Roger Gregory had died just before George Washington was born, and his widow married Henry Willis of "Willis's Hill," Fredericksburg, afterwards "Marye's Heights," where the fierce battle of the Civil War was fought. Mildred's three charming Gregory girls were prominent figures as they trod the streets of old Fredericksburg--the streets named after the Royal Princes--clad in their long cloaks and gypsy bonnets tied under their chins. They were soon absorbed by a trio of Thorntons, and their mother Mildred left alone with her one son, Lewis Willis. "Old Henry Willis," his father, had married three times, boasting that he "had courted his wives as maids and married them as widows." He was a rich old fellow with a long pedigree and gorgeous coat of arms on his coach panels. Mildred Gregory had wept so bitterly when the death of his first wife was announced to her, that a friend expressed surprise. "Mildred Willis," she explained, "was my namesake and cousin, and I grieve to lose her. But that is not the worst of it! I am perfectly sure old Henry Willis will soon be coming down to see me--and I don't know what in the world I can do with him!" Would it be sinister to suggest that the lady was already won? It appears she knew her man. Had he not been her suitor in her girlhood? His grandson says, "In one little month he sat himself at her door and commenced a regular siege: and in less than two months after his wife's death he married her." If the shade of this wife was permitted to be a troubled witness of her recent husband's marriage, she could not complain. She had been herself the widow, Brown, only for one month before she had married Henry Willis. This Colonel Henry Willis was known as "The Founder of Fredericksburg." Colonel William Byrd visited him immediately after his marriage with Mildred Gregory, and spoke of him as "the top man of the place." Mildred Washington (Widow Gregory) had one son by her marriage with Henry Willis. She named him for her first husband--her first love--Lewis. He was two years younger than his cousin, George Washington. The boys attended the same school, and were companions and playmates. Lewis Willis often spoke of George Washington's industry and assiduity at school as very remarkable. While his brother Samuel, Lewis Willis, and "the other boys at playtime were at bandy or other games, George was behind a door cyphering. But one day he astonished the school by romping with one of the large girls--a thing so unusual that it excited no little comment among the other lads."