Mary and Martha, the mother and the wife of George Washington

Front matter

IMWXM'AwAmWXwAW'X'W

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

Introduction

So quiet, so unostentatious, so eminently domestic were the lives of the mother and the wife of George Washington that the biographer and the historian have rarely mentioned theirs as distinct from their relations as mother and wife of that illustrious man. For a faithful portraiture of the character and deeds of either of these notable women, the sum of trustworthy materials to be found in memoirs, annals, or records, is very meagre. And yet the lives of these two women were indissolubly associated with the earthly destiny of one of the grandest characters in the world's history : one as his maternal guide in his childhood and youth, and the other as his conjugal companion and counsellor in his manhood and exalted career.

From 1848 until late in i860, I was a frequent visitor at Arlington House, in Virginia, the pleasant seat of the late George Washington Parke Custis. It is situated upon high ground on the right bank of the Potomac River, overlooking the cities of Washington and Georgetown. Mr. Custis was a grandson of Martha Washington, and one of the two foster-children of her husband. He died in 1857, leaving his estate to his only child, Mrs. Mary Custis Lee, the wife of Col. Robert E. Lee, U. S. Army, who became the com-

Vlll INTRODUCTION.

mander-in-chief of the Confederate military forces late in the Civil War of i86i-'65. I continued my visits at Arlington House until a short time before the family abandoned it and joined General Lee at Richmond in the spring of 1861.

Arlington House was filled with treasures — precious mementos of the distinguished family at Mount Vernon. Furniture, plate, porcelain, pictures, account -books, and manuscripts of various kinds — relics of the Washington and Custis families — were there in abundance, and were placed at my disposal for inspection, research, and use.

Mr. Custis was eighteen years of age when Washington died, and twenty years old when his grandmother left the earth. His recollections of Washington and his wife, of his own personal experiences at Mount Vernon, and of his acquaintances and associates there, were very vivid. During many long conversations with Mr. Custis, of which I made brief notes to assist memory, I obtained a large amount of information, especially concerning his grandmother and her family. He had no clear remembrance of Washington's mother, for he was only five years of age when she died.

When, in 1859, •"^''S- Lee placed in my hands, to arrange and annotate for the press, the communications of her father to the National Intelligencer for more than twenty years, under the title of " Recollections of Washington," a large quantity of autograph letters and documents pertaining to the Washington and Custis families were put into

INTRODUCTION. IX

my possession. From these papers, and from others at Arlington House, from bits of trustworthy information picked up here and there, sometimes by accident but more frequently by research during the past thirty-five years, I gathered much knowledge concerning the mother and the wife of Washington, which has hitherto been unrevealed to the public. The threads of knowledge thus gathered form the fabric of this volume, literary and artistic.

In delineating the career of Martha Washington I have mingled sketches of events in the private and public life of her husband in which she was directly or indirectly a participant — such as amusements, fetes, military reviews, receptions, entertainments, hospitalities at Mount Vernon, and, notably, the life at various head-quarters of the army during the war for independence, at which they resided together.

So with the illustrations. Among these may be found pictures of head-quarters at which Mrs. Washington tarried v.'ith her husband after the close of each campaign ; also of the two churches at which they worshipped together a greater part of their lives during forty years, and' the Presidential mansions in New York and Philadelphia. In the delineation of other objects and events, care has been exercised for securing accuracy in form and costume, and for conforming to historical truth.

The engravings which illustrate the contents of this volume are fac-similes of pen-and-ink sketches made expressly

for this work.

Benson J. Lossing..

The Ridge, iS86.

Contents

MARY.

Chapter I

John Ball and his career, 3; the Ball family in Virginia; William Ball of Kent, 6; Joseph Ball and daughter Mary, 7; Mary Ball, birth, parentage, and early years of, 7, 8 ; defective school education of Mary, 9; her home education, lo; description of her person; visits England, 11.

Chapter II

Portrait of Mary Ball, 13; history of the portrait, 13-16; Washington and Ball families at Cookham, England, 16, 17; Washington family in England, 18, 19; the family in Virginia, 18 ; first emigrants to Virginia, 19; John Washington, 20 ; His son Augustine marries Mary Ball, who becomes the mother of George Washington, 21; place of the marriage ; birth of George Washington, 22, 23 ; discussion of the subject, 23, 24 ; description of the portrait of Mary Ball ; the painter of the portrait, 25, 26.

