click image for close-up George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were wed in January of 1759. Both were twenty-seven years old, and they had spent a total of fewer than three weeks together.

One of the most memorable of such events was the marriage on 22 February 1799 (George's sixty-seventh and last birthday) of Martha Washington's youngest granddaughter, Eleanor Parke "Nelly" Custis ...

Martha saw them off. “I hope you will stand firm,” she told Henry and Pendleton, adding, “I know George will.” The six-foot-two-inch Washington had a way of affecting other men simply by ...