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184 -- 30, 1781. He was the son of John Parke Custis, the stepson of Washington, whose early death, of camp fever incurred in the Yorktown campaign, brought his two younger children under the direct charge of President and Mrs. Washington at Mount Vernon. Here young Custis grew up and here he lived till Mrs. Washington's death, when he built his house at Arlington, opposite Washington City. He was appointed a cornet of horse in the army of the United States in 1799 but did not see active service at that time, although he afterwards became a volunteer during the War of 1812. After his marriage to Mary Lee Fitzhugh in 1804 he lived on his large estate and devoted himself to the care of it. He was a writer of prose and verse and a speaker of ability, but with the instincts of the Southern landed proprietor he published comparatively little. After the visit of Lafayette to this country in 1824, he wrote his entertaining Conversations with Lafayette, and in 1826 he began in the United States Gazette his recollections of the private life of Washington which were continued in The National Intelligencer and which were published by his daughter in 1861. He died October 10, 1857.

His first play, The Indian Prophecy, was performed in Philadelphia at the Chestnut Street Theatre, July 4, 1827. According to the title page of the printed play, it was performed also in Baltimore and Washington. The same authority describes it as "A National Drama in two Acts founded upon a most interesting and romantic occurrence in the life of General Washington." In 1770, while on a surveying expedition to the Kanawha region in Virginia, Washington was visited by an Indian chief who told him that he had been the leader of the Indians at Braddock's defeat and that although their best marksmen had levelled their pieces at Washington they had been prevented from killing him by a higher power. The chief went on to prophesy that Washington would never die in battle but would live to be the chief and founder of a mighty empire. This incident, which is given in Custis's Recollections, became the climax of the play which is otherwise but a series of conversations between Woodford, a captain of rangers, Maiona, his wife, and their Indian protegée, Manetta, daughter of the chief Menawa, who delivers the prophecy. The play was published in Georgetown in 1828 as "By the author of the Recollections."

Pocahontas or the Settlers of Virginia, was played first at the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, January 16, 1830, and was performed for twelve nights, among them Washington's Birthday. Elaborate preparations were made for the production of the play, the theatre being closed from January 11th to January 16th. Durang states that it was received with great applause. On December 28, 1830, John Barnes produced it for his benefit at the Park Theatre, New York, playing "Hugo." It is probable, therefore, that The Forest Princess, written afterward by his daughter, Charlotte Barnes Conner, was inspired by