Mary Lacy: Female Shipwright

Mary Lacy was born on January 12, 1740, at Wickham in Kent, England. She was the oldest of three children and was sent to a charity school to be educated. She went into domestic service around the age of twelve and worked as such for seven years. During this time, she fell in love, which went unrequited, and she decided to leave her home and place of service. In May of 1759, at age nineteen, she traveled to the dockyards of Chatham, disguised herself as a man and using the name William Chandler, enlisted in the British Royal Navy aboard the 90-gun ship Sandwich. Mary, now known as William, became servant to the ship's carpenter, Richard Baker.

During this time England was fighting France in what is known as the Seven Years War in Europe and the French and Indian War in America. During the 1759-1760 year of the war, the HMS Sandwich helped patrol the seas off Ushant and Biscay Bay as a blockade ship against the French.

Mary Lacy rolled with the waves and adjusted to life aboard ship. She suffered a few bouts of sickness due to rheumatoid arthritis. At one time she was confined to the sick bay for several weeks and one episode was so severe that she was sent to the naval hospital in Plymouth. By the time she recovered, the Sandwich had already sailed without her. She then joined the crew of the HMS Royal Sovereign, a 100-gun ship that was permanently stationed offshore at Spithead and used to guard the port.   

Mary decided she wanted to become a shipwright's apprentice. In March 1763, she was signed on as apprentice to Alexander McLean, the acting carpenter of the Royal William, which had been decommissioned and was based at Portsmouth Dockyard. Mary completed her apprenticeship in 1770 and was certified as a shipwright.

Mary wrote an autobiography but never really talked about the difficulties in keeping up her disguise as William Chandler. Her sex was almost discovered when she tripped while working on the deck of the Royal Sovereign and fell down an open hatch. Her head was badly cut and she had to be taken to the doctor. In her autobiography she recounts her close call.

When I came to myself I was very apprehensive lest the doctor in searching for bruises about my body should have discovered I was a woman, but it fortunately happened that he being a middle-aged gentleman, he was not very inquisitive, and my messmates being advanced in years, and not so active as young people, did not tumble me about or undress me.

The ladies were very fond of William Chandler, which is lucky for Mary because it probably saved her from being found out. Lacy had written to her parents all about her adventures. A family friend (who maybe wasn't such a good friend after all), was let in on her secret and began spreading rumors around the shipyard where Lacy now worked. Two of the shipwrights that she worked for as an apprentice took her aside and demanded the truth. She broke down and admitted she was in fact a woman. Out of respect for Mary, these men swore to keep her secret and convinced everyone else in the dockyard that Mary was indeed a man, siting her interest in so many ladies as evidence.

Some time after receiving her shipwright certificate, Mary hurt herself while helping dismantle a ship. She realized that she could no longer perform her job and had no other option but to apply for a disability pension from the Admiralty. Her case was approved by the Lords of the Admiralty on January 28, 1772.  Below follows the report as it was recorded in the Admiralty minutes:

A Petition was read from Mary Lacey setting forth that in the year 1759 she disguised herself in men's clothes and enter'd on board His Majesty's Fleet, where having served until the end of the war , she bound herself  apprentice to the carpenter of the Royal William and having served seven years, then enter'd as a shipwright in Portsmouth Yard where she has continued ever since; but that finding her health and constitution impaired by so laborious an employment, she is obliged to give it up for the future, and therefore, praying some allowance for her support during the remainder of her life;

                       Resolved, in consideration of the particular circumstances attending this woman's case, the truth of which has been attested by the Commissioner of the Yard at Portsmouth, that she be allowed a pension equal to that granted to Superannuated Shipwrights.

Nothing much is known about Mary Lacy's later life. Her autobiography suggests that she married a Mr. Slade, a man that she met in Deptford. David Cordingly, author of Women Sailors and Sailor's Women, theorizes that the happily ever after future depicted at the end of Mary's story was added by her publisher so that the story would have a more traditional end to balance out all the suggestions of lesbian flirtations. 


Further readings:

Women Sailors and Sailor's Women - David Cordingly

The History of a Female Shipwright...Written by Herself - Mary Lacy

Fashion Friday! The Spencer Jacket

I am finally back with a new blog and it's Friday; which means it's Fashion Friday!

