington understood that how she composed herself would reflect on the nation, both domestically and abroad. As such, she struck a careful balance between the dignity associated with a head of state's wife and the humility associated with republican government. The Washingtons returned to Mount Vernon in 1797, and Washington spent her retirement years greeting admirers and advising her successors. She was widowed for a second time in 1799, and she died a few years later in 1802.

Early life (1731–1748)

Martha Dandridge was born on June 2, 1731, on her parents' tobacco plantation, Chestnut Grove Plantation in New Kent County the Colony of Virginia. She was the oldest daughter of Frances Jones, herself the daughter of the politician Orlando Jones and granddaughter of an Anglican rector, and John Dandridge, a Virginia planter and an illegitimate white half-brother, Ralph Dandridge.

Dandridge's father was well connected with the Virginia aristocracy despite his relative lack of wealth, and she was taught to behave as a woman of the upper class. Dandridge received a relatively high-quality education for the daughter of a planter, though it was still inferior to that of her brothers. She took to equestrianism, at one point riding her horse up and down the stairs of her uncle's home and escaping chastisement because her father was so impressed by her skill.

Frances Jones Dandridge

Frances Jones Dandridge (August 6, 1710 – April 9, 1785), nicknamed Fanny, was Martha's mother. Fanny was born in 1710 on a plantation near Williamsburg near the capital on Queen's Creek. Fanny had an older brother, Lane Jones, born in 1707. Fanny's father, Orlando Jones, was a Burgess for New Kent County in 1718 in the House of Burgesses, the leading legislative body in Colonial Virginia. Her mother (m. January 31, 1702), Martha Macon Jones (Saint Peter, New Kent County, 1687-Macon's Island, Williamsburg, May 4, 1716), was the daughter of Colonel Gideon Macon, (Her maternal grandfather, Col.) Gideon Macon was a member of the House of Burgesses from 1696 to 1702, and was secretary to Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, during his second term in office. Upon Col. Macon's death in 1702, his widow, Martha Woodward Macon, married Captain Nathaniel West who was also a representative in the House of Burgesses. Captain Nathaniel West and Martha Woodward Macon West had two children. Their daughter, Unity West, married John Dandridge's brother, William Dandridge. William Dandridge was appointed to the Governor's Council in 1727, the highest political position available to colony residents. Fanny inherited ten enslaved people and land in King William County from her father, which she brought to the marriage. or 1715. (Or by 1715.) He and his wife Unity West Dandridge, an heiress, lived on the opposite bank of the river from Chestnut Grove at his Elsing Green estate in King William County, Virginia. and Ralph Dandridge.

Marriage to Daniel Parke Custis (1749–1757) In 1749, Dandridge met Daniel Parke Custis, the son of a wealthy planter in Virginia. Daniel Parke Custis was one of the wealthiest men in the Virginia colony as well as one of the largest slaveowners, owning nearly 300 slaves. thumb Martha Dandridge Custis in 1757: engraving by John Chester Buttre after a portrait by John WollastonCustis became a widow at the age of 26 when Daniel Parke Custis died (probably from a severe throat infection). Upon his death, Custis inherited the large estate that her husband had previously inherited from his father, John Custis.

Early years of marriage to George Washington (1758–1774) Courtship and wedding

By one account Custis met George Washington during the Williamsburg social season, and they courted over the following months during his leaves from the military. Their marriage remained happy over the following 40 years, in part because of their similar worldviews. Washington's last surviving child, John, left King's College that fall and married Eleanor Calvert in February 1774. Washington was kept informed of the war's developments by her husband, sometimes performing clerical work for him, and she was even permitted to know military secrets. On April 6, Elizabeth Drinker and three friends arrived at Valley Forge to plead with the General to release their husbands from jail; the men, all Quakers, had refused to swear a loyalty oath to the American revolutionaries. Because the commander was not available at first, the women visited with Martha. Drinker described her later in her diary as "a sociable pretty kind of Woman".

Washington's son John was serving as a civilian aide to his father during the siege of Yorktown in 1781 when he died of "camp fever", a diagnosis for epidemic typhus.

Postwar retirement The Washingtons returned to Mount Vernon in 1783. She did not immediately join him at the capital in New York City, only arriving in May 1789. After arriving at the capital, Washington became the inaugural First Lady of the United States, though the term would not be used until later. Instead, she was referred to as "Lady Washington".

As the inaugural first lady, many of Washington's practices became traditions for future first ladies, including the opening of the presidential mansion (later, the White House) to the public on New Year's Day, a practice that would continue until the presidency of Herbert Hoover.

Personal life The Washington Family by Edward SavageThe first presidential residence was a house on Cherry Street, followed by a house on Broadway. The capital was moved to Philadelphia in 1790, and the presidential residence again moved, When she learned that her husband might take on a second term as president, she uncharacteristically protested against the decision. Despite her opposition, he was reelected in 1793, and she reluctantly accepted four more years as the wife of the president. She found the pageantry of the presidency to be boring and artificial. As a widow, Washington spent her final years living in a garret where she knitted, sewed, and responded to letters. Though Washington was the legal owner of her husband's property, she gave control of its business affairs to her relatives. She had anticipated her death since that of her husband. When she developed a fever in 1802, Washington burned all of her husband's letters to her, summoned a clergyman to administer last communion, and chose her funeral dress. In 1831, the surviving executors of George's estate removed the bodies of the Washingtons from the old vault to a similar structure within the present enclosure at Mount Vernon. It was merged with Emory & Henry College in 1918, and the main original building of Martha Washington College was converted to the Martha Washington Inn. Martha Washington Seminary, a finishing school for young women in Washington, DC, was opened in 1905, and it ceased operations in 1949.

A postage stamp featuring Martha Washington, the first stamp to honor an American woman, was issued as part of the 1902 stamp series. An stamp, it was printed in violet-black ink. The second stamp issued in her honor, a definitive stamp printed in yellow-brown ink, was released in 1923. A stamp was issued in 1938 to honor Washington as part of the Presidential Issue series. Washington's image was featured on the one dollar silver certificate banknote beginning in 1886, making her the second woman to appear on an American banknote after Pocahontas. To prevent confusion with existing coinage, pattern coins testing new metals have been produced by the U.S. mint, or a company contracted to it, with Martha Washington on the obverse.

Historian assessments Since 1982 Siena College Research Institute has periodically conducted surveys asking historians to assess American first ladies according to a cumulative score on the independent criteria of their background, value to the country, intelligence, courage, accomplishments, integrity, leadership, being their own women, public image, and value to the president. Consistently, Washington has been ranked in the upper-half of first ladies by historians in these surveys. In terms of cumulative assessment, Washington has been ranked: 9th-best of 42 in 1982 10th-best of 40 in 2020

In the 2008 Siena Research Institute survey, Washington was ranked 3rd-highest in the criteria of public image. In the 2014 survey, Washington and her husband were ranked the 2nd-highest out of 39 first couples in terms of being a "power couple".