Papers, 1694-1917.

ArchivalResource

Papers, 1694-1917.

Include papers compiled by Mary Custis Lee, eldest daughter of Gen. Robert E. Lee, concerning her parents, her Custis family ancestors, and her own world travels and life in Lexington and Alexandria, Va. Among the persons represented in this collection are: John Custis IV of Williamsburg, Va., colonial councilor and planter; his son, Daniel Parke Custis, and Daniel's widow, Martha (Dandridge) Custis, later the wife of George Washington, who also appears in the collection; Martha's son, John Parke Custis, who died young during the American Revolution; John Parke Custis's son, George Washington Parke Custis, the step-grandson of Washington and builder of "Arlington House" in what is now Arlington, Va.; George's wife, Mary Lee (Fitzhugh) Custis, an early anti-slavery advocate and active member of the American Colonization Society; and George and Mary's daughter Mary Anna Randolph Custis, who married Robert E. Lee in 1831. The collection primarily consists of correspondence, but also includes land and legal records, commonplace books and travel journals, financial accounts, military records, and assorted ephemera.

6,495 items.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 7520596

Virginia Historical Society Library

Related Entities

There are 13 Entities related to this resource.

Lee, Mary Randolph Custis, 1807-1873

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63g5gns (person)

Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee (b. Oct. 1, 1807, Boyce, VA–d. Nov. 5, 1873, Lexington, VA) was descended from several colonial and Southern families, including the Parke Custises, Fitzhughs, Dandriges, Randolphs, Rolfes, and Gerards. She is a descendant from Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, making her a descendant of Charles II of England and Scotland and of William Fitzhugh. She was the only surviving child of George Washington Parke Custis, President George Washington's step-grandson and...

Custis, John Parke, 1754-1781

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6bw88qn (person)

John Parke Custis (November 27, 1754 – November 5, 1781) was the son of Martha Washington and stepson of George Washington. Custis was the sole heir of the Custis estate. He married Eleanor Calvert, daughter of a prominent Maryland family. The couple lived at Abingdon Plantation and had seven children, four of whom would survive. As the Revolutionary War came to a close, Custis decided to join his stepfather at Yorktown, the site of Washington's most celebrated victory. Soon after Cornwallis' su...

Custis (Family : Virginia)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6md9s3t (family)

John Custis was born August 1678 in Northampton County, Virginia, and was educated in England. He lived in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he served as a vestryman for Bruton Parish. Custis was also successful planter, merchant, colonel in the Virginia militia, burgess, and member of the Governor's Council. He married Frances Parke (1687-1715) in August 1705. His son, Daniel Parke Custis was born 15 October 1710 in James City County. He was a successful planter in New Kent County, Vi...

Washington, Martha, 1731-1802

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65v4bjt (person)

Martha Dandridge Custis Washington was the first First Lady of the United States. Washington is not only remembered as the nation’s first lady who set an example for her future first ladies, but also as a wife, mother, and property owner. She is an example of strength during the Revolutionary War, and as the first lady of a new nation. Born at Virginia’s Chestnut Grove Plantation located in New Kent County, Virginia on June 2, 1731, she was the eldest of eight children born to John and France...

Custis, Daniel Parke, 1711-1757

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zb04gw (person)

Daniel Parke Custis was an American planter and politician who was the first husband of Martha Dandridge. After his death, Dandridge married George Washington, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and the nation's first president....

Lee family.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x15nt2 (family)

Washington, George, 1732-1799

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r31qfk (person)

George Washington (b. Feb. 22, 1732, Westmoreland County, Va.-d. Dec. 14, 1799, Mount Vernon, VA) was the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. Washington came from a family of farmers and landowners. He had little education but showed an aptitude for mathematics. He used this talent to become a surveyor. At 15, Washington took a job as assistant surveyor on a team sent to map the Shenandoah Valley in western Virginia. In his early 20s, Washington joined the Virgin...

American colonization society

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6449kx0 (corporateBody)

The American Colonization Society was founded in 1817 in Washington, D.C. for the purpose of transporting freeborn and emancipated American blacks to Africa and helping them start a new life there. From the description of List of emigrants for Liberia, 1867 Nov. 17. (The South Carolina Historical Society). WorldCat record id: 32144821 The American Colonization Society was an organization dedicated to transporting freeborn blacks and emancipated slaves to Africa, to what is n...

Custis, John, 1678-1749

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zp4r01 (person)

John Custis (August 1678 – November 22, 1749) was an American planter, politician, government official and military officer who sat in the Virginia House of Burgesses. A prominent member of the Custis family of Virginia, he utilized his extensive landholdings to support a career in horticulture and gardening. Born into a slaveholding family who resided in Northampton County, Virginia, Custis was sent to London at a young age to study the tobacco trade under Micajah Perry. He returned to his g...

Custis, George Washington Parke, 1781-1857

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6h41wx3 (person)

George Washington Parke Custis was the son of John Parke Custis who was the stepson of George Washington. Custis' mother was Eleanor Calvert. He grew up at Mount Vernon in Virginia after the death of his father. He married Mary Lee Fitzhugh and lived at "Arlington." His daughter Mary Anna Randolph Custis married Robert E. Lee. George Washington Parke Custis was a playwright and agricultural reformer....

Lee, Robert Edward, 1807-1870

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sk28nd (person)

Robert Edward Lee (1807-1870) served as General of the Confederate Army in the U.S. Civil War and was president of Washington College in Lexington, Virginia from 1865 to 1870. Lee spent the first twenty-three years of his military career in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. From 1837 to 1841 he was superintending engineer for the harbor of St. Louis and the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Robert E. Lee was a United States Army officer, 1829-1861; commander of Virginia forces in the ...

Lee, Mary Custis, 1835-1918

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w68k7p6s (person)

Mary Custis Lee was the eldest daughter of General Robert E. Lee and Mary Anna Randolph (Custis) Lee of "Arlington House" in what is now Arlington, Va. Very close to her father, she never married and traveled the world and the United States after his death, and was particular favorite of Confederate veterans and European nobility alike. As unofficial family archivist, Mary Custis Lee collected materials relating to her parents' lives and to the lives and careers of her Custis family ancestors as...

Custis, Mary Lee Fitzhugh, 1788-1853

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6668q0g (person)

Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis (April 22, 1788 – April 23, 1853) was the mother of Mary Anna Randolph Custis, the wife of Robert E. Lee. Early in the 1820s Custis helped form a coalition of women who hoped to eradicate slavery. In 1804, she married George Washington Parke Custis, grandson of Martha Custis Washington. The Custises lived at Arlington House....