I am in the process of putting together an outfit inspired by Jane Austen and the Regency Period of Fashion. Included in my outfit will be what is known as a Spencer, or Spencer Jacket.

The Regency Period of Fashion refers to the time period in England when Prince George was acting as Regent after his father King George III went insane in 1811.

The Spencer is named for George Spencer, 2nd Earl of Spencer (1758-1834)  The Earl supposedly stood a bit too close to the fire one day and singed the tails of his coat. He then had the tails of his coats trimmed and thus a new fashion was born. It was first worn by men in the 1790's and was usually trimmed with a military style decoration with braids and frogging.

                                                                   The Honorable 2nd Earl of Spencer by John Singleton Copley



Women's dress at this time was starting to shift to what is known as the "Empire Style" of dress. Their dresses were made from thin, lightweight material, usually Muslin, and often had short sleeves; even in winter. The Spencer was found to be a very serviceable garment to ward off the chill. 

"My kerseymere Spencer is quite the comfort of our evening walks." - Jane Austen 1808

It was a short, close fitted jacket, coming to just above the waist line with a high collar, and was usually made from a wool material known as kerseymere, or from velvet. As the waist line began to move down again in the 1820's-30's, the Spencer also moved down to follow the waist. They could button closed or could be worn open like a cardigan would be worn today. Military decor was still used on the female version of the Spencer as a way to add interest to an otherwise mundane and boring (most often all white or a very light color) dress. 

Spencers were so versatile and useful (unlike most of the clothing of the time) that they remained in fashion until the second decade of the nineteenth century. As fashion began to change once again the Spencer fell out of high fashion and thus into history.

I especially LOVE this particular Spencer sewn by American Duchess

For further reading/research on the Spencer or fashion in general, I suggest:

Fashion in the time of Jane Austen - Sarah Jane Downing

An Introduction to Ladies' Fashions of the Regency Era - Lord Scot

http://www.fashion-era.com/index.htm

http://historicalsewing.com/

There are also TONS of Pinterest boards!

The First Woman to Run for President

                                                   Victoria Woodhull     

"While others of my sex devoted themselves to a crusade against the laws that shackle the women of the country, I asserted my individual independence; while others prayed for the good time coming, I worked for it; while others argued the equality of woman with man, I proved it by successfully engaging in business; while others sought to show that there was no valid reason why women should be treated, socially and politically, as being inferior to man, I boldly entered the arena of politics and business and exercised the rights I already possessed. I therefore claim the right to speak for the unenfranchised women of the country, and announce myself as a candidate for the Presidency" - April 2, 1870

Victoria Claflin was born on September 23, 1838. She was the fifth of seven surviving children born to poor parents living in the town of Homer, Ohio. Her mother named her after England's Queen Victoria. She had very little formal education but was known to have a photographic memory. Her mother Annie was very religious and Victoria, taking a cue from her mom, believed that she could hear spiritual voices; the first of these voices being her sisters that had died in infancy.                                                                               

In 1853, Victoria's father's grain mill caught fire and burned down. Rumors circulated around town that her father Buck had set the fire himself in order to collect insurance money. The rumors persisted and the family thought it was time to leave the town of Homer, Ohio. They moved to Mount Gilead where Victoria's eldest sister was living with her own family. Here Victoria and her sister Tennessee, pushed by their scheming father, became "spiritual mediums" and became the bread winners for their family. The family also began offering healing elixirs and cures for all kinds of illnesses and diseases. Tennessee was later indicted for manslaughter after a cancer patient in Illinois died.        

While living in Mount Gilead, Victoria was introduced to Doctor Canning Woodhull. Woodhull was impressed with Victoria and her parents were impressed with Woodhull. Victoria and Canning were married on November 23, 1853; Victoria was 15 years old. She soon learned that everything the good doctor had told her and her parents about how successful he was had in fact been a lie. He had very few patients and he did not have the great family connections that he claimed he had. Worse yet he was an alcoholic; drinking away what little money he brought in. December of 1854 Victoria gave birth to her first child; a boy they named Byron. As Byron grew it was discovered that he was mentally handicapped. Victoria was convinced her husband's alcoholism was the cause. In 1855, the family moved to San Francisco where Victoria began a short lived acting career. They returned to Ohio not long after moving to San Francisco when Victoria saw a vision of her sister telling her to come back home. Victoria resumed her work as a medium, sometimes traveling around different states for jobs. She had another child in 1861. This time she gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