Chapter III

Augustine Washington's home in Virginia, 27 ; the blessings of children ; house destroyed by fire, 28 ; George Washington's first school-master ; home near Fredericksburg, 29 ; laymg of a memorial stone, 30, 31; death of Augustine Washington, 31; character of Mary Washington, 32, 33 ; Lawrence Washington, 34 ; the Mount Vernon estates, 35 ; young Washington and the untamed colt, 36-38 ; naval aspirations of the lad, 39 ; his disappointment, 40.

Chapter IV

Lord Fairfax, 42, 43 ; young Washington his favorite ; Washington a public surveyor, 43 ; death of Lawrence Washington, 44 ; George

XH CONTENTS.

Washington inherits Mount Vernon; Elizabeth Lewis, 45; French and Indian War, 46 ; Washington on a perilous mission, 47; in the military service, 48 ; on General Braddock's staff, 49 ; letters to his mother, 50-53; returns to Mount Venion, 51; dissatisfaction with the service, 52 ; commander-in-chief of the Virginia forces; member of the House of Burgesses, 53.

Chapter V

Marriages of Mary Washington's children, 55; her removal to Fredericksburg, 56; home at Fredericksburg, 56; absurd fictions, 57; news from her distinguished son, 58 ; her domestic habits, faith, and fortitude, 59 ; her firmness and piety, 60 ; her fear of lightning, 61 ; visited by her illustrious son, 62; attends a brilliant ball with American and P'rench officers, 63 ; visited by Lafayette, 64, 65; Washington's last visit to his mother, 66.; her personal appearance, 67.

CHAPTER VL

Death of the mother of Washington, 69; her funeral, 70; a tribute to her character ; a proposed monument to her memory; corner-stone of a monument laid, 73; attendance and address of President Jackson on the occasion, 73-75; poem by Mrs. Sigourney, 76 ; a monument erected and utterly neglected, 77, 18.

MARTHA.

Chapter I

The colonial coart of Virginia; John Dandridge, 83; Miss Martha Dandridge ; John Custis, 84; Custis marries Frances Parke, 84; his loveletter, 85 ; matrimonial infelicity, 86 ; Daniel Parke Custis, 86 ; wooes and wins Martha Dandridge, 87; impediments in the way removed, 87, 88 ; rector of St. Peter's Church, 89 ; marriage of Daniel Parke Custis and Martha Dandridge, 90; Mrs. Custis's watch, 90, 91; their children, 92; death of Mr. Custis, 94; colonels Washington and Chamberlayne, 95; first meeting of Washington and Mrs. Custis, 96; Washington's earlier tender attachments, 96, 97; his betrothal, gg; leaves the army and becomes a legislator, 100; marriage of Colonel Washington and Mrs. Custis, 101-103.

CONTENTS.

Chapter II

Residence at the White House ; Washington assumes the care of his wife's children and estate, 104; his personal appearance at that time, and his estate, 105 ; domestic supplies from London, 107; clothing, etc., for the children, 108, lOg ; orders a harpsichord, log ; Mount Vernon embellished, no; life at Mount Vernon, 11 i-i 15 ; the chase, 112-115; social enjoyments, 115; horses and dogs at Mount Vernon, 116; Washington equipped for the road, 116; attendance at Pohich Church, 117; balls and parties; methodical habits at Mount Vernon, 118 ; Mrs. Washington's abounding goodness, iig.

Chapter III

A new class of visitors at Mount Vernon; poUtical aspect, 120; Washington engaged in public affairs, 121; death of Mrs. Washington's daughter. 122; Charles Willson Peale paints portraits at Mount Vernon, 123; John Parke Custis and his desire to travel, 124; his betrothal and marriage, 125, 126; Mrs. Washington and her daughter-in-law, 126; children of John Parke Custis, 127; the first Continental Congress, 128 ; Mrs. Washington's patriotism, 128, I2g ; doings of the Congress, I2g, 130; Patrick Henry's estimate of Washington, 130; Washington Commander-in-chief, 131; letter to his wife, 132.

