IN AND AROUND FREDERICKSBURG
The origin of the names of the estates in the Northern Neck can easily be traced. A few were Indian: "Quantico," "Occoquan," "Monacan," "Chappawamsic," "Chotank." Many were English: "Stratford," "Wakefield," "Marlboro," "Chatham," "Gunston Hall," "Mount Vernon," "Ravensworth," "Blenheim," "Marmion,"—the latter, of course, not named for Scott's fictitious hero (seeing that Sir Walter had not yet been born), but, doubtless, by some emigrant of Lincolnshire descent, in honor of Sir Robert de Marmion, who "came over with the Conqueror," and was granted a manor in Lincolnshire. "Chantilly" was thus named by Richard Henry Lee, after the beautiful chateau and grounds of the Prince Condé, near Paris.
Mount Vernon was not too distant to be in Mary Washington's neighborhood. She had but to cross the neck of land to the Potomac, and a pleasant sail would bring her to the little wharf at Mount Vernon—just where we, patriotic pilgrims, so often now land to render our pious homage to the sacred homestead.
Within visiting distance of Mount Vernon was the "Chippawamsic" plantation, at which lived another widow, rich, young, and beautiful,—Ann Mason, the mother of George Mason, the patriot and statesman, author of the Virginia Bill of Rights (the first complete formula of the civil and political rights of man ever promulgated) and author of the Virginia constitution of 1776, the first written constitution of government ever adopted by a free people.
No one who studies the peculiar characteristics of Virginians of this period can doubt that both these young widows were sought by many suitors. The zeal with which men made haste to fill the places of departed wives was something marvellous! Samuel Washington was married five times, and one instance is recorded of a colonial dame in the best society who had six husbands! The early marriage of widows was the more desirable because of the outlying estates which required management. Martha Custis gave this as excuse for her prompt acceptance of Colonel Washington. But Ann Mason and Mary Washington never married again. Each possessed great executive ability, as well as unusual personal and intellectual gifts. Each elected to devote those gifts to her children. Each was the mother of a great patriot. And it is altogether probable that each one was the devoted friend of the other, and that the close friendship between the two Georges was inherited from their parents. Another Ann Mason left letters and records which give us a hint of the belongings of a Virginia housewife of her day. She enumerates among her daughter's expenses prices paid for shoes with wooden heels, hoop petticoats, and linen. George Mason of "Gunston Hall," the greatest, perhaps, of all the statesmen in an age of great statesmen, remembered the furniture of his mother's bedroom. In it was a large chest of drawers—a veritable high-boy![6] Three long drawers at the bottom contained children's garments, in which the children might rummage. Above these and the whole length of the case were the gown-drawer, the cap-drawer, the shirt-drawer, the jacket-drawer; above these a series of drawers always kept locked, containing gauzes, laces, and jewels of value—ten or twelve drawers in all! Then there were two large, deep closets, one on each side of the recess afforded by a spacious stack of chimneys, one for household linen, the other "the mistress's closet," which last contained a well-remembered article, a small green horsewhip, so often successfully applied to unruly children that they dubbed it "the green Doctor." George Mason remembered other things in connection with this splendid woman. She gathered her children around her knees morning and evening to "say their prayers." She was a lovely woman, true to her friends, pious to her Maker, humane, prudent, tender, charming:—
"Free from her sex's smallest faults,
And fair as womankind can be."
Both these Ann Masons—the wife of the statesman and her mother-in-law—lived and died near Mary Washington's home before 1773. Both were brilliant women, with personal charm and amiable dispositions.
Near the Masons, at "Marlboro," lived John Mercer, a lawyer of fine talents and attainments, and owner of one of the best private libraries in the colony. Virginia bibliophiles still boast in their collections some of his books containing his heraldic book-plate. There was a George in his family, one year younger than George Washington. Their homes were just sixteen miles apart—a mere nothing of distance, as neighborhoods were reckoned in those days—and both in Overwharton parish. The Mercers were lifelong friends of Mary Washington. General Mercer died in her grandson's arms. Judge James Mercer wrote her will.
Then, not far from John Mercer's, lived one of the largest landed proprietors in Stafford, a prominent burgess and planter of his day, Raleigh Travers—of Sir Walter Raleigh's family—and married to Mary Washington's half-sister, Hannah Ball. They were founders of one of Virginia's great families, "distinguished in later years for breeding, learning, and eloquence." Two miles from "Marlboro" lived one of their daughters, Sarah, married to Colonel Peter Daniel, of the "Crow's Nest."
Then came "Boscobel," the residence of Thomas Fitzhugh, the father of a family of interesting young people. Susannah Fitzhugh still smiles to us from these pages in her rich robe over a pearl embroidered skirt and bodice of white satin, with a necklace of pearls festooned over her fair bodice.
She was just three years younger than her beautiful cousin Elizabeth, who lived at "Belle-Air" (her mother was Alice Thornton), and whose portrait, painted by Hesselius, presents the fashionable dress of her day. The gown is of fawn color, square corsage, elbow sleeves with lace ruffles (like Susannah's), the hair carried smoothly back from her brows, piled high over a cushion, and dressed with strings of pearls.
