The letterbook of John Custis IV of Williamsburg, 1717-1742
By: edited by Josephine Little Zuppan.
Contributors: Zuppan, Josephine Little, 1943-1993.; Virginia Historical Society.
Series: Virginia Historical Society documents ;; v. 19
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Lanham, Md
Language: eng
Number of pages: 271
Subjects: Custis, John, 1678-1749 -- Correspondence.; Plantation owners -- Virginia -- Williamsburg -- Correspondence.; Businessmen -- Virginia -- Williamsburg -- Correspondence.; Politicians -- Virginia -- Williamsburg -- Correspondence.; Plantation life -- Virginia -- Williamsburg -- History -- 18th century.; Material culture -- Virginia -- History -- 18th century.; Williamsburg (Va.) -- Social life and customs -- 18th century.; Williamsburg (Va.) -- Biography.; Virginia -- Social life and customs -- To 1775.; Virginia -- Economic conditions -- 18th century.
Genres: Correspondence.; Biography.
Description: This absorbing letterbook, meticulously edited and thoroughly annotated, provides remarkable insight into the life and concerns of 18th-century colonial Virginians. We see in these 144 letters, an intimate view of John Custis IV (1678-1749), best known as the father-in-law of Martha Dandridge Custis, the wife of George Washington. Custis, a third-generation Virginian, was a wealthy, influential and shrewd planter-businessman-politician who served for years on the governor's Council. The letters are especially revealing about economic life, the material culture of colonial Virginia, and the treacherous legal and financial conditions in which even important planters operated. The correspondence clearly shows how a wealthy colonial planter uses and could be misused by the British mercantile system. The letters also provide a view of the personal side of the sober and overly frugal Custis: his fashionable passion for gardening (in which he was "inferior to few if any in Virginia"); his strife-filled nine-year marriage to Frances Parke, before her death from smallpox; his uneven relationships with his son and daughter which were especially difficult concerning the financial arrangements for their marriages; his persistent ill health; and the mixed roles Custis had with his 200 slaves (as harsh taskmaster, as personal physician, and perhaps as father of a favored slave).
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
"A Madison House book."
"Published in cooperation with the Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia."