Evening star. [volume], March 22, 1931, Page 11, Image 83

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
WASHINGTONS MOTHER BECAME A BRIDE
•ym f— ARCH IT, I*3l, «u the Ween ten
i /I /g nlal wedding day of Mary Ball
f/1/ g and Augustine Washington. The
JW M only known record of the .fact
is an entry in Mary Ball Wash
ington’s Bible, which some historians say may
have been written by her illustrious son George.
The date as originally stated is March 6, but
that is without the addition of the same 11
days which make George Washington’s birth
day February 33 instead of February 11.
Search where you may in contemporary let
ters, diaries or other documents, you will find
nothing to add to this simple statement, and if
Mary Washington gave to her descendants any
details of the affair or any scraps of her wed
ding gown, they have yet to be discovered by
the historian. Unfortunately, in 1731 the so
ciety column of the daily newspapers had not
been invented —in fact, there was no news
paper in all Virginia at that early date. Yet
the event must have been of some importance
even 300 years ego, and from the few facts at
our disposal we can imagine a society reporter
of 1931 experience composing a wedding notice
•long such lines as thtse:
“On March 17, 1731, occurred a marriage of
special Interest throughout the Northern Neck
of Virginia, uniting, as it did, one of the most
attractive young ladies of the colony and the
son of (me of its most distinguished families—
Miss Mary Ball and Augustine Washington,
gentleman. The beautiful ring ceremony was
used.
“The bride is the daughter of the late Joseph
Ball of Epping Forest and graddaughter of
Col. William Ball, who settled in Lancaster
County about the middle of the seventeenth
century and did much to help develop the
colony. After tb? death of her mother in 1731
Miss Ball was under the guardianship and
tutelage of MaJ. George Eskridge of Sandy
Point. She has been aptly called the 'Rose of
Lancaster’ and is an accomplished horsewoman.
“The groom is the son of the late Maj. Law
t pence Washington, who was for many years
member from Westmoreland of the Virginia
House of Burgesses. In the early days his
grandfather. Join, Washington, was associated
with Col. William Ball in protecting the colony
from Indian depredations. Through his mother
Mr. Washington is descended from the Warners,
another pioneer Virginia family, and was named
for his maternal grandfather, Augustine War
ner, member of the King’s Council. Like his
father, Mr. Washington received his education
at Appleby, England, spending a number of
years at school in the mother country. His
lint wife, who died in 1729, was Jane Butler,
daughter of the Honorable Caleb Butler. The
mansion house to which he will take his bride
is located on part of the Washington family
•state at Pope’s Creek. Westmoreland County,
near the Potomac.’’
JT is safe to say that no reporter could resist
that reference to the "Rose of Lancaster,”
although there seems to be no tangible infor
mation upon which to base the persistent re
ports of the bride’s youthful charm. Most of
them reports are quotations from some partially
mutilated letters discovered many yean ago in
which a winsome Mary, or Molly, Ball is de
(Bcribed who had flaxen hair and “chekes like
May-blossoms.’’ The description will probably
continue to survive, and the letters were given
an honored place In the cornerstone of the
Mary Washington monument at Fredericks -
burg. But later discoveries have shown that
other statements in the context could not pos
sibly have applied to the bride of 1731. As a
matter of fact, the large number of Ball families
in Virginia and the constant repetition of
certain family names have provided a difficult
task for the biographer of Mary, the mother of
Washington.
Whether or not this Mary was ever known
during her lifetime as the “Rose of Lancaster’’
or the “Belle of the Northern Neck,” there are
documents to prove that much of her girlhood
was identified with the five counties between
the Potomac and the Rappahannock rivers,
known as the Northern Neck of Virginia. The
Col. William Ball mentioned by our reporter
settled in the southern part of Lancaster
County in 1657. His place was called Millen
beck, and there is today a small town of that
name on the banks of the Corotoman River.
St. Mary's White Chapel, standing four miles
west of Lancaster Court House, has possessions
dating from Col. Ball's early days in Virginia,
and there are many tombstones in the church
yard bearing the Ball name. Joseph, one of
Col. William’s sons, established a Virginia home
in the same county, although he had been
married in England and some of his children
were born there. His Virginia estate was called
piping Forest, and there, it is supposed, his
youngest daughter. Mary, the only child by his
second wife, was bom early in the eighteenth
century.