The Fitzhughs did not quite "own the earth" in their region,—Lord Fairfax did that,—but they owned a goodly portion of it: "Eagle's Nest" in Stafford County, "Somerset" in King George, "Boscobel," "Belle-Air," and "Chatham" in Stafford, "Ravensworth" in Fairfax. At the latter General Custis Lee, an honored descendant of this honored race, sits to-day under the trees his fathers planted. In the Fitzhugh pedigree the Thorntons crop up again and again. One may sink a mine in any Virginia genealogy and he will encounter the names of all these neighbors of Mary Washington.
At "Salvington" lived the Seldens, to whom Mary Washington was bound by ties of close kindred. Mary Ball, daughter of Major James Ball of "Bewdley," in whose arms Mary Washington had hastened to place her son George when one month old, had married John Selden. For his second wife he chose her first cousin, Sarah Ball, whose tombstone may be seen to-day in the woods a mile from Lancaster court-house.
Later, a Samuel Selden married Mary Thompson Mason (she of the wooden-heeled shoes and hoop petticoat), famous for her beauty, as was her mother before her. The second wife of Samuel Selden was Ann Mercer. Many of the descendants of these women inherited great beauty. Even a little drop of their blood suffices to endow many a Virginia woman of to-day.
At "Cleve," on the Rappahannock, lived Charles Carter, and thither "Light-horse Harry" Lee went for his sweet wife Anne. Charles Carter's father, Robert, the mighty man of Lancaster,—"King" Carter,—died in the year George Washington was born. He had built Christ Church, where Mary Washington was possibly baptized, for her father lived near the church. King Carter owned 300,000 acres of land, 1000 slaves, £10,000 in money. The cattle on a thousand hills were his. He left many children, all of whom he was able to enrich, and many of whom distinguished themselves in things better than riches.
"Light-horse Harry" Lee.
"Cleve," with its octagon front, is still in good preservation, and is a fine example of the early Georgian manor-house, having been built early in the eighteenth century. An excellent portrait of its builder, Charles Carter, looks down to-day upon his descendants who still own and live in the mansion.
Governor Spotswood.
Four miles below Mary Washington's home was "Newpost," the ancestral home of John Spotswood, a son of Governor Spotswood. His two sons, Alexander and John, were destined to serve in the Revolutionary War, one as a general, the other a captain, and to mingle the Spotswood with the Washington blood by marriage with one of Mary Washington's granddaughters. They came honestly by their dash and spirit through the Spotswoods.
It appears that the Virginia Gazette of 1737 lent its columns to an article against Governor Spotswood, written by a Colonel Edwin Conway, upbraiding the governor for delaying to turn over the arms intended for Brunswick County. The article was entitled, "A Hint to discover a few of Colonel Spotswood's Proceedings." A few days after its appearance the Gazette printed the following:—
"An Hint for a Hint
"Mr. Parks,
"I have learnt in my Book, so far as to be able to read plain English, when printed in your Papers, and finding in one of them my Papa's name often mentioned by a scolding man called Edwin Conway, I asked my Papa whether he did not design to answer him. But he replied: 'No child, this is a better Contest for you that are a school Boy, for it will not become me to answer every Fool in his Folly, as the lesson you learned the other day of the Lion and the Ass may teach you.' This Hint being given me, I copied out the said Lesson and now send you the same for my answer to Mr. Conway's Hint from
"Sir, your Humble Servant
"John Spotswood."
"Feb. 10.
A Lion and an Ass
"An Ass was so hardy once as to fall a mopping and Braying at a Lion. The Lion began at first to show his Teeth, and to stomach the Affront. But upon second Thoughts, Well, says he, Jeer on and be an Ass still, take notice only by the way that it is the Baseness of your Character that has saved your Carcass."
There was a famous beauty in the family of Spotswood who shared, as we shall see hereafter, in the spirit of her race. This was Kate! She wore, on her high days and holidays, fawn-colored satin, looped over a blue satin petticoat, square bodice and elbow sleeves and ruffles; and her feet, which were extremely small and beautifully formed, were shod in blue satin shoes, with silver buckles. Age did not wither this haughty beauty. Her granddaughter remembered her as she combed a wealth of silver hair, a servant the while holding before her a mirror.
Not far from "Pine Grove" was "Traveller's Rest," the most beautiful and significant of all the ambitious names of stately mansions on the Rappahannock. "It should be called," said Byrd Willis, "Saint's Rest—for only they ever go there!" "Traveller's Rest" was part of the "200 acres of land on ye freshes of Rappahannock River" bequeathed to Mary Ball by her father, Joseph Ball. The family of Gray long lived at "Traveller's Rest," and thither in after years, Atcheson Gray brought his child-wife Catherine Willis, the great-granddaughter of Mary Washington.
These are only a few of the country gentry among whom Mary Washington lived, and to whom she was related. Time would fail to describe them all—Colonel Thomas Ludwell Lee of "Berry Hill"; "Bellevue" and its occupants; the Brent family at Richland, in Stafford County; "Belle Plaine," the residence of the Waugh family. All these places were in a space of eight or ten square miles, and from generation to generation the sons looked upon the daughters of their neighbor cousins, and found them fair, until the families were knit together in every conceivable degree of kinship.
