WOMAN IN ART
faded brown ink that "Augustine Washington and Mary Ball was married the sixth of March, 1730-31." Nothing more was added, as to where, or if at home or church. As her mother had died, it was but natural for her to have gone to her brother's home for a while. That the bride was blonde and beautiful, both history and tradition tell us. Mary Washington's description of her husband is confirmed by his contemporaries' testimonies—"a noble-looking man, of distinguished bearing, tall and athletic, with fair, florid complexion, brown hair, and fine gray eyes."[1]
George Washington was the first child of his mother, and the study of the two characters results in a number of interesting similarities. As a developing young girl, Mary Ball was not only beautiful, but had a temper of her own; but it was modulated by an affectionate disposition and a reasonable mind. A clear straight-forwardness and kindliness looks at you from those eyes. The mouth is sweet and tender, yet expresses firmness above a well-moulded chin.
You know a boy would love her, would obey and respect such a mother, and her eldest son paid her that homage as long as she lived. Now note the same calibre in the son; it was in the way of counsel he gave to a nephew just as he had been chosen to the Assembly, and doubtless it conformed to his own practice.
"If you have a mind to command the attention of the house, the only advice I will offer is to speak seldom but on important subjects, except such as particularly relate to your constituents, and in the former case make yourself perfect master of the subject. Never exceed a decent warmth (temper) and submit your sentiments with diffidence. A dictatorial style, though it may carry conviction, is always accompanied with disgust."
The great man had, like his mother, learned to "hold his horses." The personal care and training of their children until majority were left solely to the mother, and of results, able historians have written that in those manifold duties she acquitted herself with great fidelity to her trust, and with entire success."
Mary Washington was a typical matron of those Colonial times, nor did any political disturbance affect a change in her routine of duties. Directions to the overseers, supervision of the spinners' and weavers' work—an important
- ↑ "Something more is due to the father of Washingtton than mere mention of his personal appearances" See Washington ancestry given in Spark's and Irring's histories tracing the family for six centuries in England.
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