Martha Washington
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.In addition to hosting weekly social events, Washington understood that how she composed herself would reflect on the nation, both domestically and abroad.She was the oldest daughter of Frances Jones, the granddaughter of an Anglican rector,[3]: 2 and John Dandridge, a Virginia planter[3]: 2 and county clerk[2]: 9 who emigrated from England.[4] As the oldest of eight, including one sister that was 25 years her junior, Dandridge played a maternal and domestic role beginning early in life.[6]: 26–27 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.[8] 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.[10]: 4 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.[3]: 2 According to her biographer, "she capably ran the five plantations left to her when her first husband died, bargaining with London merchants for the best tobacco prices".[13] 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.[10]: 4 It was a marriage based in mutual respect and shared habits, with both maintaining similar schedules in day-to-day life and both prioritizing family and image over excitement and vice.[3]: 3 Washington entertained almost daily, having visitors for dinner or for longer stays as the family became more prominent in the political and social life of Virginia.[15][16] Washington's last surviving child, John, left King's College that fall and married Eleanor Calvert in February 1774.[18] 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.[20] 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.She also resumed hosting company at Mount Vernon, recruiting several of her nieces and other young women to assist her, as the house was overwhelmed with visitors.[10]: 7–8 Their life at Mount Vernon was interrupted again when he was asked to participate at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and again when he was chosen as the first president of the United States in 1789.[7] The journey was followed by the press, which was unprecedented in the attention that it paid to a woman's actions, and the entourage was met with admirers and fanfare in each town that it passed through.[23]: 6–7 Washington was also tasked by her husband with the responsibility of hosting drawing room events on Fridays in which ladies were permitted to attend.[10]: 9 The guests were at first uncertain as to whether they should follow the royal custom of waiting for the hostess to leave before they do, and she resolved the issue by announcing her husband always retired at nine.[2]: 12 Washington was forced to take control of the presidential residence at one point shortly after her husband's presidency began, forbidding guests from entering, as he was undergoing the removal of a tumor.[24]: 67–68 In July 1790, artist John Trumbull gave Washington a full-length portrait painting of her husband as a gift.[24]: 37 The Washingtons left the capital immediately after the inauguration of John Adams, making the return journey to Mount Vernon, which by then had begun to decay.[28] As a widow, Washington spent her final years living in a garret where she knitted, sewed, and responded to letters.When she developed a fever in 1802, she burned all of her husband's letters to her, summoned a clergyman to administer last communion, and chose her funeral dress.[30] 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.[40] 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.[41] 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.
Martha Washington (comics)Gilbert StuartFirst Lady of the United StatesGeorge WashingtonAbigail AdamsChestnut GroveBritish AmericaMount VernonVirginiaDaniel Parke CustisMarthaJohn DandridgeFrances Dandridgepresident of the United StatesAmerican Revolutioncommander-in-chiefContinental ArmyJohn Parke Custishead of staterepublicanJohn Chester ButtreJohn WollastonNew Kent CountyColony of VirginiaFrances JonesAnglican: 2 from EnglandequestrianismJohn CustisWhite House PlantationPamunkey Riverone third of his estateWilliamsburgHouse of BurgessesThirteen Coloniescuringsmokehouseepilepsyepileptic seizureEleanor CalvertRembrandt PealeCharles Willson PealeLoyalistPatriotAmerican Revolutionary WarCambridgesewing circleSiege of BostonDeclaration of IndependenceGeneral Lafayettesiege of Yorktownepidemic typhusEleanor (Nelly) Parke CustisGeorge Washington Parke (Washy) CustisConfederation periodConstitutional ConventionDaniel HuntingtonNew York CityNew Year's DayHoover administrationPhiladelphiadrawing roomRepublican CourtEdward SavageCherry StreetBroadwayMarket StreetTobias LearLucy Flucker KnoxHenry Knoxsecond ladyEpiscopalianJohn TrumbullGeorges Washington de La FayetteMarquis de LafayetteOney Judgehead of governmentanti-Federalistsinauguration of John AdamsLawrence Lewisprovisional armygarretThomas JeffersonJeffersonianEmory & Henry CollegeMartha Washington Innpostage stamp1902 stamp seriesdefinitive stampPresidential IssuePocahontaspattern coinsSiena College Research InstituteSamuel Osgood HouseAlexander Macomb HousePresident's House (Philadelphia)Dandridge, TennesseeMount Vernon Ladies' AssociationDictionary of Virginia BiographyThe Washington PostXulon PressPenguin BooksCaroli, Betty BoydThe Papers of George WashingtonBibliography of United States presidential spouses and first ladiesWikisourceWhite Housearchive.todayC-SPANFirst ladies of the United StatesMartha Jefferson RandolphDolley MadisonElizabeth MonroeLouisa AdamsEmily DonelsonSarah JacksonAngelica Van BurenAnna HarrisonJane HarrisonLetitia TylerPriscilla TylerJulia TylerSarah PolkMargaret TaylorAbigail Fillmore