Part 4 (2/2)
At first Boucher expressed high hope for his young charge, and Washi+ngton placed an order in London for one hundred books, many in Latin A transparently insincere fellow, Boucher laid on the flattery with a trowel, telling Washi+ngton what he thought he wanted to hear His first letter described Jacky as a little angel, ”a boy of so exceedingly ht be too artless, with ”all the harmlessness of the dove” and none of ”the wisdoon, he concluded, ”I have not seen a youth that I think proood and a usefuldiscovered Jacky's profligate nature, Boucher whistled a different tune ”You will re complain[e]d of Jack's laziness, which, however, I now hope is not incurable,” he wrote to Washi+ngton10 The reverend's diss of [Jacky's] character are that he is constitutionally somewhat too warm, indolent, and voluptuous” He trembled for the fate of the Custis fortune: ”Sunk in uneled in some matrimonial adventure” The reverend's diss of [Jacky's] character are that he is constitutionally somewhat too warm, indolent, and voluptuous” He trembled for the fate of the Custis fortune: ”Sunk in uneled in sonizant of the exorbitant wealth he would inherit, Jacky saw little need to apply himself to studies, which couldn't help but distress his stepfather with his nagging work ethic Cognizant of the exorbitant wealth he would inherit, Jacky saw little need to apply himself to studies, which couldn't help but distress his stepfather with his nagging work ethic
In 1770 Jonathan Boucher became a rector in Annapolis, Maryland, and Jacky followed hi strictures on Jacky's behavior caton and probably weren't communicated to Martha Always concerned with Jacky's health, she feared he would drown and urged Boucher not to let him swim too frequently When Boucher devised an elaborate plan to chaperone Jacky on a grand European tour, Washi+ngton vetoed it as too expensive but probably suspected as well that Martha would never allow her son to travel for an extended period, especially on an ocean voyage
In the end, Jacky beca about with friends after school and often spent the night elsewhere Washi+ngton knew that Annapolis, with its horse races and theater, te leave to request,” Washi+ngton told Boucher, ”that [Jacky] may not be suffered to sleep fro about at nights in company with those who do not care how debauched and vicious his conduct ated to flatter Master Custis, Boucher dropped all pretense ”I must confess to you,” he replied, ”I never did in ly voluptuous One would suppose nature had intended hiated to flatter Master Custis, Boucher dropped all pretense ”I must confess to you,” he replied, ”I never did in ly voluptuous One would suppose nature had intended hiested that the best way to control Jacky was to send his two horses back to Mount Vernon, Martha furiously refused her perested that the best way to control Jacky was to send his two horses back to Mount Vernon, Martha furiously refused her perton betrayed the exasperation of a hardworkingthe very education that Washi+ngton had so sorely ton told Boucher to teach it to Jacky: ”To be acquainted with the French tongue is become a part of polite education and, to a e circle, absolutely necessary”14 Jacky never learned French or Greek or mathematics, as he was supposed to do Jacky never learned French or Greek or mathematics, as he was supposed to do
One reason that Washi+ngton monitored Jacky's education so narroas that he took seriously his role as guardian of the Custis estate When he turned down Boucher's request for the grand tour, he explained that its costs would exceed Jacky's incoht be deemed imprudent in me to alloithout the sanction of the court, who are the constitutional guardians of orphans”15 Jacky's estate consisted of four plantations in New Kent County, 15,000 acres of land, somewhere between 200 and 300 slaves, and nearly 10,000 pounds in financial securities One wonders how Washi+ngton felt about this devil-may-care stepson whose immense wealth easily rivaled his own Jacky's estate consisted of four plantations in New Kent County, 15,000 acres of land, somewhere between 200 and 300 slaves, and nearly 10,000 pounds in financial securities One wonders how Washi+ngton felt about this devil-may-care stepson whose immense wealth easily rivaled his own
In early 1773 Washi+ngton decided that the tie For Martha, Williaiven its proxiton found the atinia school too lax He wanted to send Jacky to the College of New Jersey (Princeton), but Boucher steered hie (predecessor to Colu's was located in ”the most fashi+onable and polite place on the continent,” and that he counted its president, Dr Myles Cooper, as a personal friend16 It is worth noting that Washi+ngton, taking a diinia, wanted to educate his stepson in the North It is worth noting that Washi+ngton, taking a diinia, wanted to educate his stepson in the North
