XV.
HIS WIFE AND HOME.
Washington renounced military life to claim his bride. He was married at the "White House" on the 6th of January, 1759, a few weeks before his twenty-seventh birthday. Mrs. Custis was three months younger than the bridegroom.
At seventeen years of age, Miss Martha Dandridge (for such was her maiden name) was a gay and beautiful belle, having many suitors, upon none of whom she looked favorably, except Colonel Daniel Parke Custis, son of Hon. John Custis of Arlington. To him she was married in 1749. Two sons and a daughter were the fruits of this marriage, the eldest of whom died a short time before his father. The biographer of Mr. Custis records an incident which furnishes a key to the character of this worthy and influential gentleman:
"A short time before his death, he sent for a tenant, to whom, in settling an account, he was due one shilling. The tenant begged that the colonel, who had ever been most kind to his tenantry, would not trouble himself at all about such a trifle, as he, the tenant, had forgotten it long ago. 'But I have not,' rejoined the just and conscientious landlord; and bidding his creditor take up the coin, which had been purposely placed on his pillow, exclaimed, 'Now my accounts are closed with this world!' and shortly after expired."
The loss of both husband and son was a terrible affliction to the youthful widow; yet her Christian hope sustained her wonderfully, so that she did not abandon herself to useless repinings. Her husband left her his large plantation, and from one to two hundred thousand dollars in money, the care of which, with her two surviving children, imposed new and unusual duties upon her. How well she met these responsibilities is told by her husband's biographer, thus:
"Mrs. Custis, as sole executrix, managed the extensive landed and pecuniary concerns of the estates with surprising ability, making loans on mortgage of moneys, and, through her stewards and agents, conducting the sales or exportations of the crops to the best possible advantage."
"Beautiful, gifted, with great fascination of manners, unusually accomplished, extremely wealthy, and youthful," as another has said, it is not surprising that, when the usual period of seclusion and mourning had passed, her hand and heart were sought by other worthy men. It was not, however, until she providentially met Colonel Washington, in the manner we have described, that she was at all disposed to enter into another matrimonial alliance.
The wedding of Washington was a splendid affair conducted after the old English style that prevailed among wealthy planters. Military and civil officers with their wives, graced the occasion. Ladies appeared in the costliest brocades, laces, and jewels which the Old World could provide. The bride was arrayed in the height of English fashion, her wealth of charms a fit accompaniment to the manly beauty of the bridegroom, who stood six feet and three inches in his shoes, "The tallest and handsomest man of the Old Dominion."
An old negro servant of Mrs. Custis expressed his views of his new master, as follows: