Mary Ball Washington | George Washington’s Mother

Introduction

Mary Ball Washington was the mother of General Slash President George Washington. Now, Mary Ball, we are still determining exactly when Mary Ball was born, somewhere between 1707 and 1709, which makes her anywhere from one to three years younger than Benjamin Franklin for perspective on how old Benjamin Franklin was compared to most of the other founders. That said, Mary Ball Washington was orphaned by the time she was 13 and taken in by an uncle, George Eskridge. Now, George Eskridge raised her, and about a decade later, when she was about 20 years old, Eskridge introduced him to his recently widowed brother-in-law Augustine Washington.

Augustine already had a few children, most of whom would be famous for being older brothers of George Washington or stepbrothers of George Washington. But Mary and Augustine got married. They have five or six children, five of whom survive adulthood. The first child they have is named after George Eskridge, the man who helped raise Mary Ball Washington and introduced the two. They name this baby George, and they give it the last name of the father, Washington. This baby is none other than George Washington.

Facts about Mary Ball Washington

Also Know as:	Marry Ball Washington, The First Lady of United States
Born:	30 November 1708
Death:	25 August 1789
Husband:	Augustine Washington
Parents:	Joseph Ball, Mary Johnson
Children:	George Washington > Betty Washington > John Augustine Washington > George Washington > Mildred Washington > Samuel Washington > Charles Washington

Mary Ball Washington’s Early Life and Influence

Now, sadly for Washington, he’s still relatively young when his father passes away. All of his older brothers end up passing away after helping him grow into a young man. That said, Mary Ball Washington survived for a very long time overseeing her son and even lived long enough to see George Washington become president of the newly formed United States of America.

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It’s often overlooked, and we forget that. But again, her being younger than Benjamin Franklin, who also saw Washington become president, put some perspective on things. George Washington is growing up, and when he grows up, he wants to join the Royal Navy. Several high-ranking members of Virginia society helped set him up with a career in the Royal Navy. But Mary Ball Washington has a sibling, a brother named Joseph, who lives in London. He writes back, saying there are better ideas for young George to become a sailor. He won’t excel in the Navy.

Influence on George Washington’s Career

He’ll ever get only so much promotion as a colonial-born citizen. Instead, he takes the little bit of land he has, and the servants, as they call them, the three or four enslaved people Washington had at 19 years old, take and try and become planters. He should be able to get into the upper class eventually. And because of this scenario, Washington is demanded by his mother.

There is a question about how demanding she was. For a long time, she was celebrated as a hero as the mother of Washington. However, recent historical scholarship has viewed her as a little more demanding with her child. Either way, their relationship is strained, as it may have been at times, and we will get to that. Mary Ball Washington recommends that George not go to Sea and instead take up a job at home. And it’s because of this discussion, Washington stays home and becomes a surveyor. And this career works out very swimmingly for him, as we know.

He ended up getting a lot of land, a lot of property, eventually a good number of slaves, and a great established place in colonial Virginia society, eventually even becoming a member of the House of Burgess, the colonial government.

Mary Ball’s Final Years

Mary Ball Washington gets old, and in 1771, she can no longer live in the woods at the old plantation that she lived on. So George Washington actually buys her a house in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with his sister, her daughter Betty, and her husband. They are just about a block away, and she can live very close. And then Washington, George Washington, goes to war, and throughout the war and the rest of his life.

Mary Ball Washington is a thorn in her son’s side. She is constantly looking for more money. Now, George Washington, as I said, buys his mom a house and constantly gives her money to live a fairly wealthy lifestyle. Again, he tries to persuade her to move in with his sister Betty, but she wants to live independently and stay in her garden in Fredericksburg, Virginia. And eventually, in 1781, she does.

George Washington’s Presidential Journey

Mary Ball Washington embarrasses her son, commander in chief of the Continental Army, just about to go to Yorktown. George Washington, by applying for a pension from the young state of Virginia, said, hey, I don’t have enough money to take care of myself. I need to be a burden on the state. Please take care of me. Fortunately for General George, he has some buddies over there, notably Governor and Declaration of Independence signer Benjamin Harrison, who writes to George and says, hey man, what is your mother talking about over here? And George writes back, saying, don’t give her money; I’ve given her plenty.

