Mary Ball

  General Notes:

Mary Ball Washington (1708 – 1789) was the second wife to Augustine Washington (after the first wife, Jane Butler, died) and was the mother of George Washington. Mary Ball Washington was born as Mary Ball in 1708 in Lively, Virginia, Lancaster County, Virginia. She was the only child of Joseph Ball and his second wife, the widow Mary Johnson, whose maiden name and origins are not known. Fatherless at 3 and orphaned at 12, she was placed, in accordance with the terms of her mother's will, under the guardianship of George Eskridge, a lawyer.

Mary Ball met Augustine Washington and they married on March 6, 1731. It was her first marriage and his second. Augustine had four children with his first wife, Jane Butler Washington however, only two of them lived to adulthood. Together, Mary and Augustine had the following children:

* George - (1732–1799)
* Betty - (1733–1797)
* Samuel - (1734–1781)
* John Augustine - (1736–1787)
* Charles - (1738–1799)
* Mildred - (1739–1740)

Augustine died in 1743. Unlike most widows in Virginia at the time, Mary Ball Washington never remarried. She lived to see her son, George Washington, inaugurated as President in 1789.

Washington's relationship with his mother was forever strained. It has been speculated[by whom?] that she may have been a Loyalist during the American Revolution[citation needed]. Although she was by no means poor, she regularly complained to outsiders that she was destitute and neglected by her children, much to George's embarrassment. Animosity between mother and son persisted until her death from cancer in the first year of his presidency.

Mary Ball Washington was buried on the Lewis plantation, a few steps from "Meditation Rock." Tradition has it that this was her favorite retreat for reading, prayer, and meditation.

Mary married Colonel Augustine I Washington, son of Captain Lawrence Washington and Mildred Warner. (Colonel Augustine I Washington was born in 1694 in Westmoreland, VA and died on 12 Apr 1743 in King George County, VA.)