This
blog to increase awareness of Betty Washington Lewis was initiated with
intentions to post on a regular basis. However, with visiting research institutions
and gathering documents to unravel the lives of the Lewis and Washington
family, the good intentions fell to the side.
Today,
a family member posted a lovely account of how their family celebrated George
Washington’s birthday (22 February 1732). The post provided motivation to
embellish upon tributes honoring George Washington.
George
Washington’s nephew, Lawrence Lewis (and a son of Betty), and his adopted
daughter Eleanor Parke Custis requested permission to marry at Mount Vernon on
22 February 1799. The family could not anticipate the celebration would be
Washington’s last, as Washington wrote of living into the year 1800. Washington
fell eighteen days short of that goal.
The
strong ties of the Washington family and the dedication of family members to
the patriarch George Washington, resulted in family members honoring his memory
with not only extended family but close friends. It was George Washington Parke
Custis, adopted son of George Washington and father-in-law of Robert Edward
Lee, who first recognized the significance and necessity for preserving the birthplace
of George (and Betty Washington Lewis), and placed the first stone marker identifying
the remnants of the foundation to the Washington home that burned in 1779.
Today, the National Park Service maintains the Pope’s Creek birthplace located
in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
Both
George Washington Parke Custis and his sister Eleanor Parke Custis held such
regard for their adopted parents that they were honored to distribute Washington
relics to friends of George and Martha Washington. Their homes in their
adulthood were shrines to their adopted parents. It was Eleanor Parke Custis who
eventually sold many of the relics that now comprise the Washington collection
at the Smithsonian Institution.
Lafayette
was a close friend of the family who made tribute to Washington. Lafayette’s
visit to the United States in 1824 included time spent in the homes of several
Lewis and Washington family members including George Washington Parke Custis,
Lawrence Lewis and his wife Eleanor Parke Custis, Robert Lewis (younger brother
of Lawrence Lewis and Mayor of Fredericksburg, Virginia) and Bushrod Washington
(the owner of Mount Vernon at the time of the 1824 visit). Several of the
family members including Lawrence Lewis and George Washington Parke Custis
travelled with Lafayette as he visited friends and participated in dedications
and tributes at locations such as the birthplace of George Washington and the
tomb at Mount Vernon.
George
Washington as patriarch of his family provided support to extended family as
well as friends and the impact is evident by the tributes from those dear to
him.
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| Interpretation of the marriage of Eleanor Parke Custis to Lawrence Lewis 22 February 1799 |