The bride brought her husband a "little progeny" consisting of two
interesting stepchildren; also property worth about a hundred thousand
dollars, including many negro slaves, money on bond and stock in the
Bank of England. Soon we find him sending certificates of the marriage
to the English agents of the Custis estate and announcing to them that
the management of the whole would be in his hands.

The dower negroes were kept separate from those owned by himself, but
otherwise he seems to have made little distinction between his own and
Mrs. Washington's property, which was now, in fact, by Virginia law his
own. When Martha wanted money she applied to him for it. Now and then in
his cash memorandum books we come upon such entries as, "By Cash to Mrs.
Washington for Pocket Money L4." As a rule, if there were any purchases
to be made, she let George do it and, if we may judge from the long
list of tabby colored velvet gowns, silk hose, satin shoes, "Fashionable
Summer Cloaks & Hatts," and similar articles ordered from the English
agents she had no reason to complain that her husband was niggardly or a
poor provider. If her "Old Man"--for she sometimes called him
that--failed in anything she desired, tradition says that the little
lady was in the habit of taking hold of a button of his coat and hanging
on until he had promised to comply.

He managed the property of the two children with great care and
fidelity, keeping a scrupulous account in a "marble colour'd folio Book"
of every penny received or expended in their behalf and making a yearly
report to the general court of his stewardship. How minute this account
was is indicated by an entry in his cash memorandum book for August 21,
1772: "Charge Miss Custis with a hair Pin mended by C. Turner" one
shilling. Her death (of "Fitts") in 1773 added about ten thousand pounds
to Mrs. Washington's property, which meant to his own.

There can be no question that the fortune he acquired by the Custis
alliance proved of great advantage to him in his future career, for it
helped to make him independent as regards money considerations. He
might never have become the Father of His Country without it. Some of
his contemporaries, including jealous-hearted John Adams, seem to have
realized this, and tradition says that old David Burnes, the crusty
Scotsman who owned part of the land on which the Federal City was laid
out, once ventured to growl to the President: "Now what would ye ha'