Chapter IV

Alienation of friends; British troops in Boston, 134; Washington at Cambridge, 135 ; Governor Dunmore alarins the Mount Vernon region, 136; Mrs. Washington's courage; sets out for Cambridge, 137; at Philadelphia, 138 ; proceedings concerning a ball there, I3g, 140 ; Mrs. Washington avoids New York, 141 ; her journey to and arrival at Cambridge, 142, 143 ; gloomy aspect of affairs, 144; Mrs. Washington and social life at Cambridge, 144; Mrs. Lucy Knox, 145.

Chapter V

Affairs at Cambridge, 146; Boston besieged; alarm of the Loyalists, 147; the British evacuate Boston, 148; alarming rumors from the Potomac, 148, 14Q ; Mrs. Washington tarries at Cambridge, I4g ; visited by Mercy Warren, 150; Mr. and Mrs. Custis,i50,i5i; Mrs. Washington dines with Mrs. Warren, 151; visited by Phillis Wheatly, a slave.

XIV CONTENTS.

152 ; Mrs. Washington goes to New York, 153 ; inoculated for the small-pox, 154; Mr. and Mrs. Custis at Mount Vernon, 154, 155; Lord Dunmore in Chesapeake Bay, 155; his raid up the Potomac and menace of Mount Vernon, 156; a plot to murder Washington, 156, 157; attempt to poison him, 158; letter of Mrs. Washington, 158; stirring military events, 159; position of Mrs. Washington, 160.

Chapter VI

The army at Whitemarsh, 161; Mrs. Washington's arrival at head-quarters ; an expedition foiled, 162 ; Mrs. Washington's journey to Whitemarsh and to Valley Forge, 165; head-quarters at Valley Forge, l56; condition of the army at Valley Forge, 167-171 ; Mrs. Washington's incessant labors for the comfort of the soldiers, 168; Mrs. Washington's description of the head-quarters at Valley Forge, 171 ; disposition of the troops at Valley Forge, 172 ; celebrating the alliance with the French, 173, 174; Mrs. Washington at the celebration, 174 ; British evacuate Philadelphia, 175; battle of Monmouth Court-house, 176; military events and the finances, 177.

Chapter VII

Head-quarters at Middlebrook; Mrs. Washington's arrival at, 178; room fitted up for her, 179; celebration of the anniversary of the French alliance, 180-182 ; the "temple " and its adornments, 181, 182 ; social life at head-quarters; personal notices of Washington and his wife, 183; distinguished visitors and a review, 184; a picturesque review, 185 ; the army at the Hudson Highlands, 185 ; military events and finances, 186; Lafayette and French troops, 187.

Chapter VIII

Head-quarters at Morristown,i8S ; Mrs. Washington's arrival there, 189; she visits Mrs. Wilson on the way, i8g, 190; a severe winter, 191; the suffering army; alarms at head-quarters, 192; Mrs. Washington visited by ladies ; these assist her in efforts for the relief of the soldiers, 193; General Schuyler and his family; a night at head-quar ters, 194 ; Colonel Hamilton and Miss Schuyler, 195 ; distinguished visitors at head-quarters; death of one of them, ig6; Mrs. Washington returns to Mount Vernon; military events, 197; cantonments of the American Army, 198.

CONTENTS. XV

Chapter IX

Mrs. Washington assists an association of ladies, in Philadelphia, in providing clothing for the soldiers ; De Chastellux and Grieve on Mrs. Washington, 200, 201; Mrs. Washington at head - quarters at New Windsor, 201; Uzal Knapp, a lifeguardsman, 201, 204; a Christmas dinner at head-quarters, 202-204; nuts and eggs, 203; little Anna Brewster, 204, 205 ; Mount Vernon again threatened ; a compromise, 206; Mrs. Washington's life at New Windsor, 207; Washington visits his home, 208 ; departure for the camp at Yorktown, 209; surrender of Cornwallis; an ancient nurse, 210; death of J. P. Custis; Washington adopts two of his children, 211; goes to Philadelphia with Mrs. Washington, 212. . ■■

