Mount Vernon Ladies Association, W-1523

Fields, Joseph E. 'Worthy Partner': The Papers of Martha Washington. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.

Library of Congress

Dear Sir                                                                September 15th 1780

I have been honored with your polite letter of the eighth and the present of the elegant piece of china for which and the flattering sentiments accompanying it I pray you to accept the thanks and best wishes of

Your most obedient and
obliging
humble servant
Martha Washington

Autograph Letter Signed

Fields, Joseph E. 'Worthy Partner': The Papers of Martha Washington. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.

Dreer Collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Dear sister                                    June 1st 1760 (Mount Vernon)

I have had the pleasure of receiving your very welcome and affect Letters of the 10th of may intended to come by Jack and the 23d by Mr Bassett who I must acknowledge myself greatly obliged to for the favour of his last visit - I shoud not have suffered him to go without a letter to you had I not known of the oppertunity that now offers and hear I must do myself the pleasure of congratulating you very sincerely on your happy deliverence of I wish I could say boy as I know how much one of that sex was diesired by you all - I am very sorry to hear my mammas complaints of ill helth and I feel the same uneasiness on the account that you doe but hope Mr (illegible) perscriptions will have the desired effect - The children are now very well and I think myself in a better state of helth than I have been in for a long time and dont dout but I shall present you a fine healthy girl again when I come down in the Fall which is as soon as Mr W-ns business will suffer him to leave home I am very much pleased to hear Betsy continues to grow a fine hearty child and (missing) Soon will make you happiest in that desirable blessing I also hope you are out of all fear of sore Breasts before this time

Mr Bassett will inform you of the mirth and gaiety that he has seen so I hope I have no occasion to enlarge upon that head in order to induce you to Try Fairfax in a pleasanter season than you did last time I shall now conclude but not till I have desired you to present my Best good wishes to Mrs Dawson and Judy in which Mr Washington desires to join me also beg you will give our Blessing to the dear little children and Each of them half a Dozen kisses and hope you will not imagin that yourself and Mr Bassett is forgot by dear nancy your sincere and Loving sister

                                                       Martha Washington

To Mrs Bassett

Autograph Letter Signed

Fields, Joseph E. 'Worthy Partner': The Papers of Martha Washington. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994.

Mount Vernon Ladies' Association

Invoice of Sundry Goods to be Shipped by Robert Cary Esqr. & Company
for the Use of George Washington

