This inventory was compiled from appraisals made of the estate of Daniel Parke Custis in 1757 and 1758, after his death in 1757. The appraisals were apparently compiled by John Mercer, who was the attorney for the estate. George Washington…

Englishman John Wollaston painted many of the leading figures of the American upper class in his time in America between 1749 and 1767, including Martha Dandridge Custis, her husband Daniel Parke Custis, and their children. Wollaston had a tendency…

Well known portraitist John Wollaston painted the entire Custis family in 1757. This dual portrait is of Daniel and Martha Custis's two chidlren, John Parke (Jacky) and Martha Parke (Patsy)…

In 1757, the Custis family commissioned the well-known portrait painter, John Wollaston, to execute portraits of the entire family: Martha Dandridge Custis, her husband Daniel Parke Custis, and their two children, Martha Parke Custis and Daniel Parke…

This painting, the only authenticated pre-Revolution portrait of Washington, was executed by Charles Willson Peale at Mount Vernon in 1772. The first of several iconic images of Washington painted by Peale, it depicts Washington in his uniform as a…

This letter is primarily an invoice detailing a long and varied list of consumer goods to be sent from England. The list includes clothing, foodstuffs, furniture, jewelry, and much more. Martha chides Cary for the poor quality of a dress sent the…

In this letter, Martha Dandridge Custis informs Robert Cary & Company, a London agent for the sale of Custis tobacco and the purchase of English consumer goods, of the death of her husband Daniel Parke Custis. Taking on her new role as head of…

This bill is for a wide variety of clothing from 1756-57, from a tailor named George Heath. Several items throughout the bill are mourning clothes, and are presumably associated with one of the two deaths that struck the Custis family in 1757: …

John Dandridge, the father of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, arrived in Virginia in 1715 after emigrating from England with his brother William. He married Fanny Jones in 1730, and settled at Chestnut Grove along the Pamunkey River. A modestly…

The birthplace of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington, Chestnut Grove was a small plantation along the Pamunkey River in New Kent County, Virginia. The two-story frame house, of middling size for a Virginia planter, had three rooms on each floor. …