Chapter X

Effect of the surrender of Cornwallis in England, 213; head-quarters at Newburgh, 214; Mrs. Washington's arrival there, 215; grand fete at West Point, 215-217; the French army on the Hudson; French officers at head-quarters, 218 ; suggestion of a mutiny at Newburgh, 219 ; Mrs. Washington and pardoned prisoners ; disbandment of the army begun, 220; Society of the Cincinnati; a tour in New York State; Mrs. Washington ill ; Congress votes an equestrian statue of Washington ; at Rocky Hill, 221; Mrs. Washington's final farewell to camp life, 222 ; her gardening at Newburgh ; charming social intercourse at Princeton, 223 ; Washington's letter on matrimonial affairs, 224; marriage of Dr. Stuart and Mrs. Custis; evacuation of New York, 225; Washington parts with his officers and resigns his commission, 226; accompanies Mrs. Washington to Mount Vernon, a private citizen, 227; a joyous Christmas there, 228, 229.

Chapter XI

Washington's letters on his retirement, 231; letters to the Marchioness de Lafayette, 232, 233 ; coveted repose denied ; plan for enlarging the "cottage," 234; the new mansion, 235, 236; out-buildings and grounds, 236-238 ; visit from Lafayette, 239 ; Mrs. Washington and a French hound, 240; a chimney-piece presented, 240-242; Pine, a painter, at Mount Vernon, 245; Houdon, a sculptor, there, 246; Mrs. Graham and Samuel Vaughan, of England, visit Mount Vernon, 247, 248. ^

XVI CONTENTS.

Chapter XII

The French minister and the Marchioness de Brienne visit Mount Vernon, 249 ; the marchioness charmed by her visit ; paints miniature likeness of Washington, 250, 251; Brissot de Warville visits Mount Vernon ; his account of Mrs. Washington, 251; Washington's playful letter to de Chastellux, 252 ; costly presents from French officers, 253 ; new plan of civil government needed, 254; the constitutional convention and its results, 255; Washington chosen President of the United States, 256; the secretary of Congress received at Mount Vernon, 257; Washington goes to New York, 258 ; incidents of his journey; his inauguration, 259; a grand ball, 260; costumes at the ball, 261; a fiction, 262.

Chapter XIII

First Presidential mansion in New York, 263; Mrs. Washington begins her journey to New York, 264; between Baltimore and Philadelphia, 265; reception at Philadelphia; departure for New York, 266; at Liberty Hall; arrival at New York, 267; a dinner party, 26S ; morning calls and public reception, 269; methods of receptions, 270, 271; the President's title discussed, 273; Presidential etiquette, 274-276.

Chapter XIV

Mrs. Washington's life in New York, 277; epistolary correspondence between herself and husband destroyed, 278 ; her letter to Mercy Warren on her life in New York, 279-281; society in New York, 281; the theatre, 282, 283; the " President's March " composed and introduced, 283, 284; the President's eastern tour, 284; his English coach, 287, 288 ; New Year calls ; domestic life at the President's home, 288 ; second Presidential mansion in New York, 289 ; soldiers come to "head-quarters;" how Sundays were spent there, 291; the place of the permanent residence of the national government considered, 291, 292 ; its removal to Philadelphia, 292 ; the President visits Rhode Island, 293 ; departure for Mount Vernon and the journey thither, 294, 295.

Chapter XV

Seat of government at Philadelphia, 296 ; first receptions there by the President and Mrs. Washington, 297; breakfast at the President's house; Mrs. Washington's social habits, 298; Washington's Southern

CONTENTS. XVU

tour, 299; social life in Philadelphia, 300; Mis. Washington takes no part in public affairs ; ever a helpmate for her husband, 301 ; her letter to Mrs. Hamilton, 302 ; her devotion to her husband, 303 ; scurrilous attacks upon Washington's character, 304; Lafayette and his family, 305; celebrations of Washington's birthday, 306; its celebration in Philadelphia, 307; last levees and farewell dinner, 307, 308; inauguration of the second President, 309; a grand banquet, 309, 310.

