Middletown transcript., 1894-06-09
MARY WASHINGTON

and Her Sharp Tongue.
AL hough Mary Washington was a
plain and austere woman, famous FOR
her economy, her thrift, and her self
privation-w which was long ago demon
strated to have been entirely unneces-
sary-her family made many preten-
tions. She was herself creature of
fashion in her childhood, when she was
known as "the belle of the Northern
Neck" of Virginia. Her family had
good blood, good breeding, a coat or
arms and considerable property in
lands and houses and slaves, and her
father seems to have been conside rable
of a swell. There is still preserved in
the record of st. Mary's parish an ell
try authorizing him to construct gal
lery in what is known as "the white
chapel" at his own expense for the use
of his family and servants. 1t is shown
too that be was vestryman, and gave
els year towards the salary of the
rector, which was liberal contribu-
ton in those days. When he died he
bequeathed his daughter LOCO. acres of
land in what he terms ''ye freshes of ye
Rappahannock.
There is an old autograph letter
down here which gives an exquisite
glimpse of her childhood. 1t was writ
ten by some persons unknown in Octo-
ber, 1922, ten years before her famous
son was born, and contains his para
graph:
"Mme. Ball, of Lancaster, and her
sweet Molly have gone home, Mama
thinks Molly the comliest maiden she
knows. She is about sixteen, is taller
than me, is very sensible, modest and
loving. Her hair is like unto flax.
Her eyes are the color of yours, and
her cheeks are like May blossoms.
Nine. Ball used to spend her win
ters at Williamsburg, where was the
famous old college of William und
Mary, and her daughter broke hearts
and left among the students. But it
remained for widower, ten years past
her own age, to win her in marriage.
There is material for love story in the
circumstances surrounding the mar
riage of Washington's father and
mother. Although few Of the facts
are known, there is plenty of loom for
conjecture. AS their families were
neighbors, they must have been
acquainted before the death of his first
wife, and he must have loved and
sought her before she went to Europe
with her brother after her parents
death. He seems to have crossed the
ocean about the same time, if he
didn't go on the same ship, and to have
married her shortly after his arrival.
The sedate biographies say that he
went to Cookham to sell some property
that was left him by his maternal
grandfather, and that she went to
Cookham to live with her brother,
Joseph Ball, because the family home
was broken up. But their journeys
about the same lime, and in
a few months they returned to Virginia
together man and wife.
The heartrending stories about the
economies practised by Mary Washing
ton after the death of her husband in
order to educate her children are not
countenanced down here. While she
was not woman of great wealth, she
was by no means poor. She had two
goad plantations, more than twenty
slaves and a dozen or more horses that
we know of, and her will, in which
she divides this property, proves that
the privations that she suffered we're
from choice and not from necessity.
The original will was shown in the
Courthouse to-day, preserved between
two gieces Of glass. Her son-in-law
was the richest man in the neighbor-
hood, and he and her daughter we're
continually urging her to give up
work and live with them.
She was woman of great energy
and Independence, strong will and
an amazing indifference to public opin-
ion, and in her old age became the
Xantippe of the town. A private let
ter written shortly after her death
naively remarks that mime. Washing
ton had the sharpest tongue in two
counties, and spared neither friend nor
foe"