Mary Ball Washington

Mary Ball Washington
Portrait of Mary Ball Washington by Robert Edge Pine in 1786.
Born	November 30, 1708 Lively, Virginia
Died	August 26, 1789 (aged 81) unknown
Spouse	Augustine Washington
Children	George Washington, 5 others

Mary Ball Washington (November 30, 1708 – August 26, 1789) was the second wife to Augustine Washington and the mother of George Washington.

Life

Mary Ball Washington was born as Mary Ball on November 30, 1708 in Lively, Virginia, Lancaster County, Virginia. She was the only child of Joseph Matthäus Ball and his second wife, the widow Mary Johnson, whose maiden name and origins are not known. Fatherless at three and orphaned at twelve, she was placed, in accordance with the terms of her mother's will, under the guardianship of George Eskridge, a lawyer.

Mary Ball met Augustine Washington and they married on March 6, 1731. It was her first marriage and his second. Augustine had four children with his first wife, Jane Butler Washington; however, only two of them lived to adulthood. Together, Mary and Augustine had the following children:

• George - (1732–1799)
• Betty - (1733–1797)
• Samuel - (1734–1781)
• John Augustine - (1736–1787)
• Charles - (1738–1799)
• Mildred - (1739–1740)

George Washington's Family Chart listing his ancestry, siblings, and brief biographies can be found on the Mount Vernon website [1]

Augustine died in 1743. Unlike most widows in Virginia at the time, Mary Ball Washington never remarried. She lived to see her son, George Washington, inaugurated as President in 1789.

Washington's relationship with his mother may have been strained if she had been a Loyalist during the American Revolution, but that's mere speculation. Mary Washington was by no means poor. Her son, George, purchased her a grand house in Fredericksburg, Virginia. In her will his mother left him the majority of her lands and George was the executor of her will.

She developed breast problems that appear to be cancer and correspondence between doctors seem to show this. She died, perhaps from that breast problem of cancer, at the age of eighty-one.

Mary Ball Washington was buried, as she desired, on the Fielding Lewis plantation, near "meditation rock" that was close to the Lewis Fielding home. Tradition has it that this was her favorite retreat for reading, prayer, and meditation.

Legacy

• There are many monuments to Mary Ball Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where she lived from 1772 until her death in 1789.
• The house purchased for her by her son George has been preserved by Preservation Virginia (formerly known as the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities) and is open to the public as a historic house museum. It contains a fine collection of antique furnishings, some with Washington family provenance.
• Mary Ball Washington is buried near Kenmore, the former home of her daughter and son-in-law Fielding and Betty Lewis. Kenmore is also open regularly for public tours.
• A monument to Mary Ball Washington was erected in 1833 and dedicated by President Andrew Jackson. It was left unfinished until a new one was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland in 1894. [2]
• The University of Mary Washington, a public university in Fredericksburg, Virginia, was also named after Mary Washington.
• The Mary Washington Hospital [3], is located in Fredericksburg, Virginia, named after this famous mother.

See also

• Mary Washington House
• Mary Ball Washington Museum and Library
• The SS Mary Ball was a World War II Liberty ship.

External links

• His "Revered Mother" at HistoryPoint.org
• The Mary Washington House on the APVA Preservation Virginia website
• Oh, Mother! -
• The Life and Legacy of the "Grandmother of our Country"