iments of allegiance were weakened by
the reluctance with which the claims of the provincial officers were
admitted, and the unreserved preference uniformly given to the officers
of the regular army. At the close of 1758 he resigned his commission and
retired into private life.

On January 6, 1759, he married Mrs. Martha Custis, a young widow with
two children. "Mr. Custis," says Mr. Sparke, "had left large landed
estates, and L45,000 sterling in money. One-third of this property she
held in her own right; the other two-thirds being equally divided
between her two children." Washington had a considerable fortune of his
own at the time of his marriage, consisting of the estate at Mount
Vernon, and large tracts of land which he had selected during his
surveying expeditions and obtained grants of at different times. He now
devoted himself to the management of this extensive property, and to the
guardianship of Mrs. Washington's children, and till the commencement of
1763 was, in appearance at least, principally occupied with these
private matters. He found time, however, for public civil duties. He had
been elected a member of the House of Burgesses before he resigned his
commission, and although there were commonly two, and sometimes three
sessions in every year, he was punctual in his attendance from beginning
to end of each. During the period of his service in the Legislature he
frequently attended on such theatrical exhibitions as were then
presented in America, and lived on terms of intimacy with the most
eminent men of Virginia. At Mount Vernon he practised on a large scale
the hospitality for which the Southern planters have ever been
distinguished. His chief diversion in the country was the chase. He
exported the produce of his estates to London, Liverpool, and Bristol,
and imported everything required for his property, and domestic
establishment. His industry was equal to his enterprise; his day-books,
ledgers and letter-books were all kept by himself and he drew up his own
contracts and deeds. In the House of Burgesses he seldom spoke, but
nothing escaped his notice, and his opinion was eagerly sought and
followed. He assumed trusts at the solicitation of friends, and was much
in request as an arbitrator. He was, probably without being himself
aware of it, establishing a wide and strong influence, which no person
suspected till the time arrived for exercising it.

On March 4, 1773, Lord Dunmore prorogued the int