Written in September 1760 to her friend Margaret Green, the document recounts four-year-old Martha Parke Custis's brief recovery from severe seizures and fevers. Historians suspect the young girl suffered from epilepsy, which caregivers attempted to treat using colonial remedies like cinchona bark and bitters. The child later passed away suddenly from a seizure in 1773 at age 17, reflecting the high childhood mortality of the era.
Key points
The letter provides historians with direct evidence of Martha Washington's actual penmans…: The letter provides historians with direct evidence of Martha Washington's actual penmanship, spelling, and phrasing.
Surviving correspondence from the first lady remains exceptionally scarce because she des…: Surviving correspondence from the first lady remains exceptionally scarce because she destroyed the vast majority of her personal papers.
The contents shed light on eighteenth-century domestic life and the limited colonial medi…: The contents shed light on eighteenth-century domestic life and the limited colonial medical interventions available for childhood illnesses.
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A short letter written by Martha Washington in 1760, describing the recovery of her four-year-old daughter from a frightening illness, has found a permanent home at the Library of Congress. The document, addressed to her friend Margaret Green, was purchased for $47,500 through the Library’s James Madison Council Edwin L. Cox Legacy Trust. It is now the first original item in Martha Washington’s handwriting held by the Library’s Manuscript Division, making it an unusually intimate addition to the nation’s historical record, as per a report on Library of Congress.
The letter was written on September 29, 1760, long before George Washington became president of the United States. At the time, Martha was the widowed Martha Dandridge Custis, recently married to Washington and raising two surviving children from her first marriage. In the letter, she tells Margaret Green that her daughter Martha Parke Custis, known as Patsy, is “much better” after suffering “fitts & fevours.” The words offer a rare, personal view of a future first lady as a worried mother rather than a distant historical figure.
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