The Mother of Washington and Her Times

by Sara Agnes Rice Pryor

CHAPTER XVIII

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."