Eleanor Calvert

Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart (born Eleanor Calvert; 1758 – September 28, 1811) was a member of the Calvert family of Maryland. She was born at the Calvert family's Mount Airy plantation near Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County, Maryland. Her father was Benedict Swingate Calvert, the illegitimate son of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, and her mother was Elizabeth Calvert, who was both Benedict's wife and first cousin. Eleanor was the second-eldest daughter in her family and was known to her family as "Nelly."

She married John Parke Custis on February 3, 1774, at Mount Airy. John was the son of Daniel Parke Custis and Martha Dandridge Custis, who later married George Washington and became the first First Lady of the United States. The marriage took place when both were young, and their families were initially surprised by the engagement. Following their marriage, Eleanor and John lived at the White House plantation on the Pamunkey River in New Kent County, Virginia. After more than two years, John purchased the Abingdon plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia, where they settled during the winter of 1778–1779.

Eleanor and John Custis had seven children:

1. An unnamed daughter (1775), who died shortly after birth.

2. Elizabeth Parke Custis Law (1776–1831).

3. Martha Parke Custis Peter (1777–1854).

4. Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis (1779–1852).

5. Twin daughters (1780), who died three weeks after birth.

6. George Washington Parke Custis (1781–1857).

In 1781, John Custis died of "camp fever," believed to be typhus, following the Siege of Yorktown. After her husband's death, Eleanor resided initially with her daughters Elizabeth and Martha at Abingdon and sent her younger children, Eleanor and George, to live at Mount Vernon with Martha Washington and George Washington.

As John Custis died intestate, Eleanor was granted a dower third, which included the lifetime use of one-third of the estate, comprising more than 300 slaves. The remaining estate was held in trust for her children until they reached adulthood or married.

On November 20, 1783, Eleanor married Dr. David Stuart, an Alexandria physician and associate of George Washington. With this marriage, her children became her stepchildren and wards of Dr. Stuart. Eleanor and David Stuart had sixteen children, including:

- Ann Calvert Stuart (1784–1823).

- Sarah Stuart (1786–1870).

- Ariana Calvert Stuart (1789–1855).

- William Sholto Stuart (1792–1820).

- Charles Calvert Stuart (1794–1846).

- Eleanor Custis Stuart (1796–1875).

- Rosalie Eugenia Stuart (1801–1886).

- Nine other children who died shortly after birth or were stillborn.

In 1792, Eleanor and her family moved from Abingdon (which later became part of the District of Columbia) to Hope Park in Fairfax County, Virginia. About ten years later, they relocated to Ossian Hall near Annandale, Virginia.

Eleanor Calvert Stuart died on September 28, 1811, at the age of 53, at Tudor Place in Georgetown, District of Columbia, where her daughter Martha Parke Custis Peter resided. She was initially buried at Col. William Alexander's Effingham Plantation in Prince William County, Virginia. Following the War of 1812, her remains were reinterred in Page's Chapel at St. Thomas' Church in Croom, Maryland, near her parents' graves. Her gravestone was added in 2008, remaining unmarked for over a century.