breeding." None the less she satisfied Washington; even after the
proverbial six months were over he refused to wander from Mount Vernon,
writing that "I am now, I believe, fixed at this seat with an agreeable
Consort for life," and in 1783 he spoke of her as the "partner of all my
Domestic enjoyments."

John Adams, in one of his recurrent moods of bitterness and jealousy
towards Washington, demanded, "Would Washington have ever been commander
of the revolutionary army or president of the United States if he had not
married the rich widow of Mr. Custis?" To ask such a question is to
overlook the fact that Washington's colonial military fame was entirely
achieved before his marriage. It is not to be denied that the match was a
good one from a worldly point of view, Mrs. Washington's third of the
Custis property equalling "fifteen thousand acres of land, a good part of
it adjoining the city of Williamsburg; several lots in the said city;
between two and three hundred negroes; and about eight or ten thousand
pounds upon bond," estimated at the time as about twenty thousand pounds
in all, which was further increased on the death of Patsy Custis in 1773
by a half of her fortune, which added ten thousand pounds to the sum.
Nevertheless the advantage was fairly equal, for Mrs. Custis's lawyer had
written before her marriage of the impossibility of her managing the
property, advising that she "employ a trusty steward, and as the estate is
large and very extensive, it is Mr. Wallers and my own opinion, that you
had better not engage any but a very able man, though he should require
large wages." Of the management of this property, to which, indeed, she
was unequal, Washington entirely relieved her, taking charge also of her
children's share and acting for their interests with the same care with
which he managed the part he was more directly concerned in.

He further saved her much of the detail of ordering her own clothing, and