Strar gely enough, considering that Mary Ball
lived to an advanced age, the mother of the
most famous son in America, and has been the
subject of several biographies, no official record
of her birth or baptism has been found. Not
that any one has accused her of concealing her
age, for she is often credited with more years
than belong to her. Documents have been pub
lished very recently by C. A. Hoppin, historian
for the Wakefield Association, signed by Joseph
Ball early in 1708, by which he appears to
contemplate an Immediate seoond marriage,
and the date of Mary’s birth is placed by Mr.
Hoppin in November, 1708.
‘DAIN6TAKING researches in many county
records have brought together a few definite
facts about her early life. In Lancaster Court
House, for instance, may be seen her father’s
will, dated just before his death, In 1711. It
names his wife’s daughter. Eliza Johnson, by
which we learn that Mary’s mother had been -
a widow, and gives to his daughter Mary several
acres of land on “ye freshes of ye Rappahan
nock.”
A few years later and a little farther north,
to Richmond and Westmoreland Counties, we
THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D, G, MARCH 22, 1931.
200 Years Mgo This Month
No Authentic Record of Where the Cere
mony Took Place —Many Romantic
Fictions About Mary Ball Washing
ton’s Early Life.
W' \
Mary Ball Washington. Drawing made from the so-called Middleton portrait,
BY JENNY GIRTON WALKER.
find records of Mary's mother as the wife and
then the widow of Capt. Richard Hewes, a
vestryman of St. Stephen’s Parish, in 1721,
when Mary is still but 13 years old, her mother’s
will Is probated, filled with references to her
young daughter. She Is mentioned in other
wills, and from all these legacies we know some
of the possessions which might have survived
until her wedding day, as they include land,
riding horses, jewelry, clothing, a personal
servant, table linen "marked M. B. In lnck,” and
other house furnishings.
We know that she Is placed by her mother’s
will under the care of George Eskridge, a prom*
inent and much loved man of the neighborhood,
and we know that the chief witness to the will
is a teacher of some note, but after the legacy
of a riding horse in 1726 nothing more do we
know of Mary Ball until the marriage date
written in her Bible.
Where did the bedding ceremony occur? The
possibilities are many. If It was a church wed
ding there is St. Mary's White Chapel, in
Lancaster, already mentioned as the church of
the Ball family, and there is old Yeocomico,
built In 1766 and one of the oldest churches
still preserved in Virginia. It is located near
the Potomac on the Yeocomico River, and was
the church of the bride's former guardian,
Georg* SakaMp Although she was now of age
and no longer under his direction, his handsome
home at Sandy Point not far from the church
was no doubt to her on this occasion if
she preferred a -Souse wedding. Os fine man
sions fitted for suAh an event there would seem
to have been a wide dhoice. Mary's stepsister, .
Elisa Johnson, had married into a prominent
family in the neighborhood of Sandy Spring.
Farther south there were many suitable homes
among the Ball connection, including her birth
place at Epping Forest, and Bewdley, the quaint
old home of Maj. James Ball, which was an
object of much Interest until It was destroyed
by fire a few years ago. In the same neighbor
hood was Morattico, the Virginia home of
Mary's stepbrother, Joseph Ball, where Mary
and her husband are known to have visited
in 1732 or 1733.
The fact that this brother had another home
near London, England, has been made tin
basis of some of the most romantic stories con
cerning Mary’s courtship and marriage. Ac
cording to one of these Inventions, Augustine
Washington is brought to England on a business
trip at the time Mary Ball is a visitor in her
brother’s English home. Fate, masquerading
perhaps as a runaway horse. Introduces the
two young people, a marriage is soon arranged,
and the bride and bridegroom are given a cot
tage in Cookham, England, for their honeymoon.
Augustine made some business trips to England
during his life, and Joseph did have a home in
that country, but no other evidence has been
found to support this pretty story.
Jp we must discount the story of the May
biossom cheeks and the flaxen hair, do we
know anything more about the bride’s appear
ance than we do about the scene of the wed
ding? Several portraits have been presented
to help us out in this direction, and one of
them has to do with the supposed honeymoon
cottage at Cookham. It was there that a paint
ing was discovered nearly 150 years ago which
its owner claimed was a portrait of Mrs. Wash
ington, the mother of Gen. Washington. The
lady portrayed was lovely and youthful, with a
“shadow of gold” dress, delicate complexion,
blue eyes and abundant tresses, and the work.
was ascribed to Thomas Hudson, an English
painter of some note who had a Summer home
near Cookham.
