Wenger, Mark R. "The Dining Room in Early Virginia." Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, 3 (1989): 149-159.

Du Ponceau, Peter Stephen, and James L. Whitehead, ed. The Autobiography of Peter Stephen Du Ponceau. Philadelphia: Offprint from the Pennsylvania magazine of history and biography, April, 1939, through April, 1940.

“[November 1780]…We parted with General Greene somewhere in the State of Delaware and pursued our route to Richmond in Virginia. On our way the Baron paid a visit to Mrs. Washington at Mount Vernon; we were most cordially received and invited to dinner….The Baron having accepted the invitation we sat down to dinner. Mrs. Washington was accompanied by a young lady, a relative, whose name, I think, was Miss Custis. The table was abundantly served, but without profusion….After dinner was over, while the Baron and Major Walker in company with the young lady were viewing the grounds I had the honour of sitting in the parlour tete-a-tete with Mrs. Washington. I shall never forget the affability, and, at the same time, the dignity of her demeanour. Our conversation was on general subjects. I can only remember the impression it left upon my mind; she reminded me of the Roman matrons of whom I had read so much, and I thought that she well deserved to be the companion and friend of the greatest man of the age.”

Enys, John, and Elizabeth Cometti, ed. The American Journals of Lt. John Enys. Blue Mountain Lake, N.Y.: Adirondack Museum, 1976.

“[February 12, 1788]…As to his [George Washington’s] Lady she appears to me to be a Plain good Woman very much resembling the Character of Lady Bountyfull, is very cheerfull and seems most happy when contributing towards the happiness of others….” (251-252)

journal

Papers of Joshua Coit, Library of Congress.

Library of Congress

letters

Vail, R.W.G., ed. "A Dinner at Mount Vernon: From the Unpublished Journal of Joshua Brookes (1773-1859)." New York Historical Society Quarterly April, 1947: 72-85.

From John Pintard's Journal (1759-1844). Excerpted in R.W.G. Vail, "Two early visitors to Mount Vernon" (Oct 1958 349-365).

“[Friday, 7/31/1801] Mr. Allyn & myself were received very friendly by Mrs. [Martha] Washington who bears her age remarkably well. She converses without reserve & [with] seeming pleasure on every subject that recalls the memory & virtues of her august consort….A miniature drawn last winter or spring by a Mr. Robert Field, now in Washington, of Mrs. W., is a striking likeness. She is drawn to please her grand children [sic] in the usual long laced cap & neckkershief [sic], that they may see her as she affected it in her every day [sic] face….Mrs W. was very attentive at table. I sat between her & Mrs. [Nelly Custis] Lewis who was very chatty. The conversation was quite free easy & familiar. At ½ past 4 took leave of Mrs. W. & returned the same evening to the city [of Washington].” (350, 352-353)

From R.W.G. Vail, ed. "A Dinner at Mount Vernon: From the Unpublished Journal of Joshua Brookes (1773-1859): “[2/4/1799]…About half past two the General returned….He sat about five minutes, said little. He mentioned he went to change his dress, prior to which he introduced Mrs. Washington [who was] dressed in a Mazareen blue satin gown with three belts over her handkerchief across the body, about five feet high, rather lusty than spare, of respectable appearance, cheerful, about 70 years of age, mildness and affability depicted in her countenance. [She] enquired for news, said she was no politician but liked to read the newspapers, wore a loose cap, hair combed straight, grey locks, sat about half an hour when she went out….Of the whole, Mrs. Washington and Miss Custis pleased me most, especially the former. Her affability, free manner and mild, placid countenance brought vividly to my mind my dear mother and I thought I saw in both resignation to God with the pure spirit of religion, humility, meekness, etc….In a small parlor in front [were]…[oil portraits of] George Washington and Mrs. Washington taken 30 or 35 years [the Virginia Colonel portrait of GW by Charles Willson Peale and the Wollaston of Mrs. Wsahington] before in his English uniform. He has a bluff, Prussian appearance. Mrs. Washington looks very handsome. There is one done lately of George Washington and Mrs. Washington, excellent likenesses [the Sharples portraits?], and an admirable portrait of Miss Custis….We were much pleased with Mrs. Washington who sat about half an hour with us….” (74-75, 78-80)

