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Eleanor Calvert

Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart (1753 – September 28, 1811), born Eleanor Calvert, was a prominent member of the wealthy Calvert family of Maryland. She was the wife of John Parke Custis who was the son of Daniel Parke Custis and Martha Dandridge Custis (later Washington). She and John had seven children. She was widowed when John Parke Custis died of disease at the end of the American Revolution at Yorktown where he served with his stepfather, George Washington. Eleanor married Dr. David Stuart, an Alexandria physician and business associate of George Washington on November 20, 1783.

Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart
Miniature painting of Eleanor Calvert, c. 1780, by an unknown artist; possibly the Irish-American painter John Ramage
Born
Eleanor Calvert

1753
Mount Airy, Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County, Province of Maryland
DiedSeptember 28, 1811 (aged 57-58)
Tudor Place, Georgetown
Spouse(s)John Parke Custis
Dr. David Stuart
Children23, including:
Elizabeth Parke Custis Law
Martha Parke Custis Peter
Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis
George Washington Parke Custis
Parent(s)Benedict Swingate Calvert
Elizabeth Calvert

As of 2024, her (Eleanor's) portrait still hangs at Mount Airy Mansion in Rosaryville State Park, Maryland.[1]

Early life

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Eleanor Calvert was born in 1753 at the Calvert family's Mount Airy plantation near Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County, Maryland.[2] She was the second-eldest daughter[3] of Benedict Swingate Calvert, illegitimate son of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, and Benedict's wife Elizabeth Calvert Butler.[4] She was known to her family as "Nelly".[4]

Marriages and children

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Painting of Eleanor Calvert by John Hesselius, 1728–1778, 1761

Eleanor married John Parke Custis, son of Daniel Parke Custis and Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (and stepson of George Washington), on February 3, 1774, at Mount Airy. When "Jacky", as he was known by his family, announced the engagement to his parents, they were greatly surprised due to the couple's youth.[4]

After their marriage, the couple settled at the White House plantation, a Custis estate on the Pamunkey River in New Kent County, Virginia.[5] After the couple had lived at the White House for more than two years, John Custis purchased the Abingdon plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia (now in Arlington County, Virginia), into which the couple settled during the winter of 1778–1779.[5][6]

Eleanor and John had seven children:

In 1781, John died of "camp fever", believed to be typhus, following the Siege of Yorktown.[5][6] Eleanor's two elder daughters, Elizabeth and Martha, continued to live with her at the Abingdon plantation. She sent her two younger children, Eleanor and George, to Mount Vernon to live with their grandmother, Martha Washington, and her husband George Washington, future president.[6] John died intestate, so his widow was granted a dower third, the lifetime use of one-third of the Custis estate assets, including its more than 300 slaves.[7] The balance of the John Parke Custis estate was held in trust for the children of John and Eleanor. The estate was distributed as the daughters married and the son reached his majority while Calvert's share was held by her for her use until her death.[8]

On November 20, 1783, Eleanor married Dr. David Stuart, an Alexandria physician and business associate of George Washington.[6][9][10] Her living children became the stepchildren and wards of Dr. David Stuart, even while George and Nelly lived at Mount Vernon with their grandmother, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington and her husband George Washington.

Eleanor and David had sixteen children together:[3][11][12]

  • Ann Calvert Stuart (1784–1823), married William Robinson[3][11]
  • Sarah Stuart (1786–1870), married Obed Waite[3][11]
  • Ariana Calvert Stuart (1789–1855), died unmarried[3][11]
  • William Sholto Stuart (1792–1820), died unmarried[3][11]
  • Charles Calvert Stuart (1794–1846), married Cornelia Lee[3][11]
  • Eleanor Custis Stuart (1796–1875), died unmarried[3][11]
  • Rosalie Eugenia Stuart (1801–1886), married William Greenleaf Webster[3][9][11]
  • Nine other children who were stillborn or died shortly after birth

Later life

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In 1792, Eleanor, David and their family left Abingdon (which had become part of the District of Columbia) and moved to David's plantation and mill known as Hope Park in Fairfax County.[6] About ten years later, they moved to Ossian Hall near Annandale, also in Fairfax County.[6]

Calvert died on September 28, 1811, at age 53 at Tudor Place, the home of her daughter, Martha Parke Custis Peter, in Georgetown, District of Columbia.[13] She was originally buried at Col. William Alexander's Effingham Plantation in Prince William County, Virginia.[14]

She was reinterred in Page's Chapel, St. Thomas' Church, Croom, Maryland, following the War of 1812 near the graves of her parents. Her resting place remained unmarked until a limestone grave slab was installed in the chapel floor in autumn 2008.[15]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Mt Airy Mansion at Wildnet.com. Retrieved February 25, 2024.
  2. ^ Herring, Arlis (February 9, 2008). "Eleanor Calvert". Arlis Herring. Archived from the original on June 5, 2016. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Lee, Edmund Jennings (May 2009). Lee of Virginia, 1642-1892. Heritage Books. ISBN 9780788421037. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  4. ^ a b c Bryan, Helen (2002). Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN 9780471158929. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  5. ^ a b c Yates, Bernice-Marie (2003). The Perfect Gentleman: The Life and Letters of George Washington Custis Lee. Fairfax, Virginia: Xulon Press. p. 37. ISBN 1-59160-451-6. Retrieved June 27, 2011.
  6. ^ a b c d e f Templeman, Eleanor Lee (1959). Arlington Heritage: Vignettes of a Virginia County. New York: Avenel Books, a division of Crown Publishers, Inc. pp. 12–13.
  7. ^ Slavery by the Numbers, US History- President's House
  8. ^ Swem, Earl Gregg (April 1948). "BROTHERS OF THE SPADE - APPENDIX 1 - Daniel Parke Custis, the son, John Parke Custis, the grandson, and George Washington Parke Custis, the greatgrandson of John Custis of Williamsburg" (PDF). Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society. American Antiquarian Society: 129–143, 135, 137. Retrieved August 14, 2024. (Page 135) - The boy, G. W. P. Custis, was heir to all his father's plantations, subject to the one third life dower right of his mother who married as her second husband, Dr. David Stuart.
  9. ^ a b Greenleaf, James Edward (1896). Genealogy of the Greenleaf Family. F. Wood. p. 220. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  10. ^ "The Papers of George Washington: Documents". The Papers of George Washington. 2009. Archived from the original on June 2, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h National Genealogical Society (1917). National Genealogical Society Quarterly. National Genealogical Society. Retrieved March 1, 2008.
  12. ^ Johnson, R. Winder (1905). The Ancestry of Rosalie Morris Johnson: Daughter of George Calvert Morris and Elizabeth Kuhn, his wife. Ferris & Leach. pp. 16–17, 29–30. Retrieved May 20, 2011.
  13. ^ "Died". The Lady's Miscellany, or, Weekly Visitor, for the Use and Amusement of Both Sexes. 13. M'Carty & White: 398. 1811. Died. At Tudor Place, thereat of Thomas Peter, esq- near George-Town, Mrs. Eleanor Stuart, consort of David Stuart, esq.-of Osian Hall, in the county of Fairfax—in the 56th year of her age
  14. ^ "076-0006 Effingham".
  15. ^ "Application: St. Thomas' Episcopal Parish Historic District" (PDF). Maryland Historic Trust. Retrieved May 14, 2018.
  • Torbert, Alice. Eleanor Calvert and Her Circle. New York: William-Frederick Press, 1950.
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