John Parke Custis
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John Parke Custis (27 November 1754–5 November 1781) was a Virginia planter and stepson of George Washington.
He was most likely born at White House, his parents' plantation in New Kent County, Virginia. He was the son of Daniel Parke Custis, a wealthy planter, and Martha Dandridge Custis. After the death of his father in 1757, he inherited almost 18,000 acres (73 km²) of land. In 1759, his mother married George Washington and moved with her children to Mount Vernon. Custis briefly attended King's College (later Columbia University) in 1773.
On February 3, 1774, Custis married Eleanor Calvert.[1] granddaughter of Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore and daughter of Benedict Calvert, 4th Baron. Four of their seven children survived infancy:
- Elizabeth Parke Custis (1776–1831), married Thomas Law
- Martha Parke Custis (1777–1854), married Thomas Peter
- Eleanor Parke Custis (1779–1852), married Lawrence Lewis
- George Washington Parke Custis (1781–1857), married Mary Lee Fitzhugh.
Custis sat in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1778 until 1781. Arlington National Cemetery sits on land he once owned. He served as a civilian aide-de-camp to Washington during the siege of Yorktown.He was said not to have shared the same ambitious as his step-father. He even cheated him in a business agreement. He contracted camp fever and died in New Kent County not long after Cornwallis's surrender. He was buried in York County, near Williamsburg.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Maryland Historical Society. Maryland Historical Magazine, p. 389.
[edit] References
- Frank E. Grizzard Jr. George Washington: A Biographical Companion (2002), pages 67-70.
- John T. Kneebone et al., eds., Dictionary of Virginia Biography (Richmond: Library of Virginia, 1998- ), 3:639-640. ISBN 0-88490-206-4
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