John Parke Custis | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of John Parke Custis byCharles Willson Peale, ca. 1774 | |
| Member of theVirginia House of Delegates forFairfax County | |
| In office May 4, 1778 – March 22, 1781 Serving with George Mason | |
| Preceded by | Philip Alexander |
| Succeeded by | position eliminated |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 27, 1754 |
| Died | November 5, 1781(1781-11-05) (aged 26) |
| Cause of death | "Camp fever" (eitherepidemic typhus ordysentery) |
| Resting place | Queen's Creek |
| Spouse | Eleanor Calvert |
| Children | 7 |
| Parents | |
| Relatives |
|
| Alma mater | Columbia University |
| Occupation | Planter, politician |
John Parke Custis (November 27, 1754 – November 5, 1781) was an Americanplanter and politician. Custis was a son ofMartha Dandridge Custis (later Washington) andDaniel Parke Custis, and later, the stepson ofGeorge Washington.[1][2]
The only son to survive childhood ofDaniel Parke Custis, a wealthy planter with nearly three hundred slaves and thousands of acres of land in five Virginia counties, and the formerMartha Dandridge, he was most likely born atWhite House, his parents' plantation on thePamunkey River inNew Kent County, Virginia. To his family, he was known as "Jacky" as a boy, then "Jack", especially after attaining his inheritance.[1][3]
Following his father's death in 1757, under Virginia's laws concerning intestacy (dying without a will), almost 18,000 acres (73 km2) of land and personal property including about 285 enslaved persons (worth £30,000) were held in trust for Custis until he came of age.[1] However, the estate prompted a transatlantic legal battle with relatives in theLeeward Islands, which prompted Martha Custis to seek assistance fromJohn Robinson.[1] In January 1759, when Custis was four years old, his mother marriedGeorge Washington, who thereupon became his legal guardian and the administrator of theCustis Estate. The Washingtons raised Jacky and his younger sisterMartha "Patsy" Parke Custis (1756–1773) atMount Vernon. When his sister died of a seizure in 1773, aged 17 years, Custis became the sole heir of the Custis estate.[3][1]
His stepfather was not overly fond of Custis, and considered the child troubled, lazy and "free-willed" for taking no interest in his studies.[3][1] Martha Washington had supervised the boy's earliest education, but by 1761 the family hired Scotsman Walter Magowan as a private tutor. When Magowan returned to England in 1767, Washington sent Custis to a boarding school run by Rev.Jonathan Boucher, initially inCaroline County, Virginia. Although Boucher too considered the boy indolent, the arrangement continued after Boucher moved the school toAnnapolis, Maryland.[2] In May 1773 Custis began to attend King's College (laterColumbia University) inNew York City, but left soon after his sister died.[1]
Not long after reaching the legal age of eighteen, Jacky told the Washingtons of his engagement to 15 year oldEleanor Calvert, a daughter ofBenedict Swingate Calvert and granddaughter ofCharles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore.[1][3][4] The announcement greatly surprised George and Martha because both Jack and Eleanor were so young.[3][5] Nonetheless, on February 3, 1774, Custis married Eleanor at her family's Mount Airy estate. Its restored mansion is the center ofRosaryville State Park inPrince George's County,Maryland.[3][6][7] As discussed below, the couple would have six daughters and a son, of whom four reached adulthood.
