Martha Washington
Martha was a well-off widow when she wed George Washington, and she gave her new husband a sizable dowry, property, and two kids from her previous union with Daniel Parke Custis. 14 years after their 1759 wedding, her daughter Martha, also known as Patsy, passed away due to a seizure. Despite having a seemingly blissful marriage, the Washingtons never had children.
Martha traveled with Washington when he first traveled to New York and then Philadelphia to assume the role of President of the United States after coming out of retirement. At the time, the gatherings were known as weekly Presidential levees, and she served as the hostess. Without any rules to guide her, and with no official responsibilities given to her, she took on the position of First Lady. Few of her letters to Washington have survived; after his death in 1799, she burnt the majority of their private correspondence.
Some erstwhile revolutionaries also expressed concern that the levees she hosted resembled the European Royal Courts in an uncanny way. But she overcame and, after once more serving in her famous husband's shadow, departed Philadelphia for Mount Vernon in 1797 as a respected and admired woman and hostess. Indeed, throughout her tenure as the nation's first lady, her reputation improved, but her husband's had seen a sharp reversal.
- Born: Martha Dandridge, Martha Dandridge, June 2, 1731, Chestnut Grove, Virginia, British America
- Died: May 22, 1802 (aged 70), Mount Vernon, Virginia, U.S.
- First Lady of the United States (April 30, 1789 – March 4, 1797)