A Light Summer suit made of Duroy or by the inclosed measure
4 peices best India Nankeen
2 best beaver Hats plain each to cost a Guinea
1 ps of Irish Linnen @ 4/
1 ps of black E Sattin Ribbon
1 Sword-belt of Red morocco leather or buff. N.B.. no buckles or rings.
4 lb. Ivory blacking
2 best [?] bladed knives
1 pair good horse Scissars
A Sammon coloured Tabby of the inclosed pattern with Sattan flowers to be made in a
Sack or Coat.
1 Cap handkerchief, Tucker and Ruffles to be made of Brussels Lace or point proper to
wear wt ye above Negligie to cost £10.
1 ps bag holland to cost 6s
2 flowered Lawn Aprons.
2 stole handkerchiefs
2 pr Womans white silk hose
6 pr. ditto fine Cotton Do
4 pr B thread Do
1 pr. black & 1 pr. White Sattan Shoes of the Smallest Sizes.
4 pr. Callamanca Do
6 pr Woman's best kid gloves
6 pr. Do. Mitts
1 fashionable hat or Bonnet
1/2 dozn.knots & breast knots.
1 dozn Silk Laces
1 black Mask
1 dozn. most fashionable Cambrick pocket handkerchiefs
2 pr. neat small scissars
1 lb sewing Silk Shaded.
114 lb Do cloth - coloured Do
4 ps.binding Tape
6 M Miniken pins
6 M short Whites
6 M Corking pins
1 M hair pins
6 lb perfumed powder
3 lb best scotchsnuff
3 lb best violet Strasburg
2 lb powdered blew
2 oz. Coventry thread 1 of wh. to be very fine
1 ps White Sattin ribbon pearl edge.
1 Case of pickles to consist of Anchovies Capers Olives Salid Oil & 1 bottle India
Mangoes.
1 large Cheshire Cheese
4 lb green tea
10 Groce best Corks
25 lb best Jar Raisins
25 lb Almonds in the Shell
1 hogshead best Porter
10 Loaves of dble & 10 of Single refined Sugar
6 strong halters hempen reins
3 best Snaffle bridles
9 best Girths
25 lb brown soap
12 lb best Mustard
2 dozn packs playing Cards
2 Sacks best English Oats
1 dozn painters brushes
11 bushl tares
12 best hand padlocks
18 bell Glasses for Garden
2 more chair bottoms such as were wrote for in a former invoice
1 more Window Curtain & Cornish
8 Busts &ca according to the following directions & measures of Copper Enamel or
Glazed. viz.
1 of Alexander the Great - 1 of Julius Caesar 1 of Charles ye 12 of Sweden & another of
the King of Prussia these all to be of the same size in order to fill up broken
pediments over doors, & not to exceed 15 inches in height nor 10 inches in width.
2 Furious Wild Beasts of any kind, not to exceed 18 inches in length & 12 in higth but
as near that size as may be drawn as if approaching each other & eager to engage at the distance of about 4 feet. to be the same Colour as those above.
Prince Eugene & the Duke of Marlborough of somewhat smaller size than the above to
stand on each end of a pediment wch is carved in this manner
Sundry Small ornaments for a Chimney piece that is 6 feet long and 8 inches wide
100 lb White Bisquet
2 Lanthorns
3 Gallns Rhenish in pint bottles.
25 Yds broad cloth of the inclose Colour to cost about 7/6
15 Yds Course thick Duffle of ye same Colour
6 Yds Do. to cost 8/6
30 Yds red Shaloon
20 dozn white washed Coat buttons
12 dozen waist coat do.
Twist, thread, Silk &c sufficient to make up the above cloth.
40 Yds Course Jeans or fustians for Summer frocks for Negro Servants.
1 pc Irish Linnen 2 1/3
1 pc Dowlas a l0d
1/2 dozen pr course strong thread hose fit for Negro Servants.
6 Caster hats a about 5/
1 dozn pr Course Shoe & knee buckles fit for Do.
2 Postillion Caps
450 Ells Oznaburgs
4 ps brown Rolls
350 Yds Kendal Cottoni
100 Yds Dutch Blankets
2 ps fearnought
8 dozn pr plaid hose Sorted
4 dozn Monmouth Caps
20 lb bro thread
15 Ib best Shoe Makers do
20 Sacks Salt
2 Casks 3d Nails
2 Do 10d Do
10 M 20d Do
20 M 4d Nails
20 M 6d Do
6 Spades
200 lb German Steel
2 dozn best Staples
6 best Whites handsaws
6 best broad axes
6 House Adzes
2 dozn box Gimblets
6 pr Steel Compasses
1 dozn Augers sorted from 2 inches to 112 Do
1 Cowper's Taper bitt
1 Do Croe
1 Do Dowling bitt
1 Do Vice
1 Do pr large Compasses
1 Do Adze
1 do Round Shave
1 Do Howell
1 Wheel Wright's Buz
1 Do large Gouge
1 Do Anter Bitt
2 Dozn pair H's hinges
Joiner's Tools
1 jointer
2 long plains
2 Jack Do
4 Smoothing Do
10 pr hollows & rounds
6 ogees
4 two Square Astricles
3 pr Grooving plains
1 Snipes bill
4 quarter rounds
4 Sash plains
3 beed plains
6 ovalos
1 plow & irons
1 Moving philister
1 Screw Rabbit plain
1 Square Do
3 raising Do
1 Spring Brace & bit compleat
1 Turkey oil-stone
1 handsaw
1 pannel Do
1 tenant Do
1 Compass Do
1 Sash Do
1 dozn firmers
1 Do Gouges
1 rnorticing Chizzels
1 Adze
1 drawing knife
2 pr Compasses
2 Rules
2 Chalk lines
1 small hatchet
2 punches
2 Saw Setts
2 dozn Gimblets
2 dozn plain Irons
6 Rasps 2 of a Sort
2 dozn handsaw fills
2 of Tennant Do
25 lb Clew
2 vent saws
12 inch Chizzles
6 Bottles Turlington Balsarn
8 Oz Spirit of Lavender
1/2 Ib. Ipca: powdered
1/2 Ib. Jalap powdered
12 Oz Venus Treacle
4 Oz best Rhubarb
12 Oz Diascordium
4 Oz pearl barley
4 Ib Sago
4 Oz balsam Capivil
5 Oz liquid Laudanum
5 Oz Spirits Sal Ammoniac
5 Oz Spirits Hartshorn
4 Oz Spanish flies
3 lb Bird lyme
6 lb Oil of Turpentine
2 lb Spirits Do
5 lb White Sugar Candy
10 Ib. Bo Do.
1 lb barley Sugar
2 Ib. linseed Oil Cold drawn
4 Ib. Allum
1 lb Spirma Citi [spermaceti]
4 Oz tincture of Myrrh
4 Oz balsam Sulphur
4 Oz pulvus Basilii
2 Oz. Mer Dulcis
4 Oz. Sal Volatile
10 Ib. hartshorn Shavings
2 Quarts strong Cinnamon Water
2 Quarts Weak Do.
N.B. all liquids to come in double flint bottles.
40 S. worth of Medicines proper for Horses - Among wh let there be
4 Ib. flower of brimstone
4 Ib. Annis seeds
4 Ib. Carthamums
5 Ib. Syrup of Coltsfoot
5 Ib. black Soap
4 Ib. Cummin seeds
4 lb. Fenngreek
2 Ib. juice of Liquorice
3 Ib. long pepper
2 Ib. Diapente
& such other as are most proper