Victoria kept working as a medium during the Civil War. It was during this time she met the man that would become her second husband. Victoria and her sister were living in St. Louis in 1864 when Colonel James Harvey Blood came into her practice. Victoria went into a trance and told Blood his future would be linked with hers in marriage. Both Victoria and James Blood were married to other people at the time. Divorce was rare for the time period and came with a bad social stigma. But despite societal views on divorce, both filed for divorce not long after meeting and were married in 1866. Victoria kept her first husband's surname; believing it to be rightfully her own. They settled in Pittsburgh, PA along with both her children.

Woodhull and Blood later moved to New York City and Blood began to open Victoria up to the new ideas of social reform and equal rights for women. In New York, Victoria and her sister continued their clairvoyance work and became friends with Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt offered financial advice to the sisters and soon they were wealthy. With her new-found wealth, Victoria thought it was finally time to begin her work on women's rights. She decided to be the first woman on Wall Street and with the backing of Vanderbilt, she succeeded. When the market crashed she bought up stocks from panicked traders and by the end of the day had $700,000 in her account. Victoria and her sister became the first women stockbrokers on Wall Street. She later bought a newspaper which she used as her own political forum. Not content with her paper, Victoria moved to Washington, D.C. and began to lobby for women's suffrage. She was the first female lobbyist and also the first woman to address a congressional committee.

Victoria's political platform for her newly formed "Cosmopolitical Party" included women's suffrage as well as a one-term presidency with a lifetime seat in the senate for former presidents. She also spoke for national public education and institutionalized welfare for the poor, a reform of marriage laws and a reform of the U.S. monetary system. Woodhull also opposed any laws that interfered with "the right of adult individuals to pursue happiness as they may choose." Of course, her platform and reform views garnered her as many enemies as friends, and even people who had been supporters in the beginning turned away from her. This was mainly due to the fact that she was misrepresented as being a proponent of the "Free Love" movement. In actual fact, what Victoria was trying to get people to understand was that she felt people should not be forced to stay in a marriage where there is no love or where there is abuse. When prominent women's rights leaders like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton pulled their support of Woodhull, her chances of becoming the first woman president went down the drain.

On May 10th, 1972, Victoria was still nominated for president by the Equal Rights Party and Fredrick Douglas, an African-American anti-slavery leader, was chosen as vice presidential candidate.

                              Yes! Victoria we've selected  For our chosen head:                                                   With Fred Douglas on the ticket                                                                               We will raise the dead.

Shortly after her presidential nomination, Victoria found herself broke and alienated from her financial backers. Her newspaper had to stop publication. The Equal Rights Party fell apart and people were calling for a new presidential nominee. Victoria was turned out of her house because her landlord said she was too scandalous for the neighborhood. On Election Day, Victoria and her sister were in jail. They were both arrested by Anthony Comstock (known for his crusade against "immoral" art and literature) and charged with the spreading of obscenity by their newspaper for a vengeful article about  Henry Ward Beecher, an American Congregationalist clergyman. The two sisters were released from jail in December when sympathetic supporters came up with the $16,000 bail money. Eventually, she had eight rounds of obscenity charges brought against her by Comstock. When their charges finally came to trial, the judge found them not guilty.

                            Cartoon by Thomas Nast that depicts public opinion about Victoria
                                                             
In 1873 the stock market crashed again and Victoria was heavily in debt. She began to travel giving political speeches which became more and more radical while she tried to win back all the support she had lost. In 1876, she caught her husband with another woman and filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery. Her political career was over and so was her marriage. When a son of Vanderbilt gave her and her sister $100,000 to leave the country during the Vanderbilt inheritance law suit, Victoria and Tennessee, along with her two children and her mother sailed to England. Victoria began to give a series of lectures much more mild than the speeches she gave in America. During a lecture in London she piqued the interest of John Biddulph Martin; the co-heir to one of Britain's oldest banks. They became engaged in 1880 and Victoria set about changing the way the world viewed her and to become a respectable married woman.

