Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/78

54 and wore her gray hair turned up under a very plain cap." She greatly disliked official life, and rejoiced when her husband refused a third term in 1796. She resided at Mount Vernon during the remainder of her life, occupied with her domestic duties, of which she was fond, and in entertaining the numerous guests that visited her husband. She survived him two and a half years. Before her death she destroyed her entire correspondence with Gen. Washington. "Thus," says her grandson and biographer, George Washington Parke Custis, "proving her love for him, for she would not permit that the confidence they had shared together should be made public." See "Memoirs of the Mother and Wife of Washington," by Margaret C. Conkling (Auburn, N. Y., 1851), "Mary and Martha," by Benson J. Lossing (New York, 1887), "The Story of Mary Washington," by Marion Harland (Boston, 1892), and "Martha Washington," by Anne Hollingsworth Wharton (New York, 1897).

His adopted son,, author, born at Mount Airy, Md., April 30, 1781; died at Arlington House, Fairfax County, Virginia, October 10, 1857. His father, Col. John Parke Custis, the son of Mrs. Washington by her first husband, was aide-de-camp to