Chapter XVI

Final retirement to Mount Vernon; young Lafayette, 311; the family at Mount Vernon; repose disturbed, 312; Mrs. Washington's letter to Mrs. Knox, 313; Mrs. Washington's household, 314; Home Rule at Mount Vernon, 315, 316; Nelly Custis's account of domestic life at Mount Vernon, 317, 318; her first ball, 318; Washington on love, 319, 320; Lawrence Lewis at Mount Vernon; Nelly Custis's suitors, 321, 322; marriage of Lawrence Lewis and Nelly Custis, 322, 323; their residence at Mount Vernon, 323.

CHAPTER XVH.

A presentiment, 324; Washington's dream, 324, 325; Mrs. Washington's illness; Church and dancing assemblies at Alexandria, 326; death of Washington, 327, 328; Monuments to his memory, 329, 330; sickness and death of Martha Washington, 330, 331; the entombment at Mount Vernon, 331 ; testimonials to the character of Washington, 332-334; portraits of Martha Washington, 334, 335; conclusion, 336.

Appendix

Will of Martha Washington, 337-340-

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Mary Ball Frontisfiece

John Ball Preaching 3

Arms of the Ball Family 6

William Ball's Signature 7

Mary Ball's Signature 9

Mary Washington's Signature 10

Combined Arms of the Washington Family 18

Washington's Arms 19

Cave Castle 20

Fac-simile of the Entry of the Birth of Washington ... 22

The Washington Residence near Fredericksburg 29

Memorial Stone 30

The First Mansion at Mount Vernon 35

Young Washington and the Colt 37

Lawrence Washington 44

ROBT. DiNWIDDIE 47

Mary Washington's House at Fredericksburg 57

Monument in Memory of Mary Washington 77

Martha Washington Frontispiece

Martha Custis's Watch gi

Daniel Parke Custis 92

Martha Custis 93

Colonel Washington and Mrs. Custis 98

Arms of the Custis Family 108

Mrs. Washington's Children no

XX ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE

Washington equipped for the Chase 113

PoHicH Church 117

John Parke Custis 125

Washington's Head-quarters at Cambridge 135

Washington's Head-quarters at New York 153

Washington's Head-quarters at Whitemarsh 163

Mrs. Washington's Journey to Valley Forge 166

Washington's Head-quarters at Valley Forge 169

Washington's Head-quarters at Morristown igi

UzAL Knapp 204

Washington's Head-quarters at Newburgh 215

Washington's Head-quarters at Rocky Hill 222

Mansion at Mount Vernon 235

Diagram of Grounds and Buildings 238

Italian Chimney-piece 241

Tablet on the Left 242

Centre Tablet 242

Tablet on the Right 242

Elizabeth Parke Custis 246

Geo. Washington Parke Custis 246

Mrs. Washington's Sevres China 254

President's House near Franklin Square, N. Y 264

Washington's English Coach 285

Panel on Washington's Coach 288

President's House on Broadway, N. Y 290

President's House in Philadelphia

E. P. Lewis (Nelly Custis) 315

Nelly Custis's Harpsichord 316

Summer-house at Mount Vernon 325

Christ Church, Alexandria 326

Shadow Portrait 33^

Nelly Custis's Book-mark 3,5

MARY.

MARY,

THE MOTHER OF WASHINGTON.

Chapter I

" A Being breathing thoughtful breath, A Traveller between life and death; The reason firm, the temperate will.

Endurance, forethought, strength and skill; A perfect Woman, nobly planned To warn, to comfort, and command; And yet a Spirit still, and bright With something of an angel light. — Wordsworth.

The courtly knight, Sir John Froissart, the famous chronicler of the time of the Plantagenets, drew with a brilliant pen a bold sketch of a " crazy preacher of Kent," as he called him, who was an irrepressible reformer, and a leader in Wat Tyler's rebellion against the nobility of England in the 14th century.

John Ball was the mad preacher. He was of the class of married priests so hated and harried by St. Dunstan centuries before. A sturdy democrat — a prototype of the socialists and nihilists of our time — John Ball, for fully twenty years before he v/as silenced by the sharp and conclusive argument of the executioner's axe, had harangued the yeomen in Kentish church-yards, in market-places, and at fairs, always taking for his text his favorite couplet —

" When Adam delv'd and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?"

