MARY BALL'S GUARDIAN AND HER GIRLHOOD
Except for the bequest in her brother-in-law's will, nothing
whatever is known of Mary Ball for nine years--indeed, until her
marriage with Augustine Washington in 1730. The traditions of
these years are all based upon the letters found by the Union
soldier,--genuine letters, no doubt, but relating to some other Mary
Ball who, in addition to the flaxen hair and May-blossom cheeks,
has had the honor of masquerading, for nearly forty years, as the
mother of Washington, and of having her story and her letters placed
reverently beneath the corner-stone of the Mary Washington monument.
Mary Ball, only thirteen years old when her mother died, would
naturally be taken to the Westmoreland home of her sister Elizabeth,
wife of Samuel Bonum and only survivor, besides herself, of her
mother's children. Elizabeth was married and living in her own
house seven years before Mrs. Hewes died. The Bonum residence was
but a few miles distant from that of Mrs. Hewes, and a mile and a
half from Sandy Point, where lived the "well-beloved and trusty
friend George Eskridge." Major Eskridge "seated" Sandy Point in
Westmoreland about 1720. The old house was standing until eight
years ago, when it was destroyed by fire. He had seven children; the
fifth child, Sarah, a year older than Mary Ball and doubtless her
friend and companion.
Under the "tutelage and government" of a man of wealth, eminent in
his profession of the law, the two little girls would naturally be
well and faithfully instructed. We can safely assume, considering
all these circumstances, that Mary Ball's girlhood was spent in the
"Northern Neck of Virginia," and at the homes of Major Eskridge and
her only sister; and that these faithful guardians provided her
with as liberal an education as her station demanded and the times
permitted there cannot be the least doubt. Her own affectionate
regard for them is emphatically proven by the fact that she gave
to her first-born son the name of George Eskridge, to another son
that of Samuel Bonum, and to her only daughter that of her sister
Elizabeth.
Tradition tells us that in the latter part of the seventeenth
century, George Eskridge, who was a young law student, while walking
along the shore on the north coast of Wales, studying a law-book,
was suddenly seized by the Press Gang, carried aboard ship and
brought to the colony of Virginia. As the custom was, he was sold
to a planter for a term of eight years. During that time, he was not
allowed to communicate with his friends at home. He was treated very
harshly, and made to lodge in the kitchen, where he slept, because
of the cold, upon the hearth.
On the day that his term of service expired he rose early, and with
his mattock dislodged the stones of the hearth. Upon his master's
remonstrance, he said, "The bed of a departing guest must always
be made over for his successor;" and throwing down his mattock he
strode out of the house, taking with him the law-book which had been
his constant companion during his years of slavery.
He returned to England, completed his law studies, was admitted to
the bar, and, returning to Virginia, was granted many thousand acres
of land, held several colonial positions, and became eminent among
the distinguished citizens of the "Northern Neck,"--the long, narrow
strip of land included between the Potomac and the Rappahannock
rivers. His daughter, Sarah, married Willoughby Newton, and lived
near Bonum Creek in Westmoreland. The family intermarried, also,
with the Lee, Washington, and other distinguished families in the
Northern Neck.