Eleanor Calvert

File:Coat of Arms of Cecil Calvert, Baron Baltimore.svg

Eleanor Calvert was born in 1758 at the Calvert family's Mount Airy plantation near Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County, Maryland.{{cite web |author=Herring |first=Arlis |date=February 9, 2008 |title=Eleanor Calvert |url=http://arlisherring.com/tng/getperson.php?personID=I047645&tree=Herring |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160605043105/http://arlisherring.com/tng/getperson.php?personID=I047645&tree=Herring |archive-date=2016-06-05 |accessdate=2008-03-01 |publisher=Arlis Herring}} She was the second-eldest daughter{{cite book |author=Lee |first=Edmund Jennings |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DsZTOIsRnQYC |title=Lee of Virginia, 1642-1892 |date=May 2009 |publisher=Heritage Books |isbn=9780788421037 |accessdate=2008-03-01}} of Benedict Swingate Calvert, illegitimate son of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, and Benedict's wife and first cousin Elizabeth Calvert.{{cite book |author=Bryan |first=Helen |url=https://archive.org/details/marthawashington00brya_0 |title=Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |year=2002 |isbn=9780471158929 |url-access=registration |accessdate=2008-03-01}} She was known to her family as "Nelly".

File:EleanorCalvert.png, 1761]]

Eleanor married John Parke Custis, son of Daniel Parke Custis and Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (and stepson of George Washington), on February 3, 1774, at Mount Airy. When "Jacky", as he was known by his family, announced the engagement to his parents, they were greatly surprised due to the couple's youth.

After their marriage, the couple settled at the White House plantation, a Custis estate on the Pamunkey River in New Kent County, Virginia.{{Cite book |last=Yates|first=Bernice-Marie|title=The Perfect Gentleman: The Life and Letters of George Washington Custis Lee|location=Fairfax, Virginia|publisher=Xulon Press|year =2003|page=37|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l8Z8e4-XIVEC|isbn=1-59160-451-6|accessdate=2011-06-27}} After the couple had lived at the White House for more than two years, John Custis purchased the Abingdon plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia (now in Arlington County, Virginia), into which the couple settled during the winter of 1778–1779.{{cite book| last = Templeman|first = Eleanor Lee|title=Arlington Heritage: Vignettes of a Virginia County|publisher=Avenel Books, a division of Crown Publishers, Inc.|place=New York|year =1959|pages=12–13|url =https://books.google.com/books?id=FBQ8AAAAMAAJ}}

Eleanor and John had seven children:

• unnamed daughter (1775–1775), died shortly after birth
• Elizabeth Parke Custis Law, "Eliza" (1776–1831), married Thomas Law
• Martha Parke Custis Peter, "Patsy" (1777–1854), married Thomas Peter
• Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis, "Nelly" (1779–1852), married Lawrence Lewis
• unnamed twin daughters (1780–1780), died three weeks after birth
• George Washington Parke Custis, "Wash" (1781–1857), married Mary Lee Fitzhugh

In 1781, John died of "camp fever", believed to be typhus, following the Siege of Yorktown. Eleanor's two elder daughters, Elizabeth and Martha, continued to live with her at the Abingdon plantation. She sent her two younger children, Eleanor and George, to Mount Vernon to live with their grandmother, Martha Washington, and her husband George Washington, future president. John died intestate, so his widow was granted a dower third, the lifetime use of one-third of the Custis estate assets, including its more than 300 slaves.[http://www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/slaves/numbers.htm Slavery by the Numbers], US History- President's House The balance of the John Parke Custis estate was held in trust for the children of John and Eleanor. The estate was distributed as the daughters married and the son reached his majority while Calvert's share was held by her for her use until her death.{{cite journal |last1=Swem |first1=Earl Gregg |title=BROTHERS OF THE SPADE - APPENDIX 1 - Daniel Parke Custis, the son, John Parke Custis, the grandson, and George Washington Parke Custis, the greatgrandson of John Custis of Williamsburg |journal=Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society |date=April 1948 |pages=129-143, 135, 137 |url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44807163.pdf |access-date=August 14, 2024 |publisher=American Antiquarian Society |quote=(Page 135) - The boy, G. W. P. Custis, was heir to all his father's plantations, subject to the one third life dower right of his mother who married as her second husband, Dr. David Stuart.}}

On November 20, 1783, Eleanor married Dr. David Stuart, an Alexandria physician and business associate of George Washington.{{cite book |author=Greenleaf |first=James Edward |url=https://archive.org/details/genealogygreenl00greegoog |title=Genealogy of the Greenleaf Family |publisher=F. Wood |year=1896 |page=[https://archive.org/details/genealogygreenl00greegoog/page/n264 220] |accessdate=2008-03-01}}{{cite web | url=http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/marriage/custis.html | title=The Papers of George Washington: Documents | year=2009 | accessdate=2008-03-01 | publisher=The Papers of George Washington | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100602045030/http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/marriage/custis.html | archivedate=June 2, 2010 | df=mdy-all }} Her living children became the stepchildren and wards of Dr. David Stuart, even while George and Nelly lived at Mount Vernon with their grandmother, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington and her husband George Washington.

