Aeryk egan biography of george washington
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Also in 1761 he became the outright owner of Mount Vernon (which he expanded to about 7,300 acres by 1799) as his brother’s residual heir upon the death of Lawrence’s widow.
The master of Mount Vernon thus became one of the wealthiest planters in Virginia, and the next decade and a half of Washington’s life were probably his happiest years.
Although he and Martha had no children of their own, the couple raised Martha’s children, and later two of her grandchildren, Eleanor and George Washington Parke Custis.
Washington’s domestic life was a full one. As war with France appeared imminent in 1798, President Adams appointed Washington as commander-in-chief of a new army, but the crisis passed before it was organized and raised.
On 6 January 1759 the twenty-six-year-old married Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802), the widow of Daniel Parke Custis, who had left her and their two children, John Parke and Martha Parke Custis, one of the greatest fortunes in Virginia. The nation would have to wrestle with the challenge of slavery, as well as all its other great challenges of the new century, without his guiding hand.
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About 1735 the Washington family moved from Westmoreland County to Augustine, Sr.’s plantation on Little Hunting Creek, and lived there until they moved to a farm on the Rappahannock river opposite Fredericksburg in 1738.Surveying the Land: An Early Career for Young Washington
George Washington became the “Father of his country” despite having lost his own father at an early age.
His end came suddenly on 14 December 1799 and the outpouring of grief over his death was widespread and sincere. His father, Augustine, a third-generation English colonist firmly established in the middle ranks of the Virginia gentry, was twice married. Lawrence inherited Little Hunting Creek plantation (which he later renamed Mount Vernon in honor of Admiral Edward Vernon under whom he had served in the War of Jenkins’ Ear), and Augustine, Jr., inherited the Westmoreland County plantation where George was born.
Washington survived a case of smallpox while in the West Indies, thus acquiring immunity to the disease that claimed the lives of many colonial Americans, but his brother died in 1752 after returning from the Caribbean, probably of tuberculosis. Not very surprisingly, Washington was elected president after it was ratified and became the first executive officer to serve under the new government.
Although Washington himself was not satisfied with its terms, he was realistic enough to understand that it was the best that could then be negotiated and it did remove some major irritants from Anglo-American relations. The small and ill-supplied United States Army suffered two disastrous defeats against Northwestern Indian nations.
Not only did he receive substantial fees fur surveying, but he discovered firsthand how to speculate successfully in land, an especially important consideration in colonial America, where land equaled power. Democratic-Republican criticisms that he had become the head of a party instead of the nation boiled over in reaction to the treaty that John Jay had signed with the British and the Senate ratified in 1795.
In the imperial crisis of the 1760s and 1770s, he became an early advocate of the patriot cause. George himself inherited the more modest Rappahannock River plantation where he lived with his mother and siblings, but this was not enough to maintain his middling status in the Virginia gentry. He later transferred to the adjutancy of Virginia’s Northern Neck and Eastern Shore with the responsibility of training the Northern District’s militiamen.
In October 1753 Washington volunteered to investigate reports of French encroachments on Virginia’s western frontier that threatened the interests of the colony’s great land speculators.
He had a difficult time in finding qualified individuals to serve in the new federal judiciary, but the heads of the executive departments of war, state, and the Treasury, were men of talent, integrity, and even brilliance. By 1751, when he accompanied Lawrence to Barbados, the younger Washington had accumulated almost as many acres of fertile soil in the Shenandoah as his half-brother had at Mount Vernon.
Building a Record in the Military
Although Lawrence at that time possessed two of the great prerequisites of rising Virginia gentlemen-an inherited estate and impressive marriage connections-George enjoyed something more important in the long run: an impressive physique and the blessing of good health.
Five other children followed Samuel, Elizabeth, John Augustine, Charles, and Mildred (who died in infancy). The Offer is not valid for current FanClub members, is non-transferable, and has no cash value. Upon the return to Williamsburg of his small party from the shores of Lake Erie in January 1754, Washington received popular recognition through the publication of his detailed journal of the rugged four-month-long expedition.
When it adopted the New England militia army that was besieging the British Army in Boston in June 1775, Congress recognized Washington’s military experience and political trustworthiness by unanimously electing him its commander-in-chief.