Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 43571-h.htm or 43571-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43571/43571-h/43571-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/43571/43571-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://archive.org/details/motherofwashingt00pryo Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. The carat character (^) indicates that the following letter is superscripted (example: W^m). THE MOTHER OF WASHINGTON AND HER TIMES [Illustration: Publisher's mark] [Illustration: SUPPOSED PORTRAIT OF MARY WASHINGTON.] THE MOTHER OF WASHINGTON AND HER TIMES by MRS. ROGER A. PRYOR "_That one who breaks the way with tears Many shall follow with a song_" New York The Macmillan Company London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. 1903 All rights reserved Copyright, 1903, By the Macmillan Company. Set up, electrotyped, and published October, 1903 Norwood Press J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. TO THE HON. ROGER A. PRYOR, LL.D. IN WHOM LIVES ALL THAT WAS BEST IN OLD VIRGINIA CONTENTS PART I CHAPTER I PAGE Introductory 1 CHAPTER II Mary Washington's English Ancestry 11 CHAPTER III The Ball Family in Virginia 15 CHAPTER IV Coat Armor and the Right to bear it 20 CHAPTER V Traditions of Mary Ball's Early Life 25 CHAPTER VI Revelations of an Old Will 32 CHAPTER VII Mary Ball's Childhood 37 CHAPTER VIII Good Times in Old Virginia 47 CHAPTER IX Mary Ball's Guardian and her Girlhood 55 CHAPTER X Young Men and Maidens of the Old Dominion 58 CHAPTER XI The Toast of the Gallants of her Day 62 CHAPTER XII Her Marriage and Early Life 69 CHAPTER XIII Birthplace of George Washington 75 CHAPTER XIV The Cherry Tree and Little Hatchet 85 CHAPTER XV The Young Widow and her Family 90 CHAPTER XVI Betty Washington, and Weddings in Old Virginia 102 CHAPTER XVII Defeat in War: Success in Love 114 CHAPTER XVIII In and Around Fredericksburg 127 CHAPTER XIX Social Characteristics, Manners, and Customs 143 CHAPTER XX A True Portrait of Mary Washington 167 CHAPTER XXI Noon in the Golden Age 186 CHAPTER XXII