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Martha Parke Custis Peter


Martha Parke Custis Peter (31 December 1777 – 13 July 1854) was a granddaughter of Martha Dandridge Washington and the step-granddaughter of George Washington.

Martha Parke Custis was born on 31 December 1777 in the Blue Room at Mount Vernon. She was the second-eldest surviving daughter of John Parke Custis, son of Martha Washington and her first husband Daniel Parke Custis, and his wife Eleanor Calvert, daughter of Benedict Swingate Calvert and his wife Elizabeth Calvert.

Martha was named for her father's late sister, Martha "Patsy" Parke Custis (1756–1773). Her siblings included Elizabeth Parke Custis Law (1776–1831), Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis (1779–1854), and George Washington Parke Custis (1781–1857). She was known to her family as "Patsy."

At first the family alternated between living at the Washingtons' plantation, Mount Vernon in Virginia, and the Calverts' plantation, Mount Airy in Maryland. In 1778, John Parke Custis purchased Abingdon, a 900-acre (3.6 km2) plantation on the west bank of the Potomac River (now the site of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport). Abingdon was conveniently located equidistant between Mount Vernon and Mount Airy.

Martha married Thomas Peter in 1795 at Hope Park in Fairfax County, Virginia. The young bride requested from her step-grandfather George Washington a miniature of himself as a wedding gift. Painted in Philadelphia between 1794 and 1795 by Walter Robertson, the miniature was a watercolor on ivory and is set in gold, and depicted Washington in his Continental Army uniform.


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