Life
Mary Ball was born in 1708 in Lively, Virginia in Lancaster County. She was the only child of Joseph Matthäus Ball and his second wife, the widow Mary Johnson, whose maiden name and origins are not known. Fatherless at three and orphaned at twelve, Mary Ball was placed under the guardianship of George Eskridge, a lawyer, in accordance with the terms of her mother's will.
Mary Ball met the widower Augustine Washington and they married on March 6, 1731 when she was 23 years old. It was her first marriage and his second. At age 37, Augustine had four children by his first wife, Jane Butler Washington; however, only two of them survived to adulthood.
Together, Mary and Augustine had the following children:
- George - (1732–1799)
- Betty - (1733–1797)
- Samuel - (1734–1781)
- John Augustine - (1736–1787)
- Charles - (1738–1799)
- Mildred - (1739–1740)
George Washington's Family Chart listing his ancestry, siblings, and brief biographies can be found on the Mount Vernon website
Augustine died in 1743. Unlike most widows in Virginia at the time, Mary Ball Washington never remarried. She managed the estate and plantation with the help of others until her eldest son came of age. She lived to see that son, George Washington, command the Continental Army to independence and be inaugurated as the first President of the United States in 1789.
Mary Washington was by no means poor. Her son, George, purchased her a fine house in Fredericksburg, where she lived from 1772 until her death in 1789. In her will, Mary Washington left George the majority of her lands and appointed him as her executor.
Mary Washington frequently visited her daughter Betty and her husband Fielding Lewis at their Kenmore Plantation outside Fredericksburg. She had a favorite "meditation rock" that was close to the Lewis mansion. Tradition has it that this was her favorite retreat for reading and prayer. She asked Betty to bury her there after her death, and her daughter arranged that.
Read more about this topic: Mary Ball Washington
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