The quote I said, I’ll paraphrase. But essentially, he says, if she needs more money, we will get her more money. But she has plenty of money. I bought her a house, which more or less he sent back to Governor Harrison, who was again a friend of Benjamin George Washington. They had both been to the first Continental and then Continental Congress together, so that blows over as embarrassing an episode it is for someone like George Washington, who had spent a lifetime attempting to become one of the elites.

I’ve heard Washington described as the poor kid at the rich charter school, which essentially was his place in Virginia society. He was wealthy enough to be one of the elites but was always at the bottom tier, trying to make his way up. And this was a very embarrassing moment for him.

Final Meeting and Legacy

Fortunately, as I said, it does blow over. George Washington won the war, so there was not much he could do wrong. But in 1789, when the United States government was created and George Washington was elected the first president, as I said, his mother and most of his brothers and sisters were still alive. Washington was on his way from Mount Vernon to New York City to take his position as president. The first President of the United States, on his way in April 1789, stopped in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to visit his mother for one final time. His mother is, at this point, suffering from breast cancer. He essentially knows it’s the last time he will see his mother.

He’s been there for about two days now. Legend has it that while he’s there, his mother he asked permission from and is granted permission by his mother to get this new job as President of the United States in much the same fashion he had asked her for permission to join the Navy so many decades earlier. And as the story Ball says, you know, something like, yes, my son, you may be like the first president now. Unfortunately, this story is primarily hearsay.

It is a legend, a myth that has blossomed over time. As mentioned earlier, Mary Ball Washington became a mythical figure in the early 18 and mid 18 hundreds. And nowadays, scholarship may have gone a little too far the other way. Scholarship nowadays is slightly harsh for her when it’s probably somewhere more in the middle.=

Conclusion

Mary Ball Washington was a demanding mother who kept asking for money all of Washington’s life. But it’s a nice story, Mom. Can I be president now? And Mary Bell Washington is saying, yes, son, you can be president now. And he does. He leaves and goes up to New York City, and that’s the last meeting he has with his mother. Unfortunately, she died the following August 1789 of breast cancer that she had been suffering from for a long time.

It’s interesting, too, because Washington writes back to his sister after hearing about this. While he does say it’s obvious grief that our mother has passed away, she had already been advanced in age, and she was sick, so she’s probably in a better place now. But he also notes how she kept asking him for money, even in this final letter to his sister, consoling his sister about their mother; he has this, like, at least we don’t have to give her any more money—tenor to the conversation, which is fascinating. On top of this, it is not Washington society at this point; it is still New York City society, but the Capitol.

The new government, which is less than a year old, has a few weeks of unofficial mourning from the people in the government. It was another moment of unification at this significant time, just after the anti-Federalist and Federalist debates during the ratification process, which was very divisive. It is one of these moments that brings people together. And you’d see something similar almost a year, about six months later, when Benjamin Franklin also passed away. It’s another one of these moments that brings people together in solidarity. For George’s sake, he wears a black armband for five months.

So, for the remainder of his first year as president, he spent half of that year wearing a badge representing the passing of his mother. Another interesting fact is that Washington’smother never actually gets a gravestone. For some inexplicable reason, he doesn’t give his mother a gravestone. And after George passes away ten years later, this is during the first generation, the early 18hundreds, as I said, where Mary Bowl? Washington became a mythical figure. During this time, they look around, and they’re like, why doesn’t she have a gravestone? And it took until 1890, over 100 years after her death, before a monument was finally erected.

There was a monument erected in 1890, but it was in the 1830s that she was given a small, average gravestone. And that procedure, or should Isay ceremony, was overseen. The speech that was given, the oration that was given at that time, was actually by sitting President Andrew Jackson, who was giving an homage to George Washington’s mother. Washington and Jackson’s relationship was brief. It existed; it was short. And we’re not here to get into that, but what we were here to get into was the life of Mary Bo Washington.

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