Victoria became a recluse and she and her sister drifted apart. She did publish a newspaper which focused on social and moral reform. Her first husband had died in 1872; her second husband, Colonel Blood died of a fever while in Africa in 1885, and her third husband, John Martin died in 1897. Victoria became the inheritor of her husband's wealth and the wealth of her father-in-law who had just passed away three days before his son. She retired to her country home of Bredon's Norton and began to turn the house into a residential college for women. It was unsuccessful as was her attempt at a school for children. She became active in her village, supporting community efforts and youth organizations. She also put a great deal of effort and support into helping the community during WWI. She became known in the village as "Lady Bountiful".

On June 9, 1927, at the age of 88, Victoria died in her sleep. Victoria was described numerous times as a woman ahead of her time. She was definitely a woman of great courage and conviction. In a time when women couldn't even vote, she stood up and declared herself worthy of holding the highest office in America.


Further study:
Victoria Woodhull: First Woman Presidential Candidate - Jacqueline McLean
A Woman for President: The Story of Victoria Woodhull - Kathleen Krull
Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull Uncensored - Mary Gabriel

National Women's History Museum

http://www.victoria-woodhull.com/whoisvw.htm

Dr. James Barry

I know what you're thinking....but that's a man's name! Why are you writing about a man on a woman's blog? Read on and you will find out why Dr. James Barry is no ordinary person.

James Barry's birth date, parentage and childhood are not known to us.  Barry was possibly born in Belfast, Ireland somewhere around 1795.

Barry enrolled as a medical student at Edinburgh University in 1810. After graduating, Barry entered the British army as a hospital assistant. In 1815 Barry was sent to Cape Town, South Africa to become physician to the governor of the colony. Dr. Barry became a very sought after physician in Cape Town; attending all the leading members of the colony. Barry was known to be a skilled doctor, a flirt with the ladies and hot tempered. The good doctor fought a duel against another officer and once stood trial for disobeying superiors. Barry proposed many reforms in Cape Town, including better sanitation and improved treatment of slaves.

Eventually Barry was sent to the British outpost of Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean. For the next thirty years Barry roamed the British empire attending to the sick and performing surgeries. Barry always traveled with a black male servant and a series of  poodles, all of whom where named Psyche.

In 1857, Barry was sent to Canada as Inspector General. The cold northern climate did not agree with the doctor and in 1859, Barry retired and moved to London. Barry died during the summer of 1865 from dysentery. An army doctor briefly inspected the aged body and signed the death certificate. It wasn't until a woman was cleaning Barry's body that the secret was revealed.

Dr. James Barry was a WOMAN!

How in the world could a woman reach the ranks of Inspector General in the British army?! Especially at a time when women weren't allowed to even attend medical school. How could a woman serve in this capacity in the army for forty-six years without having her gender revealed?!

Looking back after her death, many of her fellow officers recalled certain eccentricities about Barry. Whenever Barry had to change, she made anyone sharing her bunk leave until she was finished. Another officer stated that it was generally assumed Barry was a hermaphrodite. Her sleeping quarters were always dark when her attending physician came to call about her health. The servant that she kept with her even claimed to not know she was a woman. Later on, after her death, a doctor and nurse that treated her for yellow fever in 1845 admitted they knew her secret but had promised not to tell anyone.

The army was not very forthcoming with an official statement about Barry. Since her parents were not known to anyone, no one knows Barry's real name. Some sources now state that the woman who brought her to Edinburgh University was her mother, Mary Ann Bulkly. Bulkly supposedly had a son and two daughters, one of whom disappeared around the time Barry enrolled in medical school. Another source states that Mary Ann Bulkly IS James Barry.

                                                      Her tombstone simply reads:

                                  Dr. James Barry -  Inspector General of Army Hospitals.

                                                               Dr. Barry with his servant and dog Psyche




Women who Made a Difference - Malcolm Forbes

http://secrethistoriesproject.tumblr.com

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

Hold on to your bloomers; it's Fashion Friday!

                      Today we will take a look at the article of clothing known as bloomers.

Bloomers are named for newspaper journalist and women's rights activist Amelia Jenks Bloomer.       Bloomer lived with her husband in Seneca Falls, New York. When her husband bought the local paper Amelia began to write articles for it. After the historic Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls in 1848, Bloomer began publishing her own newspaper the Lily, which was the first women's journal to be produced by a woman.   