From Thomas Jefferson's conversation with Joshua Brooks, Monticello, 8/10/1799: “Mrs. Washington is a rather weak woman. It is singular that she was incapable of being injured by flattery, for she received more of it from the ladies of Philadelphia than ever any woman had before, but it did not affect her. I attribute this to the goodness of her heart, not to the strength of her mind. No woman could be more idolized or have more incense paid her than she had, yet she had not the least degree of pride or affectation….George Washington is a hard master, very severe, a hard husband, a hard father, a hard governor….A man from New England called one time on George Washington when President and, [while] going up stairs, he met Mrs. Washington. The man asked her: ‘Is His Majesty at home?’, [to which she replied:] ‘Sir, Is His Majesty at home! Mr. Washington is at home, Sir!’” (81-82)

Brissot de Warville, Jacques-Pierre. New Travels in the United States of America, 1788. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1964.

From Jacques Pierre Brissot de Warville: “[November 1788] Every thing [sic] has an air of simplicity in his [George Washington’s] house; his table is good, but not ostentatious; and no deviation is seen from regularity and domestic oeconomy. Mrs. Washington superintends the whole, and joins to the qualities of an excellent house-wife, that simple dignity which ought to characterize a woman, whose husband has acted the greatest part on the theatre of human affairs; while she possesses that amenity, and manifests that attention to strangers, which render hospitality so charming….” (429)

Marquis de Lafayette, and Stanley J. Idzerda, ed. Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776-1790. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1977.

“…Several general officers have brought their wives to camp, and I am very envious, not of their wives [who are rather dull], but of the pleasure they have in being able to see them. General Washington has also just decided to send for his wife, a modest and respectable person, who loves her husband madly….” (1: 225)

26. From: The Marquis de Lafayette to Adrienne de Noailles de Lafayette, 8/20/1784, in Stanley J. Idzerda and others, editors, Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776-1790, Volume 5 (Ithaca, New York, and London: Cornell University Press, 1983), 237-238.
“Though I do not know if my letter will reach you, my dear heart, I had to write you that I am at Mount Vernon and that I am reveling in the happiness of finding my dear general again…I arrived here on the seventeenth…To describe to you the life that we lead here, I shall tell you that after breakfast the general and I chat together for some time. After having thoroughly discussed the past, the present, and the future, he withdraws to take care of his affairs and gives me things to read that have been written during my absence. Then we come down for dinner and find Mrs. Washington with visitors from the neighborhood. The conversation at table turns to the events of the war or to anecdotes that we are fond of recalling. After tea we resume our private conversations and pass the rest of the evening with the family. That, my dear heart, is how we spend our time, and we often talk of you, of our children, and of anything that has to do with the family. There are in the house two small children of Mrs. Washington, who you know was married once before. The general has adopted them and loves them with great tenderness. It was rather amusing, when I arrived, to see the curiosity of these two little ones, who had heard me spoken of all day and were very anxious to see if I looked like my portrait. The general read with great pleasure your letter and Anastasie’s. I have been asked to send the fondest regards from the whole household, and Mrs. Washington was saying the other day that since they were old, we must not defer the pleasure they would have in entertaining you and our whole little family here. On my earlier trip, my dear heart, I made the most solemn promise to bring you with me.”

Kierner, Cynthia A. "Hospitality, Sociability, and Gender in the Southern Colonies." The Journal of Southern History, 62 3 (August 1996): 449-480.

Letter, John Wallace to Matthew Cary, November 22, 1784. Photostat of manuscript letter. Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.