In spite of stocks, and the prison of the Archbishop of Canterbury in which he had thrice languished ; in spite of beatings in by-places and frequent insults, John Ball continually inveighed bitterly against the tyranny of rank and wealth and privilege which oppressed the people. His invectives were aimed at the nobles and prelates of the realm. He preached the seminal doctrine of our Declaration of Independence, pure and simple ; and the people listened to him with eager ears and loiving hearts, as a prophet and evangelist.

There was cause for such preaching then. The candid •old chronicler says the "commonalty" were sorely oppressed, and were absolute bondmen to the privileged class. "They are compelled by law and custom," he said, " to plough the lands of gentlemen, to harvest the grain, to carry it home to the barn, to thresh and winnow it ; they are also bound to harvest the hay and carry it home, and to hew the wood and carry it home."

Every Sunday, after mass, as the people came out of the church, they gathered about John Ball. On one of these occasions he exclaimed, says the chronicler, "My good friends, things cannot go on well in England, nor ever will, until everything shall be in common ; when there shall neither be vassal nor lord, and all distinctions levelled; when the lords shall be no more masters than ourselves.

JOHN BALL AS A PREACHER. 3

How ill they have used us ! and for what reason do they thus hold us in bondage ? Are we not all descended from the same parents, Adam and Eve ? and what can they show, or what reasons give, why they should be more the masters than ourselves ?— except, perhaps, in making us labor and work for them to spend in their pride. They are clothed in velvets and rich stuffs, ornamented with ermine and other furs, while we are forced to wear poor clothes. They have wines, spices, and fine bread, when we have only rye

JOHN BALL PREACHING. (FROM A MS. OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.)

and the refuse of the straw ; and, if we drink, it must be water. They have handsome seats and manors, when we must brave the wind and rain in our labors in the field ; but it is from our labor they have wherewith to support their pomp. We are called slaves ; and if we do not perform our services, we are beaten, and we have not any sovereign to whom we can complain, or who wishes to hear us and do

justice."

The people murmured, "John Ball speaks the truth." But for these utterances he was imprisoned by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This act, and an unjust tax levied at about that time, set England ablaze, from sea to sea, with popular indignation. A hundred thousand Kentish men and others, led by Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, entered Canterbury (1381), plundered the archbishop's palace, took John Ball from prison, and set him on a horse as their leader, and pressed on towards London, killing every lawyer by the way — " for not till they are all killed will the land enjoy freedom !" shouted the peasants. They sang doggerel ditties, many of them composed by John Ball, which were scattered among the people to arouse them to revolt. One of them ran thus :

" John Ball, Greeteth you all, And doth for to Understand he hath rung your Bell. Now Right and Might, Will and Skill, God speed every Dele.

Now reigneth Pride in Price, And Covetise is counted Wise, And Lechery without Shame, And Gluttony without Blame," etc.

In these rude jingles we may trace the beginning of the literature of political controversy in England, the predecessor of the pamphlet and the newspaper controversies afterwards. They expressed the passions of the oppressed multitude ; their yearnings for simple justice and their scorn of the immorality of the nobles and the infamy of the royal house and the Court.

King Richard II., just enthroned, was then a lad of sixteen. Advised by his mother, he acted wisely, though deceitfully, at this crisis, in quelling the insurrection, by meeting the malcontents face to face.

DESCENDED FROM JOHN BALL. 5

"We will," shouted the insurgent peasants, " that you free us forever, we and our lands, and that we be never named or held as serfs."

" I grant it," cried Richard ; and he bade them go home, pledging himself to issue charters and forgiveness, a pledge intended to be broken. The insurgents dispersed, all but about thirty thousand who remained with Wat Tyler to watch over the fulfilment of the royal pledge. A quarrel with the mayor of London brought on a conflict. Wat Tyler was killed, John Ball and Jack Straw were seized, and their heads (cut off by the king's command) were, with Tyler's, displayed upon pikes on London Bridge.

" ' Mad ' as the land-owners called him," says Green, the historian, " it was in the preaching of John Ball that England first listened to the knell of feudalism and the declaration of the rights of man."

The death of John Ball occurred at Coventry in the year 1381, five hundred years ago. His voice is yet sounding ominously in the ears of the privileged classes in England, proclaiming that " all men are created equal." The latest and most startling echo of that voice was heard at the passage by the British Parliament, in the autumn of 1884, of the Franchise and Redistribution Acts, by which the government of England passed into the hands of the whole people.

