George Washington Parke Custis by Charles B.J. Fevret de Saint-Memin in 1808
The National Portrait Gallery
George Washington Parke Custis was born in 1781 to John Parke Custis and Eleanor Calvert. Due to the death of his father, he moved into the care of his grandmother and step-grandfather, Martha and George Washington, months after his birth. He grew up living in Mount Vernon as the adopted son of his grandparents.
After George Washington passed away, George Washington Parke Custis spent much of his adult life preserving the legacy of the man that raised him. He had Arlington House constructed with the intent to showcase the career of George Washington in the building through items he had collected.
In June of 1815, he traveled to the shores of Virginia's Northern Neck to visit the Popes Creek property with the intention to mark the site of the original birth house of George Washington.
A letter to the editor of the Alexandria Gazette from George Washington Parke Custis on April 14, 1851, recalls the events of placing the memorial stone from his perspective.
“In June, 1815, I sailed my own vessel, the ‘Lady of the Lake,’ a fine top-sail schooner of ninety tons, accompanied by two gentleman, Messrs. Lewis and Grimes, bound to Pope’s creek, in the county of Westmoreland, carrying with us a slab of freestone, having the following inscription,
HERE
THE 11th OF FEBRUARY, 1732, (Old Style)
GEORGE WASHINGTON
WAS BORN.
Our pilot approached the Westmoreland shore cautiously (as our vessel drew nearly eight feet of water), and he was but indifferently acquainted with so unfrequented a navigation.
We anchored some distance from the land, and, taking to our boats, we soon reached the mouth of Pope’s or Bridge’s creek, and proceeding upwards we fell in with McKenzie Beverly, Esq., and several gentleman composing a fishing part, and also with the overseer of the property that formed the object of our visit. We were kindly received by these individuals, and escorted to the spot, where a few scattered bricks alone marked the birthplace of the chief.
Desirous of making the ceremonial of depositing the stone as imposing as circumstances would permit, we enveloped it in the ‘star-spangled banner’ of our country, and it was borne to its resting-place in the arms of the descendants of four revolutionary patriots and soldiers – Samuel Lewis, son of George Lewis, a captain in Baylor’s regiment of horse, and nephew of Washington; William Grymes, the son of Benjamin Grymes, a gallant and distinguished officer of the life-guard; the Captain of the vessel, the son of a brave soldier wounded in the battle of Guilford; and George W.P. Custis, the son of John Parke Custis, aid-de-camp to the commander-in-chief before Cambridge and Yorktown.
We gathered together the bricks of an ancient chimney that once formed the hearth around which Washington in his infancy had played, and constructed a rude kind of pedestal, on which we reverently placed the First Stone, commending it to the respect and protection of the American people in general, and the citizens of Westmoreland in particular.
Bidding adieu to those who had received us so kindly, we re-embarked, and hoisted our colors, and being provided with a piece of cannon and suitable ammunition, we fired a salute, awakening the echoes that had slept for ages around the hallowed spot; and while the smoke of our martial tribute to the birthplace of Pater Patriae still lingered on the bosom of the Potomac, we spread our sails to a favoring breeze, and sped joyously to our homes.
Such was an act of filial love and gratitude, preformed more than a third of a century ago; such is the history of the First Stone To the Memory of Washington.
The accuracy of where the stone was placed has been debated throughout the years. Today, it is hard to even determine where the stone was originally lain because it does not survive. Though it might be gone from the Memorial Area, it still stands as the metaphorical transition of the land from a place of work and inhabitation to commemoration and memorialization.
To learn more about the life of George Washington Parke Custis, check out these Arlington House site pages.