“…I met a very favourable reception from Lady Washington-I spent an entire day with her-She is a very sensible Lady, rather elderly, has four Grand-Children in her house one little Boy and three girls-She pressed me a good deal to stay at her house, till the General wou’d return. I forgot to tell you that the General went to Richmond a few days before we reached Alexandria-His return is expected in less than a fortnight….”

letter

Murray, Judith Sargent. Bonnie Hurd Smith, ed.From Gloucester to Philadelphia in 1790: Observations, Anecdotes, and Thoughts from the 18th-Century Letters of Judith Sargent Murray. Cambridge, Mass.: Judith Sargent Murray Society and Curious Traveller Press, 1998.

From Judith Sargent Murray to her parents, New Rochelle, New York, 8/14/1790: “…While Mr Murray [the author’s husband] visited at the President’s Mrs Washington dispatched a Messenger from her apartments, importing that she should be pleased with a visit from Mrs Murray, that if she—Mrs Murray—preferred enjoyment to ceremony, she need not wait for a Levee day—for Mrs Washington would certainly be at home, whenever it should suit Mrs Murray’s convenience, and the President too, deigned to enquire, if my journey had bestowed upon me the blessings of health—all this, you will believe, was highly flattering--…About Six O-clock we took a coach for the presence…Colonel Humphry’s, offering his hand, ushered us into the drawing room, a number of Ladies were with Mrs Washington, and her matronlike appearance, and Lady like condescension, soon dissipated every painful idea of distance—taking my hand she seated me by her side, and addressing herself particularly to me, as the only stranger present, she engaged me in the most familiar, and agreeable Chat—she interrogated me respecting my journey, asked if my acquaintance in New York was extensive, and in what part of the City I abode—She informed me she had the pleasure of being acquainted with my brother, and she spoke of his late marriage, and the death of his Companion, as events which had interested her feelings…Mrs Washington’s face is an index of a good heart, and those Virtues which I am told she eminently possesseth, are impressed upon every feature—need I add, that her countenance is irresistibly prepossessing…In the course of the two hours passed at the President’s various topics of conversation were introduced—Mrs Washington, as I said was condescendingly attentive to me, as a stranger I was constantly by her side, and addressing me in a low voice, she spoke of her family—she hath been a happy mother, one son, and one daughter, by a former marriage, they now, however, both sleep in the narrow house—One grand Son, and three granddaughters survive—I know, said Mrs Washington, that my daughter in law would soon enter into new engagements, and I urged her to yield her two youngest children to my care—this she obligingly did, and consequently a grandson, and granddaughter, reside constantly at the President’s—Mrs Washington hath educated a Niece [Fanny Bassett], now united in marriage, to a favourite Nephew [George Augustine Washington] of the General and the young couple reside upon, and have the care of that fine Estate, of which we have heard so much, at Mount Vernon—To which elegant seat, the President and his Lady, will during the recess of Congress, rapidly bend their steps—The family, thus circumstanced, it is hardly to be regretted, that the General hath no son, to whom to transmit his honours, and his Virtue, for he cannot but be immortal—his Lady is universally beloved, and the sons of Columbia are their children…Mrs Washington in her aside conversation, spoke of the General’s later alarming illness, and while she expressed her happiness in his present restoration, a tear of apprehension for futurity was in her eye—I embraced this opportunity, of expressing the emotions of my bosom and while I adverted to the common interest, which every American held in a life so precious, I allowed the superiority of her tender, and sacred claims…Thursday, very unexpectedly opened another scene—I was sitting in my little apartment, alone, and buried in thought—strange that I possessed not the smallest presentiment, of the distinction which awaited me—but so it was…Mrs Washington, and Mrs Lear were immediately ushered in[.] If any thing could exceed my surprise, it was the charming freedom with which Mrs Washington took her seat—The unmeaning fopperies of ceremony seem to make no part of this Lady’s Character, inborn benevolence, beams upon her countenance, points her address, and dictates the most pleasing expressions to her lips—one whole hour she condescendingly devoted to me, and so much friendship did her salutations connect, so interesting and animated was our conversation, that a bystander would not have entertained an idea of the distance between us, would hardly have supposed, that we met but for the second time, thus benignly good, and thus adorned with social virtues is our Lady Presidentess, and I confess that in a way perfectly correspondent with my feelings, I have been most highly gratified….” (246, 248-250, 254)