What has all this to do with Mary, the mother of Washington ? it may be asked. Much — it may be very much. Possibly the democratic spirit of our beloved patriot was inherited through a long line of ancestry from the "mad preacher of Kent." Washington's mother was Mary Ball, of English descent, the second wife of his father, and there

MARY, THE MOTHER OF WASHINGTON.

are weighty reasons for believing that she was a lineal descendant from John Ball, the mediaeval champion of the rights of man.

Many years ago a resident of Petersburg, Va., sent me a rude pencil sketch of the arms of the Ball family, which he copied from a I'ough watercolor drawing belonging to an old Virginia family. It is an escutcheon bearing a lion rampant, a coat of mail, and a shield bearing two lions and a,y?«/r de lis. The crest is a helmet, with closed visor. Above the lion is a broad bar, half red and half gold. At the bottom of the escutcheon is a floating ribbon bearing the legend : Coe- LUMQUE TUERi. On the back of the picture was written:

ARMS OF THE BALL FAMILY.

" The coat of arms of Colonel William Ball, who came from England, with his family, about the year 1650, and settled at the mouth of Corotoman River, in Lancaster County, Virginia, and died in i66g leaving two sons, William and Joseph, and one daughter, Hannah, who married Daniel Fox. William left eight sons (and one daughter), five of whom have now (Anno Domini, 1779) male issue. Joseph's male issue is extinct. General George Washington is his grandson by his youngest daughter, Mary."

Col. William Ball was a native of Kent, and a 5'ounger brother of John Ball, a Calvinistic divine of Woodstock, who was extolled by Fuller and Baxter for his piety and learning. The colonel reluctantly served for awhile in the royal army during the Civil War, and was in the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby. His estate, which was considerable, was much injured when General Fairfax crushed an

THE BALL FAMILY. 7

insurrection in Kent. After the death of the king, Colonel Ball came to America and settled as a planter in Lancaster County, in South-eastern Virginia. His adult children seem to have been well educated. William, the oldest, became an expert surveyor, and was active as such as late as 1737.*

In 1670 William's brother, Joseph, returned to England to look after the estate left by their father. There Joseph married, and there he dwelt until about the year 1695, when he returned to Virginia. There, late in 1706, his youngest daughter, Mary, was born. This daughter became the mother of Washington. Her brother, Joseph Ball, Jr., was educated in England for the profession of the law, became a practitioner in London, married Miss Ravenscroft, and made the country of his birth his permanent home. He probably

* The following note (an autograph), written by William Ball to Col. William Fairfax, is in a beautiful, round hand. " His Lordshipp " referred to was Lord Thomas Fairfax, of Greenway Court, Virginia, the friend of Washington in his youth and early manhood :

"Sir,

"I expected to have compleated the Survey this week, and to have sent it to his Lordshipp, but am verry much Indisposed that I could not doe it in time. Colonel Grymes has Directed me to have the Survey at Williamsburg next Wednesday, where I hope [to be] with the Surveys for the King's Commission and his Lordshipp's. "I am with due Respect,

" V Verry Hum>"« Serv",

'Aprill II, I737-"

never resided in America after lie settled in England, but seems to have visited Virginia, wliere he had landed property. According to Bishop Meade (" Old Churches and Families in Virginia," ii., 128), he was in America in 1729 ; and the letter of the mother of Washington to him in the summer of 1760 (see note on page 10) shows that he was then living near London.

Very little is known of the youth and early womanhood of Mary Ball. Her father appears to have been a well-todo planter on the left bank of the Rappahannock River, near where, a broad stream, its fresh waters commingled with the brine of Chesapeake Bay. He was a vestryman of Christ Church, in Lancaster. In a fragment of a list of contributions for the support of the minister of that parish (Rev. John Bell) in 1712, is the following entry: "Joseph Ball, ;^5 " — a considerable sum for a Virginia planter at that time to give for such a purpose. He was commissioned a colonel by Gov. Alexander Spottswood, and was known as " Colonel Ball of Lancaster," to distinguish him from another Colonel Ball, his cousin.