Go: Washington
20th Sepr 1759

Copy in an unknown hand

silver teaware

Niemcewicz, Julia Ursyn. Under Their Vine and Fig Tree: Travels Through America in 1797-1799, 1805, with Some Further Account of Life in New Jersey. Elizabeth, N.J.: Grassmann Publishing Co., 1965.

5/21/1798: "I then went up to Mrs. Washington. She is the same age as the G[enera]l…, small, with lively eyes, a gay air and extremely kind. She had on a gown, with an even hem, of stiff white cotton, fitting very tightly, or rather attached from all sides with pins. A bonnet of white gauze, ribbons of the same color, encircling her head tightly, leaving the forehead completely uncovered and hiding only half of her white hair which in back was done up in a little pigtail. She was at one time one of the most beautiful women in America and today there remains something extremely agreeable and attractive about her….” (85)

journal

Chastellux, Francois Jean. Travels in North America in the Years 1780, 1781, and 1782. New York: A.M. Kelley, 1970.

“[November 30, 1780, Philadelphia]…I found there Mrs. Washington, who had just arrived from Virginia, and was on her way to join her husband, as she does at the end of every campaign. She is about forty or forty-five, rather plump, but fresh and with an agreeable face….” (1:134)

“[About 1782] I had the pleasure of passing a day or two with Mrs. Washington, at the general’s house in Virginia, where she appeared to me to be one of the best women in the world, and beloved by all about her….” (1:298-299)

journal

Thomas Boylston Adams Diary, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Massachusetts Historical Society

pamphlet

Latrobe, Benjamin Henry. The Journal of Latrobe; Being the Notes and Sketches of an Architect, Naturalist and Traveler in the United States from 1796 to 1820. New York: B. Franklin, 1971.

July 1797: “[July 1797]…Upon my return to the house [Mount Vernon], I found Mrs. Washington and her granddaughter, Miss Custis, in the hall. I introduced myself to Mrs. Washington as a friend of her nephew, and she immediately entered into conversation upon the prospect [view] from the lawn, and presently gave me an account of her family in a good-humored free manner that was extremely pleasant and flattering. She retains strong remains of considerable beauty, seems to enjoy very good health, and to have a good humor. She has no affectation of superiority in the slightest degree, but acts completely in the character of the mistress of the house of a respectable and opulent country gentleman….” (57)

journal

Jensen, Merrill, John P. Kaminiski, and Gaspare J. Saladino, eds. Madison, WI: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1976.

From Olney Winsor to Mrs. Olney Winsor: “…we…arrived at Mount Vernon about one—where we were received by the General & his family with great freedom and politeness, at the same time without any ceremonious parade….Mrs. Washington is an elegant figure for a person of her years, perhaps 45 [she was actually almost 57].—she is rather fleshy, of good complexion, has a large portly double chin, and an open & engageing [sic] Countenance, on which a pleasing smile sets during Conversation, in which she bears an agreeable part.-…She was dressed in a plain black Sattin [sic] gown, with long Sleves [sic], figured Lawn Apron & Handkf, guaze [sic] french [sic] night Cap with black bowes [sic]—all very neat—but not guady [sic]—.” (523)