Daniel Parke Custis

Daniel Parke Custis (15 October 1711 – 8 July 1757) was a wealthy Virginia planter whose widow, Martha, married George Washington.

He was the son of John Custis (1678–1749), a powerful member of Virginia's Governor's Council, and Frances Parke Custis.[1] He was a grandson of Daniel Parke, also a member of the Council and governor of the Leeward Islands.

Custis was born in York County, Virginia, and died in New Kent County, Virginia. He married Martha Dandridge on 15 May 1750. They had four children:

• Daniel Parke Custis, Jr. (November 19, 1751 – February 19, 1754)
• Frances Parke Custis (April 12, 1753 – April 1, 1757)
• John “Jacky” Parke Custis (November 27, 1754 – November 5, 1781)
• Martha “Patsy” Parke Custis (1756 – June 19, 1773)

Custis did not choose to take a leading role in colonial Virginia politics. Two years after his death, his widow, Martha, married George Washington, who became stepfather to the two surviving Custis children.

Custis Estate

Daniel Parke Custis died intestate, so his widow received the lifetime use of one-third of his property ("dower share"), with the other two-thirds held in trust for their children. The January 1759 Custis Estate inventory lists 285 enslaved Africans.^[1] The October 1759 Custis Estate inventory lists 17,779 acres (71.95 km²) of land, spread over 5 counties.^[2] John Parke Custis was the only one of their children to reach his majority, and became the sole heir. Upon her marriage to George Washington, the dower share, including the "dower negroes," came under Washington's control, pursuant to the common law doctrine of seisin jure uxoris, but upon his death, reverted to her, and then, upon her death, to her first husband's children. Because of Martha Washington's "dower share" (which included 153 enslaved Africans in 1799), the Custis Estate was not liquidated until after her 1802 death.

Descendants

References

1. ^ "Complete Inventory, by Counties, of the Estate", in Joseph E. Fields, Worthy Partner: The Papers of Martha Washington (Greenwood Press, 1994), pp. 61-75.
2. ^ "Account of Land and Acreage, Estate of Daniel Parke Custis", in Worthy Partner, pp. 103-04. This land inventory was incomplete, not listing Custis lots in Jamestown and Williamsburg.

Persondata
Name	Custis, Daniel Parke
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Date of birth	October 15, 1711
Place of birth
Date of death	July 8, 1757
Place of death