Washington went to Williamsburg late in April to qualify for the administration of the Custis estate. He appeared with Martha’s attorney, John Mercer, before the General Court and asked that he be named to administer the two-thirds interest vested in Jackie and Patsy, along with the third he already controlled as husband of Martha. He did not request the Court to name him instead of Speaker Robinson as guardian of the children. The Court entered the appropriate order. Simultaneously, Mercer and Washington recommended to the Court a division of the property of the estate. As finally apportioned, the estate was handsome. The real estate consisted of 17,438 acres. Without inclusion of this, the sum credited to each of the three heirs was £1617 sterling and £7618, currency of the country, in slaves, livestock, notes and bonds and accounts receivable—an aggregate in personality of almost £20,000 sterling. No less than £8958 of these assets in the currency of the country were represented by slaves. Washington was resolved that his accounts of the estate should be accurate to a penny; at the same time he insisted on getting all that was due him as husband of the former Mrs. Custis.
On returning to Mount Vernon he had forthwith to organize the household in order to assure comfortable management and conform to his custom of doing everything with system. “I have quit a military life,” he said, “and shortly shall be fixed at this place with an agreeable partner, and then shall be able to conduct my own business with more punctuality than heretofore as it will pass under my own immediate instruction, a thing impracticable while I discharged my duty in the public service of the country.” He ordered the best books on agriculture and farm management and, as the tobacco crop of 1759 promised a handsome return, became almost enthusiastic over the future of the staple on his own lands.
Along with hope and the happiness of new love, despite the wretched condition of the estate, the summer brought a cargo of good news about the war. Except for what might be happening in the unknown region of Detroit, the enemy now had been driven back to the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence and was being held, in the main, to the line of the river, northeast of Lake Ontario. The only strong positions still in French hands were Montreal, Quebec, and the 150 miles of country between them in the region south of Quebec. Now Washington saw the long-awaited successes he had craved for his country. This point of view he expressed in a letter to a British merchant: “The scale of Fortune in America is turned greatly in our favor, and success is become the boon companion of our fortunate Generals.” Three days before Washington wrote this, Quebec had surrendered after a siege that had cost the lives of General Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm. Many of the details, when read by Washington, must have stirred his soldierly pride, because they covered some of the most magnificent achievements in the history of the British Army, but they found no place in any of his letters. Quebec, its graves and its glory, were far off; Washington’s prime interest now was in restoring the buildings, the livestock and the implements of Mount Vernon.
On October 22 he took the road to Williamsburg: The personal property in the Custis residence there was to be sold at public sale on October 25; the House of Burgesses was to meet November 1. In Williamsburg, as business did not press, he was able to enjoy such festivities as the town offered before the Burgesses assembled in a session not particularly interesting. After the General Assembly adjourned, Washington lingered long enough to see that the tobacco on the Custis plantations was inspected and delivered at the ship’s side and then returned to Mount Vernon in contentment of spirit. The tobacco crop along York River had been large; the market seemed favorable. When Washington rode into the stableyard at home two resolutions were firm in his mind—to increase his production of tobacco, which he was resolved to raise to the highest quality and cure, and to acquire more land on which to employ idle servants in growing that staple.
After the Christmas holiday of 1759, the first he had spent with his wife and her children, Washington expanded these plans and, meantime, directed the winter activities at Mount Vernon. Hogs had to be killed and the meat cured; timber was sawed; a house was moved; fencing was repaired; such grubbing was undertaken as the ground permitted; hundreds of bottles of good cider were filled; before the end of February it was possible to begin some of the plowing for oats and clover; March brought more plowing for clover and some for lucerne, along with several experiments in sowing grass seed and considerable activity in grafting cherry and nut trees.
The crop of 1759 had been grown on two plantations by Washington’s own slaves and on nine tracts by tenants. The Colonel had not been able to prepare for it and scarcely regarded it as a test of his management. It would be different now. “The greater pains imaginable,” Washington wrote subsequently, “[were] used in the management of this tobacco”; but before it was primed, there were reminders that other considerations than those under the grower’s control might affect the return. The Deliverance, which was carrying some Washington and Custis tobacco to the British Isles, was lost on the coast of France. At least one merchantman with tobacco belonging to the same owners was taken by a French man-of-war. Rains threatened to ruin the crop of 1760. Reports on the sale of the leaf of 1759 were worse than depressing. Nor was it encouraging to an ambitious young proprietor to note the figures at which the invoices sent to England for clothing and supplies had been filled. Washington was shocked at the charges on his account. Truth was, larger orders at higher prices were eating up an expanded income and a part of the money Martha had brought him. If Washington observed that fact in the summer of 1760, he did nothing to correct it.
Through a growing season that seemed in retrospect to be one of “incessant rains,” Washington spent most of his time at Mount Vernon with his wife and stepchildren. When September opened, it was manifest that the tobacco crop, which had been spotting badly, would be short but would be better than had been expected. It consequently was with some eagerness that Washington looked forward to October, when he would go to Williamsburg for the session of the General Assembly and could visit the plantations on the York and see what had been produced. As Martha wished to make the journey with him, the Colonel decided to travel in style, with chariot and six—the first time he ever had set out for the capital with the equipage that was the unchallengeable emblem of a planter of the highest affluence.