After their marriage, the couple settled at his father'sWhite House plantation in rural New Kent County.[3] However, after two years, Custis sold the Custis family's town lots in Jamestown and Williamsburg, as well as several plantations in King and Queen, Hanover and New Kent counties in order to purchase two plantations in northern Virginia (in then-vastFairfax County) closer to his step father's Mount Vernon plantation. One tract of 1,100 acres (4.5 km2) acres which Custis named "Arlington" was bought outright for £12,000 (and later becameArlington National Cemetery). The other plantation, 904 acres (3.66 km2) acres calledAbingdon (nowReagan National Airport inArlington County, Virginia), Custis purchased on unfavorable terms: a mortgage at £12 per acre, with substantial annual payments over £2,000 each year, and the principal due in 1802.[1] Washington believed Abingdon's owner, Robert Alexander, took advantage of Custis's inexperience and eagerness. When he learned of the purchase terms, George Washington informed Custis that "No Virginia Estate (except a few under the best management) can stand simple Interest how then can they bear compound Interest".[8]
Nonetheless, the couple settled there during the winter of 1778–1779.[3][9]Custis' behavior in this and other matters prompted George Washington to write in 1778: "I am afraid Jack Custis, in spite of all of the admonition and advice I gave him about selling faster than he bought, is making a ruinous hand of his Estate."[10] By 1781, the financial strains of the Abingdon purchase had almost bankrupted Custis. He tried to renegotiate the terms before his death, and afterward David Stuart as guardian of Custis' minor children, reconveyed it to its former owner after paying £2,400 in rent for the period the estate had been in Custis hands.[1]
Most historians agree Custis did not join the Continental Army due to the determined opposition of his stepfather, as well as his mother, for Custis was her only son.[1] However, one account claimed Custis served on Washington's staff during theSiege of Boston in 1775–1776 and as an emissary to the British forces there.[11]
In 1778, Custis ran for a seat in theVirginia House of Delegates from both New Kent County and Fairfax County.[1] Custis became one of the two Fairfax County delegates, alongside his stepfather's neighbor and mentorGeorge Mason, and both were re-elected twice before Custis' death, after which only Benjamin Dulaney represented the county for the 1781/2 term.[12] Washington at least once chided Custis concerning his habitual late arrival.[1]
Eleanor bore seven children during their marriage, three of whom died in infancy:
Speculation has also linked Custis as the possible father ofWilliam Costin (1780-1842), born to Custis slave Ann (Nancy) Dandridge-Costin.[13][14]
In September 1781 Custis persuaded Washington to let him serve as a civilian aide-de-camp to Washington during thesiege of Yorktown.[1] En route to Yorktown he also made inquiries about 17 slaves who had reportedly fled to British lines.[15] However, the crowded camps near the battlefield were rife with smallpox and malaria,[16] and Custis contracted "camp fever", which could have been an illness now labelledepidemic typhus,[17] ordysentery[18] while at Yorktown.[1] He was moved 30 miles upriver toEltham plantation the home of his uncle ColonelBurwell Bassett (Martha Washington's brother-in-law), where Martha Washington as well as his wife Eleanor (both of whom had journeyed to Williamsburg a few weeks before) attempted to help nurse him.[16] Shortly after the surrender ofCornwallis, Custis died on November 5, 1781, at Eltham.[1][3] He was buried at his family's plot at theirQueen's Creek plantation, inYork County, nearWilliamsburg, Virginia.[3] However, if any grave marker had been erected, none remained by 1895 when the remaining Custis gravestones were moved to Bruton Parish Church.[1] With his mother's marriage to Washington after his death, Custis retroactively became the first child of a US President to have died during military service.
With Custis's death at 26, his widow sent their two youngest children (Eleanor/Nelly and George/Washy) to Mount Vernon to be raised by the Washingtons.[3] In 1783, she marriedDavid Stuart ofAlexandria, Virginia, with whom she had at least seven additional children who survived infancy.[1][19][20]
Although Custis had become well-established at Abingdon, his financial affairs were in disarray because of his poor business judgement as well as wartime conditions.[3] After Custis died in 1781, administrators of theCustis Estate negotiated for more than a decade to end the Abington transaction.[1] Because Custis diedintestate, his estate was not fully liquidated until the 1811 death of his widow. His four children inherited more than 600 slaves.[3]
Part of the Abingdon estate is now on the grounds ofRonald Reagan Washington National Airport.[9] When he purchased Abingdon, Custis also bought a nearby property that after his death becameArlington Plantation and later,Arlington National Cemetery.[9]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)Amid the unsanitary conditions at Yorktown, Jacky contracted 'camp fever' ... ... 'camp fever' - likely typhus
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