Eleanor and David had sixteen children together:{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_X55bAAAAMAAJ | title=National Genealogical Society Quarterly | year=1917 | accessdate=2008-03-01 | publisher= National Genealogical Society | author=National Genealogical Society}}{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=R. Winder|title=The Ancestry of Rosalie Morris Johnson: Daughter of George Calvert Morris and Elizabeth Kuhn, his wife|publisher=Ferris & Leach|year =1905|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancestryrosalie00johngoog/page/n37 16]–17, 29–30|url=https://archive.org/details/ancestryrosalie00johngoog|accessdate=2011-05-20}}

• Ann Calvert Stuart (1784–1823), married William Robinson
• Sarah Stuart (1786–1870), married Obed Waite
• Ariana Calvert Stuart (1789–1855), died unmarried
• William Sholto Stuart (1792–1820), died unmarried
• Charles Calvert Stuart (1794–1846), married Cornelia Lee
• Eleanor Custis Stuart (1796–1875), died unmarried
• Rosalie Eugenia Stuart (1801–1886), married William Greenleaf Webster
• Nine other children who were stillborn or died shortly after birth

In 1792, Eleanor, David and their family left Abingdon (which had become part of the District of Columbia) and moved to David's plantation and mill known as Hope Park in Fairfax County. About ten years later, they moved to Ossian Hall near Annandale, also in Fairfax County.

Calvert died on September 28, 1811, at age 53 at Tudor Place, the home of her daughter, Martha Parke Custis Peter, in Georgetown, District of Columbia.{{cite journal |title= Died| journal= The Lady's Miscellany, or, Weekly Visitor, for the Use and Amusement of Both Sexes|volume=13 | year= 1811|publisher= M'Carty & White |page=398 |quote= Died. At Tudor Place, thereat of Thomas Peter, esq- near George-Town, Mrs. Eleanor Stuart, consort of David Stuart, esq.-of Osian Hall, in the county of Fairfax—in the 56th year of her age}} She was originally buried at Col. William Alexander's Effingham Plantation in Prince William County, Virginia.{{cite web | url=https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/076-0006/ | title=076-0006 Effingham }}

She was reinterred in Page's Chapel, St. Thomas' Church, Croom, Maryland, following the War of 1812 near the graves of her parents. Her resting place remained unmarked until a limestone grave slab was installed in the chapel floor in autumn 2008.{{cite web|title=Application: St. Thomas' Episcopal Parish Historic District|url=https://mht.maryland.gov/secure/medusa/PDF/PrinceGeorges/PG;86A-59.pdf|publisher=Maryland Historic Trust|accessdate=14 May 2018}}

• List of people with the most children

{{reflist|2}}

• Torbert, Alice. Eleanor Calvert and Her Circle. New York: William-Frederick Press, 1950.

• [http://collection.artbma.org/emuseum/view/objects/asitem/search$0040/2/title-asc?t:state:flow=94a6d4b5-a360-4e42-85ff-b1a13b361002 Eleanor Calvert]{{Dead link|date=March 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, Baltimore Museum of Art
• {{cite web | url=http://www.geneall.net/U/per_page.php?id=64408 | title=Eleanor Calvert | accessdate=2008-03-01 | publisher= Geneall | author=Geneall}}
• [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31112726/eleanor-custis_stuart Eleanor Calvert - Find a Grave]
• [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015037079194&seq=9 The entire book of Swem's Brothers of the Spade delves more extensively into the complicated estates of the Custis men who died without a will]

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Category:1750s births

Category:1811 deaths

Category:American socialites

Category:American people of English descent

Eleanor

Category:Custis family (Virginia)

Category:People from Arlington County, Virginia

Category:People from Fairfax County, Virginia

Category:People from Prince George's County, Maryland

Category:Washington family

Category:18th-century American women

Category:19th-century American women