Bloomer gave her name to this type of underwear but she did not invent them. Bloomers were actually designed by Elizabeth Miller, who was a friend of Amelia Bloomers. Miller was on a trip abroad and was uncomfortable traveling in her cumbersome and heavy attire. She designed a lighter outfit which consisted of a shorter skirt worn over a pair of pantalets that reached to the ankle. The idea for this fashion was taken from the style of pants worn by the Turks in Turkey; hence it was known as the "Turkish Dress", also sometimes known as the Rational Dress which started in France.

                                               
 One day Miller stopped by Bloomer's home for a visit, sporting her new wardrobe. Bloomer decided to make a similar outfit for herself and then wrote an article about it in the Lily. "Fit yourselves for a higher sphere, and cease groveling in the dirt. Let there be no stain of earth upon your soul or apparel."  Hundreds of Lily readers wrote in asking for the pattern for this new fashion. Men's journals of course mocked the new fashion, eventually giving rise to the term "Bloomers".

                                                                                          Amelia Jenks Bloomer


  Bloomers fell out of fashion for a while, but like most fashion trends, they made a comeback. The invention of the bicycle brought the use of bloomers and the Turkish Dress back into vogue. Even Queen Victoria wore them so she could go bicycling! Eventually, as society progressed and clothing became less restrictive for women, bloomers once again fell out of fashion. Just think about how far women's underclothing have come in 164 years. First women didn't wear underclothes as we think of them today. All the skirts and undergowns made actual panties unneccessary. (Just imagine wearing about 15 pounds of clothing all day and see how much activity you do.) Then the bloomers were adopted to allow for more freedom of movement. Here we are in 2014, and with some of the skimpy underwear available out there we might as well be wearing no underwear at all again.

Ghi-ga-u: Beloved Mother

"You know that women are always looked upon as nothing, but we are your mothers; you are our sons. Our cry is all for peace; let it continue. This peace must last forever. Let your women's sons be ours. Let our sons be yours." - Nancy Ward; speech given to the United States treaty commissioners; 1781

                                       A Swan's Wing: Symbol of the Beloved Mother

Nancy Ward was a very influential Cherokee woman who lived during the forming of the United States  Because of her, many lives, both white and red, were spared from death. She believed that the white men were on the Cherokee land to stay and the best way to live was to live peacefully side by side. She pushed for integration and adoption of some of the white man's ways, and helped negotiate treaties between the Cherokee and the White man. In a time when European men denied women a say in the world, her wise motherly voice rose above them and was heard.

"She must have possessed remarkable traits of character to have retained almost autocratic control over the fierce and untamable Cherokee, when she was known to sympathize with their enemies, the white settler."     - James Adair

Nanye'hi, or Nancy, was born into the Wolf Clan in 1738 to Tame Doe; sister to the great Cherokee chief Attakullakulla. Her father is unknown, possibly from the Deleware tribe, but the Cherokee society is matrilineal, so her father really isn't important.

About 1751 Nanye'hi married Tsu-la, or Kingfisher. Kingfisher was a member of the Deer Clan and a fierce warrior. The Cherokee and the Creek Indians were ancient enemies and had always fought for possession of what is now northern Georgia. Some time during the year 1755 the Cherokee and Creek were involved in the bloody Battle of Taliwa which happened at Ball Ground, Georiga. Kingfisher was mortally wounded. Nancy was there at the battle with her warrior husband. She was hiding in the bushes when she saw Kingfisher fall. She ran to him and moved him into a hidden area and took his place in battle. The Creeks were winning the fight; the Cherokee had fallen back. She rallied the remaining Cherokee and led them to defeat the Creeks, who were twice their fighting force.




Once news of Nancy's bravery and inspiring leadership was made known to the rest of her tribe, Nancy was given the honored title of War Woman and later received the title of Ghigau, or Beloved Mother. Ghigau were allowed to become members of the tribal war counsel. They also had the final say on the fate of prisoners. Nancy also became head of the Women's Counsel which could override the authority of the chiefs when they felt it necessary. One prisoner that Nancy saved from death was a local settler by the name of Lydia Bean. Lydia showed Nancy how to keep cows and make butter and cheese.