Once Washi+ngton decided in favor of King's, Jacky introduced a fresh complication into the picture This sexually precocious youth had spent considerable ti the opposite sex ”Jack has a propensity to the sex,” Boucher warned Washi+ngton, ”which I ae of, much more how to describe”17 It was only a matter of ti woain, this ti three students One was Jacky and another was Charles Calvert, son of the wealthy Benedict Calvert of Mount Airy Jacky courted Eleanor (Nelly) Calvert, Charles's beautiful, dark-eyed sister, and by early 1773 had proposed to her All this happened without the Washi+ngtons' knowledge Shocked by the news, they tried, at a bare ton wrote an artful letter to Benedict Calvert, stating that he had heard of Nelly's ”amiable qualifications” and that ”an alliance” with the Calverts would please him and Martha He then went on to cite Jacky's ”youth, inexperience, and unripened education” as ”insuperable obstaclesto the coe” It was only a matter of ti woain, this ti three students One was Jacky and another was Charles Calvert, son of the wealthy Benedict Calvert of Mount Airy Jacky courted Eleanor (Nelly) Calvert, Charles's beautiful, dark-eyed sister, and by early 1773 had proposed to her All this happened without the Washi+ngtons' knowledge Shocked by the news, they tried, at a bare ton wrote an artful letter to Benedict Calvert, stating that he had heard of Nelly's ”amiable qualifications” and that ”an alliance” with the Calverts would please him and Martha He then went on to cite Jacky's ”youth, inexperience, and unripened education” as ”insuperable obstaclesto the coested that the e be deferred for two or three years until Jacky completed his education In the letter, he distanced hiistered his disapproval without openly disavowing hireed that Jacky should spend two years at King's College before ested that the e be deferred for two or three years until Jacky completed his education In the letter, he distanced hiistered his disapproval without openly disavowing hireed that Jacky should spend two years at King's College before hter
FOR WAshi+NGTON, the other troubling family situation of these years involved his perennial attempt to please his ton had taken no apparent pride in her son's service in the French and Indian War, and when he resigned froiment, she coe was in the ariven it up”19 If he felt no real affection for his rity in caring for this self-centered wo, heher h she always reneged on repay that he had been lending his ton offered the acidulous comment, ”I suppose she never expected to pay” If he felt no real affection for his rity in caring for this self-centered wo, heher h she always reneged on repay that he had been lending his ton offered the acidulous comment, ”I suppose she never expected to pay”20 For decades, Mary Ball Washi+ngton had lived frugally at Ferry Fare had inherited from his father and that he had let her use freely all these years For a long ti about in an open chaise and supervising the slaves Now about sixty-three, she was no longer able to superintend the run-down place, and in 1772 George encouraged her toTo make a final provision for her, he spent 275 pounds for a char white frame house on a one-acre lot at the corner of Charles and Lewis streets in Fredericksburg He added a wide, deep porch with a slanting roof that overlooked the garden The house was ideally situated for Mary: a brick footpath led straight to the i Leho had eleven hundred acres and 125 slaves Washi+ngton's brothers Charles, a Spotsylvania County justice, and Sah Mary Ball Washi+ngton spent the last seventeen years of her life in the Charles Street house and never paid a penny in rent, she never acknowledged George's generosity, as best we know
Washi+ngton personally surveyed Ferry Farreed to take charge of a four-hundred-acre farm, Little Falls, that Mary owned two ton was supposed to profit from Mary's ten slaves and livestock and pay her thirty pounds rent yearly in exchange, a deal approved by his brother Charles and brother-in-law Fielding Lewis Because there was no ton paid Mary the rent, he often did so in the presence of his sister Betty, then recorded in his ledger that the latter had witnessed the transaction
One small incident from the early years of the Revolutionary War shows just how steely a woton was She had reclaimed froton notified George of the heartrending scene that occurred when he informed Silla's partner, Jack (probably a slave cooper), that Silla was being sent down to Fredericksburg ”He cries and begs, saying he had rather be hang[e]d than separated,” Lund reported A week later Lund reiterated that ”Jack and Silla are ton respected slave es and refused to separate couples Nevertheless Mary Washi+ngton evidently persisted in her dee Washi+ngton respected slave es and refused to separate couples Nevertheless Mary Washi+ngton evidently persisted in her demand and broke up the couple for her own convenience
ON THE EVENING OF MAY 18 , 1772 , Jacky Custis returned to Mount Vernon with an unusual companion in tow, a thirty-one-year-old painter named Charles Willson Peale who lived in Annapolis and toted an introductory letter froer had relinquished a career as a saddle maker to specialize in portraits of affluent families Peale was destined to have three wives and sixteen children and e as a painter, a writer, a soldier, an inventor, a silver-smith, a taxidermist, a dentist, and the founder of a Philadelphiain London under the foremost Aentry already prized his pictures Nudged by Martha, George Washi+ngton, age forty, agreed to endure his first portrait Though he never warh vanity in his psychological h ton resigned his military commission, he still prided hireeted hiton The brouhaha over the Stamp Act and the Townshend duties also raised the distant prospect of a recourse to arms So as the industrious Peale settled in at Mount Vernon, Washi+ngton donned a uniform-a blue coat trimmed with scarlet and a scarlet waistcoat-that called forth memories of the French and Indian War
