Youth and Childhoods of George and Martha Washington

Youth and Childhoods of George and Martha Washington – Youth and Childhoods: 1731-1752 – Topic includes information about their childhoods, George’s surveying, and their relationships with the Fairfax family. They also talk about Martha’s marriage to Daniel Custis, and George’s inheritance.

Martha Dandridge Washington was born eight months before George Washington, and both had relatively privileged upbringings in colonial Virginia that prepared them for their later lives. Martha, the eldest of eight, received an informal education in domestic and social skills, while George, the eldest of his father’s children, learned mathematics, surveying, and manners through local schooling and private tutors after his father’s death.

Martha Washington facts as a youth

• Born: June 2, 1731, at the Chestnut Grove plantation in New Kent County, Virginia.
• Family: She was the eldest of eight children born to John and Frances Dandridge.
• Education: Received a typical, informal education for a girl of her class, focusing on housekeeping, music, needlework, dancing, and religion. She learned to read and write.
• Social Standing: Her family was of the minor gentry, and she had connections to prominent figures through her mother’s family.
• Later Life: Married Daniel Parke Custis in her late teens and had four children. After his death, she married George Washington in 1759.

George Washington facts as a youth

• Born: February 22, 1732, at his father’s plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia.
• Family: He was the eldest of six children with his father’s second wife, Mary Ball Washington. His father already had three children from a previous marriage.
• Education: Did not receive a formal education in England like his older half-brothers. Instead, he was educated by private tutors and possibly a local school, learning mathematics, surveying, and manners.
• Social Standing: His family was considered to be in the “middling class” of Virginia planters.
• Later Life: His father died when he was 11, and his older half-brother, Lawrence, helped raise him.

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