The session was opened on October 6 in a balance of cheer and of gloom. Intelligence confirmed the complete surrender at Montreal September 8 of the last organized French force in Canada. Every Virginian rejoiced with Governor Fauquier when he proclaimed: “. . . the war is gloriously brought to a happy end. . . .” The unhappy news was that all hopes of avoiding war with the Cherokees had been blasted. The Burgesses responded by voting to raise the Regiment to its full strength of one thousand men and continue its pay and subsistence until April 1, 1761, with the proviso that the men should not be employed outside the Colony. Costs were to be paid from the £52,000 that represented Virginia’s part of funds voted the Colonies by Parliament. In making these arrangements the Burgesses probably availed themselves of Washington’s experience, but he was not conspicuous in debate nor were there many calls on the committees to which he belonged.
When the House adjourned October 20, Burgess Washington became immediately the diligent proprietor and trustee, eager to know what the weight and quality of the tobacco crop would be. The showing was not good. Some tobacco on low grounds had been drowned, and some on the uplands had “fired.” Much of the leaf was poor; the total was below the average in weight and bulk as well as in quality, but the aggregate of Washington’s various crops was 147,357 pounds in spite of the bad year. It looked as if he was achieving his ambition to grow superlative tobacco in volume sufficient to crowd the hold of a proud merchantman.
The first ships to leave Virginia in the autumn of 1760 with tobacco grown that year doubtless passed westbound vessels that carried announcements of the death of George II. He had succumbed October 25—the only King to whom Washington ever had sworn allegiance. News of the demise of th
e monarch reached the Colonies at the end of December, but it was February 4, 1761, when Governor Fauquier received instructions to proclaim the new King, George III. Whatever else the year 1761 held, it probably would involve a dissolution of the House of Burgesses, a journey to Frederick, visits to influential citizens and a polling of freeholders. It was not a pleasant prospect for a man who desired most of all to remain at home and attend to his own affairs; but if it had to be done, Washington would do it. Membership in the House of Burgesses was at once the duty and the avocation of a gentleman. He could not discharge the duty if he shunned the contest.
Pending a call from friends in the Valley or dissolution of the House, Washington busied himself with farm affairs. The Colonel had at length to pull himself away and to go to Williamsburg, where the General Assembly had convened. Washington went tardily because he had been detained in Fairfax by a development that changed his status. On March 14 Anne Fairfax Lee, the widow of Lawrence Washington, had died. Anne had no issue within the terms of Lawrence’s will, and the estate consequently passed to George.
When Fauquier delivered his final address, April 10, he made the expected announcement of a dissolution and sent the Burgesses home to seek reelection or to participate in the choice of their successors. Washington felt that he should go to Frederick to counteract the electioneering of Adam Stephen. He had not been in Frederick when the election of 1758 had been held; it would be neither proper nor prudent to have the voters of the county regard him as indifferent. Doubtless he would have been reelected decisively in any event, but he could not have been given a much stronger vote of confidence than the poll of May 18 showed: Washington, 505; George Mercer, 399; Stephen, 294; scattering, 3. Washington and Mercer had been elected.
It was victory at a price. A severe cold Washington caught while visiting among his constituents persisted and stirred up old maladies. Fever produced a lassitude that Washington in some humility of spirit attributed to indolence. Most of the conferences of a hard, tedious summer were with physicians. He wrote late in July: “I have found so little benefit from any advice yet received that I am more than half of the mind to take a trip to England for the recovery of that invaluable blessing, Health.” Another suggestion was that he consult Philadelphia physicians. The final decision was to try the waters of the Berkeley Baths. George had no faith whatever in “the air,” which he believed unwholesome, but he was willing to test the effect of the mineral water, and he accordingly set out August 22 with Martha and the children. The Colonel was so weak that the easiest part of the journey was an ordeal; adverse weather made the later stages torture. After the crude resort finally was reached, August 25, the water, the weather, his state of mind or the vigor of his body—one or more than one of these—soon brought improvement. When he reached Mount Vernon about September 18, he was in a mood to pick up business matters that had been neglected.
While his own financial war seemed now to face defeat and now to promise victory, Washington never ceased buying and planning for the future, even though he had thought at one time that he would lose the fight for his own life. Now that stimulating autumn weather had come to Virginia, he felt able to make the journey to Williamsburg for the first meeting of the new General Assembly. After arrival in the capital November 2, he was able, also, to transact some private business and write with cheer not only of the prospect of peace with the Cherokees but also of a settlement of the larger struggle between Britain and France.
Able to give his crops the attention he could not bestow during his illness, Washington visited the plantations in New Kent and on the York. He found they had enjoyed a more favorable season than in 1760; the yield was larger. The merchants’ returns in 1762 should demonstrate whether Washington was winning or losing—whether his special care for the quality of his leaf was a profitable expenditure.