A few years after the death of Kingfisher and her elevation to Beloved Mother, Nancy married a white trader named Bryant Ward. Her marriage to Ward helped cement her good relations with the white man and she came to speak fluent English and to understand more of the white man's ways and thoughts. This would help her to save many white settlers from the raids that took place under her cousin Dragging Canoe. Several times she sent word to the settlers of the Watauga that Dragging Canoe was planning a raid, thus saving many lives on both sides.

Because of her numerous interventions on behalf of the white people against her own people, she gained the respect of many important men in the newly forming United States and is considered a traitor to the Cherokee by many of her tribe. Some of the most respected military leaders looked to and listened to her wisdom. A Colonel Christian even wrote about her to President Jefferson and Jefferson in turn wrote back about her. Even President Teddy Roosevelt remembered her in his book Winning of the West. On one attack by the white man's army, most of the Cherokee towns were destroyed but her town of Chota was spared out of respect for her and her family. During the final attacks on the Cherokee and their towns, Nancy and her family were among the prisoners but were treated with freedom while among the miltias and were allowed to choose for themselves to stay with the white settlers or return to their home. They decided to return and rebuild Chota.

Eventually most of the Cherokee lands were ceded to the United States and even Nancy's beloved home town of Chota was sold. She moved her family to a place by the Ocoee River in present day Polk County, TN, where she spent the rest of her days running an inn. In 1822, Nancy died and was burried beside her brother and her son Fivekiller on a hill near her inn. Her great-grandson wrote this of her passing, "A light rose from her body, fluttered around the room like a bird, left through an open door and disappeared toward Chota."

   "The white men are our brothers; the same house holds us, the same sky covers us all."
Nancy Ward, the Beloved Mother of the Cherokee left behind a wonderful legacy and insight for anyone willing to heed her words of wisdom. We are all of one mother and should all live peacefully side by side as siblings.

There are some scholars who believe that the Battle of Taliwa never took place. These scholars site the fact that the Creek Nation never had a town by the name of Taliwa but research I have found suggests this is a Cherokee word meaning town. They also site maps that were drawn up by explorers during this time period as having no Cherokee settlements that far into Georgia or having them marked as abandoned. What this probably means is that these abandoned locations were either hunting camps that were not being used or were summer or winter villages and no one was there because it was the wrong season to be staying in those villages.

Many questions are always raised when we look at the history of a people who had no written language until the early 1800s. Most scholars also tend to look at history through the eyes of a modern thinker and this is always detrimental to history and the people of the past.

Did Nancy Ward exist? Yes. She was a Cherokee representative at many treaty negotiations and many colonists spoke of her in their letters and journals. Did she fight in a battle against the Creek Nation? Possibly. How she earned the honor of Beloved Mother may remain shrouded in mystery, but earn it she did.

Nancy Ward
Glory, Passion and Principle - Melissa Lukeman Bohrer
Cherokee Women - Theda Perdue
Nancy Ward/Dragging Canoe - Pat Alderman

There are several other really good historical bios about Nancy Ward but be careful because some are fictional novels and some just did no research at all.


Did you know: The title and honor of Beloved Mother is still in use by today's Eastern Band of the Cherokee.

Did you know: There is a Beloved Man title. Jerry Wolfe was the first man to be named Beloved Man since the 1800's. He was given the title/honor in April of 2013.

For more information of the EBCI in general and or for news you can check out:
Cherokee Museum or
http://theonefeather.com/

The First First Lady

I finally managed to tear myself away from level 70 of Candy Crush Saga in order to write a new blog.

Today we'll take a look at Martha Dandridge Custis Washington; wife of the first President of the United States of America.

Portrait of Martha Washington painted in 1878 by artist Eliphalet F. Andrews that now hangs in the East Room of the                                                                                                        White House

Born on June 2, 1731, Martha was the oldest daughter of John and Frances Dandridge. Her family resided on Chestnut Grove Plantation located in New Kent Co. Virginia on the Pamunkey River. Her education was the same as most girls born during her time and mainly revolved around domestic and social skills. She could read and write and was very adept at managing a household.