Never coton was alternately restive and sleepy in posing for Peale, as he described whi yielded to importunity, I am now, contrary to all expectation, under the hands of Mr Peale, but in so grave, so sullen, a mood-and now and then under the influence of Morpheus, when so-that I fancy the skill of this gentle to the world whathas a storybook quality Instead of presenting Washi+ngton as a prosperous planter, it offers a nostalgic backward gliloved hand thrust into his waistcoat, a onally across his chest, Washi+ngton gazes poetically into the distance His face is sht be listening to bird whistles in the tree above him rather than live bullets His facial features arecharacter engraved there by the Revolutionary War The picturesque scene pretends to capture Washi+ngton being su fro, which captured hi in the Mount Vernon parlor for the rest of his life It seeerness to resume his military career
The artist spent a week at Mount Vernon and paintedwith the three-quarter-length portrait of George Washi+ngton The picture of Martha was done at Jacky's request, and one wonders whether hehis love for his mother or perhaps i included her in pictures by this visiting artist It ton, in aHer face is cold and hu Nevertheless this was probably the randson later ton always ”wore around his neck the h all the vicissitudes of his eventful careerto the last days at Mount Vernon”23
IN MAY 1773, hoping to put a safe distance between Jacky and his intended bride, Washi+ngton accoe This sociable trip exposed Washi+ngton to personalities ere to be pro conflict It was alle easily with people of differing ideologies In Philadelphia he dined with Governor Richard Penn and in Burlington, New Jersey, with Governor Williaitimate son and soon to be ostracized as a notorious Tory At Basking Ridge, New Jersey, he stayed at the opulent estate of Lord Stirling, whose extravagant ways had already landed hie as one of Washi+ngton's favorite generals In New York he met with James DeLancey, shortly to command a Loyalist cavalry, and attended a dinner in honor of an old colleague froe, now co to think of George Washi+ngton drinking toasts to this future bugbear of the patriot cause Washi+ngton also attended a perfor on John Street staged in a red theater building on John Street
The president of King's College, the Reverend Myles Cooper, welcomed Jacky Custis and his personal slave Joe to the school An accoues, Cooper had strengthened the college by adding new professors and athe library He had also turned the school into a hotbed of Tory sentiment as the colonies became polarized by the controversial taxes imposed by London The school stood on the Hudson River, one block west of the coated to spout anti-British venom Myles Cooper, with no patience for such critics, branded the radical Sons of Liberty the ”sons of licentiousness, faction, and confusion”24 There is no suggestion that Washi+ngton had any qual Jacky in a school known for its Tory views He must have alerted Cooper candidly to Jacky's wanton history, because he told the president that, if Jacky spent too freely, he hoped Cooper would ”by your friendly ade life was shot through with class differences, and Jacky basked in his privileged station Thanks to his wealth, the cosseted boy enjoyed social equality with his professors, who see with other students, Jacky boasted of dining with President Cooper and his tutors ”I believe I may say without vanity that I aht” by the faculty, Jacky told his mother ”There is as much distinction made between e life was shot through with class differences, and Jacky basked in his privileged station Thanks to his wealth, the cosseted boy enjoyed social equality with his professors, who see with other students, Jacky boasted of dining with President Cooper and his tutors ”I believe I may say without vanity that I aht” by the faculty, Jacky told his mother ”There is as much distinction made between ed that he and Joe had their own suite of roo roo's College as if it were a swank resort staffed with servile e his ood friend Doctor Cooper which was necessary to ed that he and Joe had their own suite of roo roo's College as if it were a swank resort staffed with servile e his ood friend Doctor Cooper which was necessary to ton returned to Mount Vernon, Jacky pro ested that things wouldn't turn out exactly as Washi+ngton had planned After Washi+ngton returned to Mount Vernon, Jacky pro ested that things wouldn't turn out exactly as Washi+ngton had planned
The concern over Jacky paled into insignificance, however, besidetrepidation over Patsy's medical condition Charles Willson Peale remembered the palpable at that ”we used to walk together to enjoy the evening breeze” and ”danced to give exercise to Miss Custiswho did not enjoy good health She was subject to fits and Mrs Washi+ngton never suffered her to be a ton's diaries for early 1773 are rife with e one particularly distressing time in late January, the doctor camped out at Mount Vernon for almost a full week Then on Saturday, June 19, 1773, Patsy Custis died a sudden, painless death, leading her stepfather to make a terse entry in his diary: ”At home all day About five o'clock poor Patcy Custis died suddenly” Washi+ngton's diaries