21 Facts About John Custis

John Custis returned to his grandfather's plantation at Arlington in 1699 to familiarize himself in the management of slaves.

John Custis married Frances Parke, the eldest daughter of Daniel Parke, in 1706.

In 1714, his father John died, passing control of the family estates to Custis, which included two plantations and numerous slaves.

John Custis's wife died two years later, and in 1717, Custis moved to Williamsburg, Virginia.

In 1727, John Custis was appointed to serve on the Governor's Council of Virginia, having established himself in Williamsburg.

John Custis purchased the White House plantation in 1735, arranging for his son and heir Daniel to manage it.

John Custis' body was buried in the family cemetery near Cheapside, and his estate passed over to Daniel's control.

John Custis's mother was Margaret Michael Custis, who went on to have six more children after 1678.

John Custis died while giving birth to her second daughter from complications during childbirth.

In 1705, John Custis was elected to the House of Burgesses, the lower house of the General Assembly of Virginia, representing Northampton County.

Unlike his father, John Custis only served a single term in the House of Burgesses, choosing not to run for re-election in 1706.

John Custis was appointed as a justice of the peace in the same year.

Two years later in 1717, John Custis relocated from his plantation to the city of Williamsburg, the capital of Virginia which hosted the General Assembly.

Voters affiliated with the college elected him to the House of Burgesses, where John Custis continued to sit until 1718.

Not wishing to reside at his father's Northumberland County plantation, John Custis instead settled down in Williamsburg, living there for the rest of his life.

John Custis then sent his son Daniel, who was twenty-five years old by that point, to manage the White House and learn how to oversee the daily operations of a slave plantation.

John Custis continued to expand his garden at Williamsburg during this period, planting several fir and pine trees.

In 1744, John Custis issued a petition to the governor of Virginia, Sir William Gooch and the Governor's Council, successfully asking that they manumit an enslaved child who John Custis fathered and thought should be free.

John Custis' body was, per his own last will, buried near Cheapside, Virginia, in the John Custis Tombs, the familial cemetery of the Arlington plantation.

John Custis later wrote that he considered his pre-marital life at Arlington to be the happiest years of his life, and John Custis' "prickly personality and frigid marriage" with Frances would "[generate] gossip that came down through the centuries".

The shock of losing two of his children was speculated by George Washington Parke John Custis to have contributed to Daniel's early death in 1757 at the age of forty-five.