George Washington to John Parke Custis, 31 May 1781
To John Parke Custis
New Windsor May 31st 1781
Dear Custis,
On Saturday last I returned from a Conference held with the Count de Rochambeau at Weathersfield,1 and found Mrs Washington very unwell, as she had been for five or Six days preceeding, & still continues—Her complaint was in the Stomach, billious, and now turned to a kind of Jaundice; but she is better than she has been. though still weak & low.2 As she is very desirous of seeing you—and as it is abt the period for her returning to Virginia,3 I should be glad, if it does not interfere with any important engagements, if you could make her a visit. That you may not be alarmed, & on that acct use unnecessary speed, I think it incumbent on me to add, that I do not conceive that she is in any kind of danger.
We have not yet heard what is become the detachment that left New York the 13th Instt and do not know whether it was destined for Virginia—Cape Fear—or elsewhere.4 It is now strongly reported, & believed by numbers, that the enemy are about a total evacuation of New York but I shall suspend my opinion of the matter till there is clearer evidence of it.5
The States this way, are miserably slow in sending in their recruits for the Army, and our supplies come in equally tardily—whether the Season, & the prospects before them, will produce any change I am unable to say—I join Mrs Washington very sincerely in affectionate regards for yourself, Nelly, & the Children6 and am with much truth Yrs
Go: Washington
ALS, MiU-C: Clinton Papers; copy, P.R.O.: C.O. 5/102; copy, UK-LoPHL: Parliamentary Archives. GW signed the cover of the ALS, which is addressed to Custis at Abingdon in Virginia. The British intercepted the ALS (see GW to Lafayette, 4 June, n.1). Gen. Henry Clinton enclosed the copy at P.R.O. in a letter he wrote George Germain dated 9–12 June (see , 20:154–57). The copies omit family remarks that conclude the first and final paragraphs.
1. GW returned to New Windsor from Wethersfield around sunset on Friday, 25 May (see the entry for that date in , 3:371; see also The Wethersfield Conference and Aftermath, 14 May–16 June, editorial note).
2. Martha Washington may have suffered from a gallbladder attack. She experienced similar symptoms at other times in her life (see , 136, and GW to George William Fairfax, 10 July 1783, DLC:GW; see also GW to William Gordon, 10 April 1787, in 5:136–37). For more on her illness and recovery, see GW to Joseph Webb, 17 June 1781, and to Fielding Lewis, 28 June.
3. Martha Washington left headquarters for Virginia on 25 June. She spent time in Philadelphia before proceeding to Mount Vernon (see the entry for 25 June in , 3:382; see also GW to Timothy Pickering, 24 June, and Theodorick Bland to GW, 2 July).
4. This British expedition went to Virginia (see William Heath to GW, 1 May, n.1).
5. For these erroneous rumors, see Arthur St. Clair to GW, 21 May, and n.2 to that document.
6. Custis and his wife, Eleanor “Nelly” Calvert Custis, had four children: Elizabeth Parke Custis, Martha Parke Custis, Eleanor Parke Custis, and George Washington Parke Custis.
George Washington Parke “Wash” Custis (1781–1857) was born on 30 April at Mount Airy, the home of his maternal grandfather in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Custis and his sister Eleanor resided with GW and Martha Washington from their early youth, and Custis received educational and moral guidance from GW (see GW to Custis, 15 Nov. 1796, in 21:224–26). Wash Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh in 1804. The couple resided at Arlington House, now the site of Arlington National Cemetery. Custis engaged in agriculture, painting, and literary pursuits. For his memories of GW, see .