Early Life
Martha Parke Custis was born on 31 December 1777 in the Blue Room at Mount Vernon. She was the second-eldest surviving daughter of John Parke Custis, son of Martha Washington and her first husband Daniel Parke Custis, and his wife Eleanor Calvert, daughter of Benedict Swingate Calvert and his wife Elizabeth Calvert.
Martha was named for her father's late sister, Martha "Patsy" Parke Custis (1756–1773). Her siblings included Elizabeth Parke Custis Law (1776–1831), Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis (1779–1854), and George Washington Parke Custis (1781–1857). She was known to her family as "Patsy."
At first the family alternated between living at the Washingtons' plantation, Mount Vernon in Virginia, and the Calverts' plantation, Mount Airy in Maryland. In 1778, John Parke Custis purchased Abingdon, a 900-acre (3.6 km2) plantation on the west bank of the Potomac River (now the site of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport). Abingdon was conveniently located equidistant between Mount Vernon and Mount Airy.
Read more about this topic: Martha Parke Custis Peter
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“If you are willing to inconvenience yourself in the name of discipline, the battle is half over. Leave Grandma’s early if the children are acting impossible. Depart the ballpark in the sixth inning if you’ve warned the kids and their behavior is still poor. If we do something like this once, our kids will remember it for a long time.”
—Fred G. Gosman (20th century)
“In European thought in general, as contrasted with American, vigor, life and originality have a kind of easy, professional utterance. American—on the other hand, is expressed in an eager amateurish way. A European gives a sense of scope, of survey, of consideration. An American is strained, sensational. One is artistic gold; the other is bullion.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)