CHAPTER XVI
BETTY WASHINGTON, AND WEDDINGS IN OLD VIRGINIA
In 1746 young Fielding Lewis came up from his family seat at Marmion, bringing General Washington's aunt, Catharine Washington, as his wife, and made his home at Kenmore in Fredericksburg. They were married just one year before the birth of little John Lewis, and Mrs. Henry Lee (the mother of "Light-horse Harry") and Mrs. Mary Washington were godmothers. (Five times was this little fellow destined to be married, and if a problem of involved relationship be in order, he could furnish it. His first two wives were the granddaughters of his great-aunt, Mildred Gregory, and his last wife great-granddaughter of her last husband!) But to return to Fielding Lewis and Catharine (Washington) Lewis: the next year (1748) Frances was born, George Washington (aged sixteen), godfather—the next year (1749) the third child was born, and then the poor young mother, having borne a child every year, was gathered to her fathers and her children (January, 1750). All these events were of keen interest to the family at "Pine Grove." In all these functions nobody was more sympathetic than Betty Washington, now a handsome maiden of seventeen. She took her little orphan cousins to her heart, and in two months she comforted also the forlorn widower, and became his wife.
Kenmore House.
There is not the least doubt that she was given away by her brother George, now eighteen years of age, and that Samuel, John Augustine, and Charles, handsome, well-grown lads, were present at her wedding. Charles was twelve years old; Samuel, sixteen. Elizabeth was "a fine young woman." Describing her, Mr. Custis used a favorite word of the day. Majesty being the highest of all places, "Majestic" was the highest of all praise. Colonial beauties were rarely described as "graceful," "winsome," "exquisite," "lovely"; they were "stately," "majestic," "queenly." They wore stately garments,—paduasoy, from soie de Padua, where the strong, lustrous silk so much worn by men and women was manufactured, or "tabby" velvet and silk, the rich watered oriental fabric manufactured in Attabya, a quarter in Bagdad. These were the grandest, the most sumptuous fabrics known. The wife of Goldsmith's Vicar was proud of her crimson paduasoy (the silk had given its name to a garment). Samuel Pepys could not afford the genuine article, but he boasted a "wastecoat of false tabby." Of course, a majestic woman wore these rich materials, "silk gowns wad stand on end" like the gowns of Dumbiedike's grandmother. Who could be majestic in clinging, willowy chiffon? Elizabeth Washington, known by the diminutive "Betty," undoubtedly enhanced her majesty by one or more of these gowns made in the fashion invented by the artist Watteau.
As to the rest, we know she was "mannerly." Stately gowns befitted stately manners. People "Sirred and Madamed" each other in true Johnsonian style, with many a low courtesy, veiling the bosom with outspread fan, and many a profound bow with hand on heart. There was leisure for all this before the day of the trolley car and steam car, or even the stage and omnibus; when in towns visits were made at ten in the morning, and the visitors sent hither and thither in sedan-chairs. Young ladies of her day were expert horsewomen. Those of us who saw the portrait of Betty Washington at the Centennial in New York can imagine her handsome figure on horseback. "She was a most majestic woman," said Mr. Custis, adding that he perfectly well remembered her, "and was so strikingly like the Chief her brother, that it was a matter of frolic to throw a cloak around her, and then place a military cap on her head: and such was the perfect resemblance that had she appeared on her brother's steed, battalions would have presented arms, and senates risen to do homage to the chief." She adored her brother, and was proud to be so like him. "Be good," she would say to her young friends in after life, "and I will be General Washington for you!" Tying her hair in a cue, and crowning it with a cocked hat, she would take a sword and masquerade to their infinite amusement. She and her brother closely resembled their mother in form, carriage, and the contour of their faces. They inherited her splendid health, her mental strength, and her sterling virtues—but not her seriousness which grew to be a settled sadness. Betty Washington was as merry-hearted a maiden as might be found in that merry time.
If somebody had only thought of us at the great wedding at "Pine Grove," when stately Elizabeth Washington was given in marriage to the dignified, handsome Colonel Fielding Lewis, if somebody had only described it for our sakes, we should not be obliged to imagine it! The three great social occasions of domestic life were weddings, christenings, and funerals. These were solemnized, if not too distant, in churches. The bride on the large isolated estates made her vows in her own home, in her own home consecrated her offspring, from her own home was borne at last to her final resting-place. A wedding lasted many days, during which the house was filled with feasting kindred, coming from far and near. Social usage varied so little in colonial Virginia that we are quite safe in noting some features of Betty Washington's wedding. Of some things we may be sure,—first, there is not the least doubt that she chose her own husband.