Mary Ball Washington, born Mary Ball (November 30, 1708 - August 26, 1789), was the second wife of Augustine Washington, a planter in Virginia, and the mother of George Washington, the first President of the United States, and five other children.
Video Mary Ball Washington
Early life
Mary Ball was born in 1708 in Lively, Virginia in Lancaster County. She was the only child of Col Joseph Ball and his second wife, Mary Johnson Ball. 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, for whom her son George Washington, was named, consistent with the naming conventions at the time. (See the appendix of the book Albion's Seed by David Hackett Fischer for an insightful discussion of four naming conventions in use at the time in Great Britain.)
Maps Mary Ball Washington
Married life
Mary Ball first met Augustine Washington at the home of her father Joseph Ball outside London, England when he was in England on business and visiting his sons Lawrence and Austin (Augustine, Jr.) who were students at the prestigious preparatory school, Appleby's. Augustine Washington was sick and Mary Ball nursed him back to health. Augustine returned to Virginia and learned his wife Jane Butler Washington had died during his journey abroad. When the widower Augustine Washington heard that Mary Ball returned to Virginia, he went over to where she lived and proposed. They married on March 6, 1731 when she was 22 years old. It was her first marriage and his second. Together, Mary and Augustine had the following children:
- George Washington (1732-1799), the first President of the United States who married Martha Dandridge
- Elizabeth "Betty" Washington (1733-1797), who married Fielding Lewis
- Samuel Washington (1734-1781), who married five times
- John Augustine Washington (1736-1787), who married Hannah Bushrod
- Charles Washington (1738-1799), who married Mildred Thornton
- Mildred Washington (1739-1740), who died young.
Augustine died in 1743 when son George was 11 years old. On his deathbed, "Gus" gave his son George three books on prayer. In some of those books, now in the Lyceum in Boston, Mary Ball Washington, also wrote her name. Unlike most widows in Virginia at the time, Mary Ball Washington never remarried. When George was 14, his 26-year older half-brother Lawrence Washington, who commanded a unit of Virginia Militia that served on board with British Admiral Edward Vernon, for whom Mount Vernon was named, arranged for young George to become a British Navy Midshipman. However, Mary's highly respected brother Joseph Ball, under whom the Virginia House of Burgesses had voted money to pay the cost for Virginia's young men to go study for the ministry, wrote a reply to her letter requesting advice, wherein he said do not allow your son George to join the British Navy, for they will "...treat him worse than a slave or a dog".
Mary managed the family estate and 276 acres of Ferry Farm (a plantation) with the help of others until her eldest son came of age and well beyond. 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. After learning that he had been elected President in April 1789, George Washington traveled from Mount Vernon to visit his mother in Fredericksburg. He was accompanied by Martha Washington's grandson George Washington Parke Custis. There Mrs. Washington informed her son that she was in poor health and expected soon to die. Her son George said that he would need to decline to serve as President. George's mother Mary responded, saying "But go, George, fulfil the high destinies which Heaven appears to have intended for you for; go, my son, and may that Heaven's and a mother's blessing be with you always." George was inaugurated on 30 April 1789 in New York City at the Federal Building on Wall Street with his hand on a King James Bible, and added to the Oath prescribed in this Constitution for the United States of America, the profound and powerful words, "...so help me God."
Death
After a lengthy illness, on August 25, 1789, Mary Ball Washington died of breast cancer at her home in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Beliefs
While there is a legend that Mrs. Washington was said to be openly opposed to her son's revolutionary politics and, according to French officers based in Virginia during the war, she was a Loyalist sympathizer, there is no credible source to support that legend. The facts are that other than her son George who was Commander in Chief of the Continental forces (Army and Navy), Mary's other three son's Samuel, John Augustine, and Charles, all served in the Virginia Militia. Her son-in-law Fielding Lewis (husband to her daughter Betty), was in charge of the Fredericksburg Gunnery or Gun Manufactory. The gunnery works made muskets for use by American Revolutionary forces, and ended up almost bankrupting Lewis in the process.
Mary Washington was by no means poor despite the fact that she petitioned the Government of Virginia claiming, in response to a Virginia government notice to citizens to do so, asking to be reimbursed for farm animals, horses and cattle that she gave to support the American war effort. Her son, George, purchased her a fine house in Fredericksburg, four blocks from some "Prayer Rocks" Mary frequented to pray for her children and only two blocks from Kenmore, where George's sister Betty (Mrs. Fielding Lewis) lived. Mary lived in her home nearby from 1772 until her death in 1789, but George also arranged for water from the "medicine springs" on the Ferry Farm property, her home for many years, to be brought to his mother in town each day. In her will, Mary Washington left George the majority of her lands and appointed him as her executor.
Mary Washington frequently visited her daughter Elizabeth "Betty" and her husband Fielding Lewis at their Kenmore Plantation two blocks from her home in Fredericksburg. She had a favorite "prayer 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.
Descendants
Her third son, John Augustine Washington, was the father of Bushrod Washington, who was nominated by President John Adams to the U.S. Supreme Court, and confirmed by the Senate in 1798, while his Uncle George was living in retirement at Mount Vernon. Charles Town, West Virginia, is named for her fourth son, Charles Washington, the national capital and many other cities, towns and villages are named "Washington" for her first son, George Washington.
The Ancestry of George Washington can also be found on the Mount Vernon website.
Legacy and honors
- Several monuments have been erected to Mary Ball Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she lived from 1772 until her death in 1789.
- The Mary Washington House in Fredericksburg has been preserved by Preservation Virginia (formerly known as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities)who, in mid-2012, signed an agreement passing ownership to the "Washington Heritage Museums" beginning by 2015. The residence is open to the public and operated as a historic house museum. It contains a fine collection of antique furnishings, some with Washington family provenance.
- Mary Ball Washington is buried on the grounds of Kenmore, the former home of her daughter and son-in-law Fielding and Betty Lewis. Kenmore is operated as a house museum and is open regularly for public tours.
- A monument to Mary Ball Washington was erected in 1833 and dedicated by President Andrew Jackson. It was left unfinished until a women's organization formed in the late nineteenth century and raised money for the monument. The Mary Washington Memorial Association used social events and balls to raise money for the cause. The new memorial was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland in 1894 at her grave site. [1]
- The University of Mary Washington, a public university in Fredericksburg, Virginia, was named for her.
- The Mary Washington Hospital, located in Fredericksburg, is named for her.
See also
- Mary Washington House
- Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library
- The SS Mary Ball was a World War II Liberty ship.
Notes
External links
- His "Revered Mother" at HistoryPoint.org
- The Mary Washington House on the APVA Preservation Virginia website
- Oh, Mother! -
- The Life and Legacy of the "Grandmother of our Country"
Source of article : Wikipedia
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