Background

George Washington Parke Custis was born on April 30, 1781 in Rosaryville, Maryland, United States; inherited the traditions of a Southern landholder through his father, John Parke Custis, the stepson of George Washington, and also through his mother Eleanor Calvert, a descendant of Lord Baltimore. Owing to the early death of his father, he grew up under the charge of Washington at Mount Vernon, Virginia, where he lived until the death of Mrs. Washington, when he made his home at Arlington, Virginia.

Education

Custis attended (but did not graduate from) the Germantown Academy in Germantown (now in Philadelphia), Pennsylvania, the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland.

Career

After a time spent at Princeton College, he was commissioned in 1799 a cornet of horse in the United States army, and became aide-de-camp to Gen. Charles C. Pinckney, with the rank of colonel. He was not, however, called into active service at this time.

In 1803 he inaugurated an annual convention for the promotion of agriculture and especially for the encouragement of the wool industry.

During the War of 1812 he served as a volunteer in the defense of the city of Washington.

When Lafayette visited the United States in 1824, Custis naturally took an active part in his welcome and was prompted to write his entertaining “Conversations with Lafayette, ” published in the Alexandria Gazette.

In 1826 he began in the United States Gazette his recollections of Washington, which were continued in the National Intelligencer, and were published in 1860. An incident in which Washington was the chief actor became the central motive of Custis’s first play, The Indian Prophecy, performed at the Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, July 4, 1827, and published in 1828.

His other plays are known only by contemporary description, for, with the instinct of a Southern gentleman, he published little. The Railroad, a “national drama, ” which was performed at the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, May 16, 1830, seems to have brought on the stage for the first time a real “locomotive steam carriage. ”

Custis’s attitude toward the stage is revealed in a letter to his wife, in which he says, “I had promised the poor rogues of actors, a play for the 12th September, the anniversary of the battle of North Point; but finding myself not in the vein, I wrote them to defer it. ”

North Point, or Baltimore Defended, was, however, finished in nine hours and produced September 12, 1833, in Baltimore.

Achievements

• Custis' most successful play, Pocahontas, or the Settlers of Virginia, produced at the Walnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, January 16, 1830, and published in the same year, showed his sense of the dramatic, as he violated chronology in the career of Pocahontas in order to make her salvation of Captain John Smith the climax of the drama.

Works

More photos

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  • Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington

    (Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington is presen...)

  • Oration Delivered By The Hon. Henry S. Foote, On The Fourth Of July, 1850, At Monument Place, With An Introduction: Published By The National Monument Society...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • An Address Occasioned By The Death Of General Lingan: Who Was Murdered By The Mob At Baltimore, Delivered At Georgetown, September 1, 1812

    ( This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923....)

  • book

  • Signed Title Page

Personality

Custis was of medium height, of a fair and somewhat florid complexion, and of great personal charm.

Connections

In 1804 Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh and went to live upon his large estate. His daughter, Mary Custis, married Robert E. Lee, thus linking the two great generals in a family connection.

Father:

John Parke Custis

Mother:

Eleanor Calver

Wife:

Mary Lee Fitzhugh

Daughter:

Mary Custis

stepfather:

George Washington