Marquis de Lafayette, and Stanley J. Idzerda, ed. Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776-1790. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977.

“…Several general officers have brought their wives to camp, and I am very envious, not of their wives [who are rather dull], but of the pleasure they have in being able to see them. General Washington has also just decided to send for his wife, a modest and respectable person, who loves her husband madly….” (1: 225)

26. From: The Marquis de Lafayette to Adrienne de Noailles de Lafayette, 8/20/1784, in Stanley J. Idzerda and others, editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776-1790, Volume 5 (Ithaca, New York, and London: Cornell University Press, 1983), 237-238.
“Though I do not know if my letter will reach you, my dear heart, I had to write you that I am at Mount Vernon and that I am reveling in the happiness of finding my dear general again…I arrived here on the seventeenth…To describe to you the life that we lead here, I shall tell you that after breakfast the general and I chat together for some time. After having thoroughly discussed the past, the present, and the future, he withdraws to take care of his affairs and gives me things to read that have been written during my absence. Then we come down for dinner and find Mrs. Washington with visitors from the neighborhood. The conversation at table turns to the events of the war or to anecdotes that we are fond of recalling. After tea we resume our private conversations and pass the rest of the evening with the family. That, my dear heart, is how we spend our time, and we often talk of you, of our children, and of anything that has to do with the family. There are in the house two small children of Mrs. Washington, who you know was married once before. The general has adopted them and loves them with great tenderness. It was rather amusing, when I arrived, to see the curiosity of these two little ones, who had heard me spoken of all day and were very anxious to see if I looked like my portrait. The general read with great pleasure your letter and Anastasie’s. I have been asked to send the fondest regards from the whole household, and Mrs. Washington was saying the other day that since they were old, we must not defer the pleasure they would have in entertaining you and our whole little family here. On my earlier trip, my dear heart, I made the most solemn promise to bring you with me.”

Bakker, William Spohn. Itinerary of General Washington from June 15, 1775 to December 23, 1783. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1892.

“I have lately been several times invited abroad with the General and Mrs. Washington. He always inquires after you in the most affectionate manner, and speaks of you highly. We danced at Mrs. [Elizabeth Willing] Powell’s your birthday [January 6, (O.S.) 1706], or night I should say, in company together, and he told me it was the anniversary of his marriage [January 6, (N.S.) 1759]; it was just twenty years that night.” (149)

“Tuesday morning [February 2], His Excellency General Washington set off from Philadelphia to join the army in New Jersey. During the course of his short stay (the only relief he has enjoyed from service since he first entered into it), he has been honored with every mark of esteem which his exalted qualities as a gentleman and a citizen entitle him to. His Excellency’s stay was rendered the more agreeable by the company of his lady, and the domestic retirement which he enjoyed at the house of the Honorable Henry Laurens, Esquire, with whom he resided.” (151)

Kierner, Cynthia A. "Hospitality, Sociability, and Gender in the Southern Colonies." The Journal of Southern History, 62 3 (August 1996): 449-480.

DeButts, Mary Custis Lee, ed. Growing Up in the 1850s: The Journal of Agnes Lee. Chapel Hill: Published for the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association by the University of North Carolina Press, 1984.

Sunday, 3/23/1856

“[Sunday, 3/23/1856] I had forgotten that during the time my journal was discontinued, dear old Mammy died about seventy-eight years old. One morning before Christmas, when Sister went to carry her julip she was cold & lifeless, but O I trust her spirit is in Heaven. She was as faithful as could be. How I missed her Christmas. When we paid the servants our usual visits there was one pair of steep steps up which I had no cause to go. She is the last but two of the Mt. Vernon servants. What tales she could tell of “those good old times” of Mrs. Washington’s beauty & good management. How “she was one of the out-door gals & would run to open the gate for the Gen.” And when my beautiful Aunt Lewis was married “how ole Mistis let all the servants come in to see it & gave them such good things to eat,” “how Ole Mistis was dressed so splendid, in a light flowered satin your Aunt Lewis all in something white, beautiful too.” But though a celebrated beauty she did not come up to “Ole Mistis” in Mammy’s eyes! she [sic] could not see why so much fuss was made over “the genl, he was only a man!”, a very good master she was sure, but she didn’t suppose he was so much better than anyone else.” O those nice talks! we [sic] won’t have any more….”

Brady, Patricia. George Washington's Beautiful Nelly: The Letters of Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, 1794-1851. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1991.

Higginbotham, Don. George Washington Reconsidered. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001.

Goodwin, Mary R.M. "George Washington in Williamsburg." Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

Colonial Williamsburg Foundation

Chinard, Gilbert, ed. and trans. George Washington as the French Knew Him. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1940.

“[Valley Forge, late February 1778]…From Lancaster, we proceeded directly to Valley-Forge, where we arrived on the 23d of February. On the next day, I had the honor of being presented to Genl Washington, and to dine with him that day, and the next….I had frequent opportunities of seeing him, as it was my duty to accompany the Baron when he dined with him, which was sometimes twice or thrice in the same week. We visited him also in the evening, when Mrs Washington was at Head-quarters. We were in a manner domesticated in the family….In the midst of all our distress, there were some bright sides to the picture, which Valley-Forge exhibited at that time. Mrs. Washington had the courage to follow her husband in that dismal abode; other ladies also graced the scene….They often met at each others quarters, and sometimes at General Washington’s, where the evening was spent in conversation, over a dish of tea or coffee. There were no levees or formal soirees; no dancing, card-playing, or amusement of any kind, except singing. Every gentlemen or lady who could sing, was called upon in turn for a song. As I had a tolerable voice, and some knowledge of music, I found myself of consequence in these reunions. I soon learned the favorite English songs, and contributed my share to the pleasures of the company….” (14, 16)

Claude Blanchard -- “On the 20th we stopped at Alexandria…General Washington’s residence…is situated between Colchester and Alexandria. Mrs Washington is a woman of about fifty years of age; she is small and fat, her appearance is respectable. She was dressed very plainly and her manners were simple in all respects; she had with her three other ladies, her relations….In the evening, we left her respectable company after having spent a very agreeable and truly interesting day.” (67)

Flexner, James Thomas. George Washington: Anguish and Farewell, 1793-1799. Boston: Little, Brown, 1972.

Flexner, James Thomas. George Washington in the American Revolution, 1775-1783. Boston: Little, Brown, 1968.