When Martha was 18 she married a wealthy man by the name of Daniel Parke Custis. Daniel Custis's father was against the marriage at first; feeling the Dandridge family didn't have the wealth and status to join into his family. Martha herself arranged a meeting with Daniel's father and did much good to promote her marriage to Daniel and consent to marry was granted. Martha and Daniel finally married on May 15, 1750. Daniel was almost 22 years older than his new bride. Together Martha and Daniel had four children; two of which died before they reached the age of five.

On July 8, 1757 Daniel Parke Custis died despite the attendance of the best physicians money could buy; without leaving a will. This put the now 26 year old widow into hard circumstances. Martha became the head of the household which included the business and financial aspect. According to English common law, Martha received a third of her husband's estate for use during her lifetime and the rest went to the children when they reached adulthood. Martha handled her new responsibilities with confidence and success. At the age of 26 Martha now owned nearly 300 slaves and more than 17,500 acres of land in six different counties.

Not long after her first husband died, Martha began to think about remarrying. A certain young military officer by the name of George Washington had heard about Martha's new situation and traveled from Williamsburg to her plantation home to visit her and make himself known. Within months of meeting both were planning a future together. :On January 6, 1759, less than ten months after first meeting and less than two years since her husband's death, Martha and George were wed. Martha must have cared for and trusted Washington a great deal because she married him without a premarital contract and so George was able to use Martha's one-third of her deceased husband's monies, lands and slaves. George also became the legal guardian of Martha's fatherless children. In Aprril of 1759 Martha  moved to George's plantation Mount Vernon to begin the next chapter of her life.

One of Martha's surviving children had lived until the age of seventeen when she passed away from a severe epileptic seizure. Martha's last surviving child, a son they called Jacky, married at the age of eighteen and he and his wife produced four children. Eager to join the war and fight for his country, Jacky begged to be allowed to join the army. He ended up becoming a civilian aide de camp for Washington. Shortly after gaining the position he contracted "camp fever" and soon died. The Washingtons took on and raised as their own two of their grandchildren. They would even travel to New York City (the first Capital) and then to Philadelphia with George and Martha during Washington's presidency.

During the War for Independence, Martha became a patriotic symbol. She was not comfortable with such a public life and role but she was determined to be happy in whatever situation she found herself. She would often visit her husband during the winter months of the war when fighting was typically at a standstill. Patriots and dignitaries all around the country would come out to meet her. She began to take part in fund raising efforts in order to support Washington's troops and the war effort in general. Washington felt Martha's presence was so essential to the war effort that he asked Congress for reimbursement for her travel expenses. Martha's presence, along with a few of the other Commanding Generals' wives became important for the morale of the army, and would often times hold social activities that helped make the long winter months more bearable. She also became hostess to innumerable guests including; generals and their wives, foreign dignitaries, other political leaders, and even Indian Chiefs.

When the War for Independence was over and Washington assumed the role of First President, Martha likewise took on the role of First Lady. There was no example already in place that the two could follow. Martha was aware that she just as much as her husband, would be the one to set the example of how the First Lady should act and what duties she must perform. She once wrote to her niece that she felt "more like a state prisoner than anything else."

In March of 1797, after having turned down a third term as President, the Washingtons returned to their beloved Mount Vernon; Martha was then sixty-five years old. She reveled in the daily routine of her home life and took great joy in her grand and great grand children. She had hoped to have many peaceful years at Mount Vernon with her family, but this was not to be. Only two and a half years after leaving the Presidency, George Washington died suddenly on December 14, 1799, after contracting a throat infection. Martha was grief stricken and closed up the bedroom she had shared with George and moved to a room on a different floor. Just two and a half years after her second husband's death, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington passed away on May 22, 1801.

                                      Mount Vernon; Plantation home of President George Washington


While Martha Washington was never involved in the Nation's politics she still served a very important role as the first First Lady. She set a precedent for every First Lady to come as a gracious hostess and someone that could/should be looked to as a symbol of the Nation.

Here's a little anecdote: Martha never lived in the White House that would become the home of every future President and First Lady, but her first husband's home was called White House.



For more information on The first First Lady check out these resources:

http://marthawashington.us/

Website about all the First Ladies

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation - Cokie Roberts
(Don't be put off by the fact that Cokie Roberts wrote this book. It is very well researched and well written.)

Martha Washington: An American Life - Patricia Brady