When first seen in America the picture was
not unreservedly accepted as authentic, but
'about 1871 it was purchased by Prof. Samuel
P. B, Morse, who with the historian Benson
Loosing was inclined to believe it a genuine
portrait of Mary Ball Washington. It was in
herited by Prof. Morse’s son, the late Edward
L. Morse, and for a number of years hung in
his home in Washington. In 1914, however,
Mr. Morse had further tests made, and the
English expert who cleaned and rebacked the
picture at that time pronounced it a very good
example of the work of the celebrated portrait
painter, Sir Peter Lely. This leaves the fair
lady's name a mystery, for Sir Peter died in
1680, some 28 years before Mary was bom.
Unfortunately for our acquaintance with the
bride, the only other picture representing her
as a young woman, known as the Middleton
portrait, has been discredited as an intentional
forgery. The picture was brought to this
country in 1887 by an Englishman. MaJ. James
Walter, with several other so-called portraits of
prominent Americans of Washington’s time.
Although Maj. Walter bolstered up his claims
by many spurious documents and the publica
tion of a book called "Memorials of Washing
ton, Mary, His Mother, and Martha, His Wife,”
the portraits were almost immediately pro
nounced recent forgeries.
Mary Ball Washington was no longer young
when the next portrait of which we know was
painted, but perhaps if we could Imagine the
cap and tucker of lace removed —symbols of
age which no matron of 50 years would assume
today—a young and beautiful woman might
emerge with a far more intelligent expression
than that shown in the other pictures.
This third picture, sometimes referred to as
“The Bride of Wakefield,” has been accepted
by the historians of the Wakefield Memorial
Association as authentic, and the opinion is
tacitly agreed to by the authorities of the
United states National Museum in exhibiting
it at this time in a prominent place at the
old museum. Experts acknowledged it as the
work of John Woolaston, another English artist
who visited the colonies about 1798 and painted
many portraits in Virginia and Maryland. The
early history of the picture is sttH a mystery,
but Mrs. Washington's name was found written
upon the old stretcher bmeath the canvas, and
such a portrait has been found listed among
Woo las ton's works. The present owner Is W.
Lanier Washington.
AS usually happens, we have paid much more
attention to the bride than to the groom in
this wedding day story, but Augustine Wash
ington was by no means a figure to be ignored.
He appears to have spent at least 12 yean of
his boyhood in English schools, and after his
return to Virginia became quickly identified
with the growth of the colony. He succeeded
In many business ventures, acquired consider
able property in addition to that which he had
inherited, and built the mansion house which
we now know as “Wakefield.” In 1731 he was
a widower 36 years old with three young chil
dren, one of whom was to become the next
owner of Wakefield, and another to permanently
establish and name the estate called Mount
Vernon. No one has attempted even to forge
the bridegroom's portrait, and for a description
of his appearance and personality we must
depend upon some hearsay evidence that he
was tall, strong and handsome and of a pleasant
and friendly disposition.
We may not be able to completely visualise
this bride and groom of so long ago, nor to
say where the marriage was performed, but we
do know that the ring ceremony was used, for
the wedding ring is on exhibition at Mount
Vemoto today. Now a pathetically thin strip, of
gold in its velvet case, it was handed down for
generations in the Washington family after
George Washington himself gave it to his niece,
Jane Washington. In 1917 it was presented to
the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association by Miss
Annie B. Jennings, vioe regent from Connecti
cut, who had purchased it at auction in New
. York.
We know also a great deal about the home at ••
Pope’s Creek to whleh Augustine Washington
took his bride, and every day the Wakefield
National Memorial Association is adding to
our knowledge of the ancient mansion. Sinoe
the organization of the association eight years
ago its members have collected a wealth of
Interesting Information about the house itself,
its surroundings and the people who lived in it
both before and after George Washington was
born. They have traoed the old foundations
far us, found out haw new bricks could be made
in the ancient manner, and brought to light
inventories of the rMginal furnishings.
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