In the town of Fredericksburg Mary Washington had near relatives and friends. Roger Gregory, the merry-hearted, had married a woman as merry-hearted as himself,—Mildred Washington, George Washington's aunt and godmother. Foremost at the races, and first on all occasions of mirth, was Roger Gregory. It has been said that Augustine Washington was optimistic in his temperament, and, like his sister Mildred, conspicuous for cheerfulness—also that from him Betty Washington and her brothers inherited their love for gay, social life—that Mary Washington was always serious, and in her later years almost tragic. She surely had enough, poor lady, to make her so.
Roger Gregory had died just before George Washington was born, and his widow married Henry Willis of "Willis's Hill," Fredericksburg, afterwards "Marye's Heights," where the fierce battle of the Civil War was fought. Mildred's three charming Gregory girls were prominent figures as they trod the streets of old Fredericksburg—the streets named after the Royal Princes—clad in their long cloaks and gypsy bonnets tied under their chins. They were soon absorbed by a trio of Thorntons, and their mother Mildred left alone with her one son, Lewis Willis. "Old Henry Willis," his father, had married three times, boasting that he "had courted his wives as maids and married them as widows." He was a rich old fellow with a long pedigree and gorgeous coat of arms on his coach panels. Mildred Gregory had wept so bitterly when the death of his first wife was announced to her, that a friend expressed surprise. "Mildred Willis," she explained, "was my namesake and cousin, and I grieve to lose her. But that is not the worst of it! I am perfectly sure old Henry Willis will soon be coming down to see me—and I don't know what in the world I can do with him!" Would it be sinister to suggest that the lady was already won? It appears she knew her man. Had he not been her suitor in her girlhood? His grandson says, "In one little month he sat himself at her door and commenced a regular siege: and in less than two months after his wife's death he married her."
If the shade of this wife was permitted to be a troubled witness of her recent husband's marriage, she could not complain. She had been herself the widow, Brown, only for one month before she had married Henry Willis.
This Colonel Henry Willis was known as "The Founder of Fredericksburg." Colonel William Byrd visited him immediately after his marriage with Mildred Gregory, and spoke of him as "the top man of the place." Mildred Washington (Widow Gregory) had one son by her marriage with Henry Willis. She named him for her first husband—her first love—Lewis. He was two years younger than his cousin, George Washington. The boys attended the same school, and were companions and playmates. Lewis Willis often spoke of George Washington's industry and assiduity at school as very remarkable. While his brother Samuel, Lewis Willis, and "the other boys at playtime were at bandy or other games, George was behind a door cyphering. But one day he astonished the school by romping with one of the large girls—a thing so unusual that it excited no little comment among the other lads."
Through the Willis family Mary Washington's descendants became allied to the Bonapartes. The second child of Byrd C. Willis (son of Lewis Willis) was Catherine. Her mother was the daughter of George Lewis, Betty Washington's son. Thus Mary Washington was ancestress of Catherine Willis, who at thirteen years of age married, and at fourteen was a widow, having lost also her child. She accompanied her parents to Pensacola, where she married Achille Murat, ex-prince of Naples and nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte. She was very beautiful—this child—twice married and a mother before she was fifteen.
The Murat and Bonaparte families at first opposed the marriage, but all opposition vanished when they learned that she was nearly related to General Washington.
Prince Murat.
It is said that she was well received abroad: "In London she stood up for her country and fought its battles in all companies." She was once accompanied by John Randolph of Roanoke and other distinguished personages on a visit to the London art galleries. In one of these the portraits of Washington and Napoleon hung side by side, and Randolph (who was always dramatic), pointing to the pictures, said, "Before us we have Napoleon and Washington, one the founder of a mighty Empire, the other of a great Republic." Then turning to Catherine with extended hand, "Behold!" he exclaimed, "in the Princess Murat the niece of both—a distinction which she alone can claim."
As the century neared its highest noon Fredericksburg became the home of one and another of the men destined to earn immortal fame in the Revolution. James Monroe lived there, whose hand, long since mingled with the dust, has yet the power to stay the advance of nations. Men of wealth secured the pleasant society all around by a residence in the town. As many as ten coaches were wont to drive out in company when the summer exodus to the springs set in.
There was a famous tailor in Fredericksburg who made the lace-trimmed garments for these gentry,—William Paul, a Scotchman. Hanging in his shop, was a handsome portrait of "my sailor brother John" as he explained to his customers. Anon the tailor died, and John came over to administer upon his estate. He found friends—Colonel Willy Jones and Doctor Brooke—who aided him materially in the first years of his life in Fredericksburg. In gratitude to the former he assumed the name of "Jones," and the latter he made surgeon of the Bon Homme Richard—for this was John Paul Jones the great, the brilliant naval officer of our Revolution. Congress gave him a commission and a ship, The Alfred, and on board that ship he hoisted before uelphia, with his own hands, the flag of freedom—the first time it was displayed. He claimed and received the first salute the flag of the infant Republic received from a foreign power. He served through the war, and at his death was the senior officer of the United States navy.