The General Assembly met January 14, 1762, without the senior Burgess from Frederick. Washington knew that the session was to be devoted to one question, the continuance or disbandment of the Virginia Regiment. He probably anticipated the decision of the lawmakers and did not feel that members from the more remote counties were so badly needed that they should be called upon to make the long journey in midwinter. The Burgesses were not convinced of the need of retaining an armed force in the service of the Colony, but they were unwilling to disband it until they had positive assurance that the war with the Cherokees had been ended. That view shaped the law. The statute “for preventing mutiny and desertion,” one that had been strengthened after many exhortations by Washington, was revived for the period that ended May 1, but no further provision was made for the pay of the troops. Officers fared better. Each of those in service at the time was allowed a full year’s compensation beyond that due him on the date the Regiment was disbanded.
Washington now had the normal operations of his plantations in full swing and was busying himself with an interesting routine. By February 9 the master of Mount Vernon began plowing for oats. Sowing and harrowing followed. About March 24 the tobacco beds were burned over and then seeded. While the plows were turning the earth where corn rows soon were to stretch, Washington had grim news from Westmoreland: His brother Austin had succumbed to an illness that had pursued him for years. His end had come at Wakefield, where he had lived amply. Washington journeyed as quickly as he could to the home of the dead brother who never quite had succeeded to Lawrence’s place in the affection of George but always had counselled him wisely and with patience. George could do nothing now to show his appreciation except to stand by his brother’s grave.
In a short time, Washington had again to travel to Williamsburg for a reason that was becoming monotonous—another session of the General Assembly. Fauquier had arrived in Virginia during June 1758 and in three years and nine months had held eleven sessions. This time, at a meeting begun on March 30, the Governor reported that he had disbanded the Virginia Regiment as soon as he had received formal news of peace with the Cherokees. Later he had notice that the King desired a regiment to “be kept in the pay of the Colony.” In addition, His Majesty demanded that a quota be raised to aid in filling the regiments under Amherst. This was not all. The day before the General Assembly met, the Governor had received notice that Spain had joined France in the war on Britain. If, therefore, peace had been made with the Cherokees, a new adversary had to be accepted in their stead. The General Assembly voted to raise one thousand men for a new Regiment and to recruit Virginia’s quota for Amherst’s forces. For the discipline and control of its soldiery the Assembly passed a new mutiny and desertion act.
In the spring of 1762 there was interesting work and the prospect of comforting profit from good management of the land to which he returned when the brief session ended. All went well except for the essential—good weather. A drought began at the very time plants most needed moisture. Washington had to replant tobacco and corn, also. There was prospect, of course, that if the tobacco crop was small, prices would be high—but even that hope was eclipsed by reports that the Mount Vernon product had not been sold at a good figure in London.
While buyers withheld shillings and Nature begrudged rain on the banks of the Potomac, Washington busied himself with some of the many improvements he had projected. In spite of debt and doubt concerning the tobacco crop, he continued steadily to restore and improve the plantation. He bought more slaves; title was acquired to acres which raised his total to 8505. Business always was interesting to the master of Mount Vernon, especially if there was profit in it; but the bargain in land had to be a promising one that absorbed him as completely as did provision for new equipage, for good wine, for the furnishings and beautification of the house, and for the pleasure of Martha and the children. His desire to select and enjoy the best was sharpened as he increasingly became a family man. For these reasons, the year 1762 was one of much purchasing and planning.
He had ordered a new still in 1761 and intended to put it into service in the autumn of 1762 if it arrived by that time. Use o
f it could eliminate numerous bills for spirits used on the plantation. Among the milder beverages, the one he most used and most frequently served was Madeira, which he imported directly from the Islands. Drink in itself made no strong appeal to him: he liked three or four glasses of Madeira at dinner, but these were merely a part of the grace of living.
The entire household must have been made conscious of abundance when on July 20 the Unity discharged the goods Washington had ordered in the fall of 1761. From salt to saddles, from spirits of lavender to diversified leather portmanteaux, from “one dozen augurs, sorted” to “three pecks almonds in the shell,” from the plainest fabrics for the slaves’ garments to egrets for the headdress of Martha, the goods were brought forth and were appraised and admired or criticized and pronounced too expensive.
This cargo arrived in the year when Jackie became eight and Patsy six. Their mother had put into the orders from England many articles for them, but, of course, life for Jackie and Patsy was not to consist altogether of opening trunks over which Aladdin himself might have rubbed his lamp. Colonel and Mrs. Washington had resolved that the children must begin the acquisition of serious knowledge and that Patsy, in addition, must learn the graceful arts of a young lady of fashion. They had a tutor now in the person of Walter Magowan. A challenging list of Latin grammars, dictionaries and texts had been ordered. Soon the invoices were to include Greek books with stern titles in Latin. Furthermore, Miss Custis now had a spinet that had been ordered for her with superlative care.
Already, in other matters, there were indications that the gentleman who had preserved on the frontier both the discipline of his Regiment and his own amiability might not be equally successful with his wife’s children at Mount Vernon. The reason would not be special perversity on the part of the children but the indulgent extremity of their mother’s love for them. The oddest aspect of this was Martha’s own recognition of a weakness she could not overcome.
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