Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (2 June 1731-22 May 1802) was First Lady of the United States from 30 April 1789 to 4 March 1797 as the wife of President George Washington.
Biography[]
Martha Dandridge was born at Chestnut Grove near New Kent, Virginia in 1731, the daughter of Colonel John Dandridge. She was married to Daniel Parke Custis from 1750 until his death in 1757, becoming a widow at the age of 26. In 1759, she remarried to Colonel George Washington, and they settled at Washington's Mount Vernon plantation. Martha strongly supported her husband's role in the Patriot cause during the American Revolutionary War, joining her husband during the Siege of Boston and at his winter encampments, and acquiring a reputation as a grandmotherly figure for Washington's Continental Army soldiers. She was not fully supportive of her husband's presidency, however, giving only one speech as first lady and eschewing the title in favor of "Lady Washington." Washington hosted weekly social events and showed both dignity and humility befitting the head of a republican state's wife, and she and her husband retired to Mount Vernon in 1797. Her husband died in 1799, and she died in 1802.
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