report to the general court of his stewardship. How minute this account
was is indicated by an entry in his cash memorandum book for August 21,
1772: "Charge Miss Custis with a hair Pin mended by C. Turner" one
shilling. Her death (of "Fitts") in 1773 added about ten thousand pounds
to Mrs. Washington's property, which meant to his own.

There can be no question that the fortune he acquired by the Custis
alliance proved of great advantage to him in his future career, for it
helped to make him independent as regards money considerations. He
might never have become the Father of His Country without it. Some of
his contemporaries, including jealous-hearted John Adams, seem to have
realized this, and tradition says that old David Burnes, the crusty
Scotsman who owned part of the land on which the Federal City was laid
out, once ventured to growl to the President: "Now what would ye ha'
been had ye not married the widow Custis?" But this was a narrow view of
the matter, for Washington was known throughout the Colonies before he
married the Custis pounds sterling and was a man of too much natural
ability not to have made a mark in later life, though possibly not so
high a one. Besides, as will be explained in detail later, much of the
Custis money was lost during the Revolution as a result of the
depreciation in the currency.

Following his marriage Washington added largely to his estate, both in
the neighborhood of Mount Vernon and elsewhere. In 1759 he bought of his
friend Bryan Fairfax two hundred and seventy-five acres on Difficult
Run, and about the same time from his neighbor, the celebrated George
Mason of Gunston Hall, he acquired one hundred acres next that already
bought of Darrell. Negotiations entered into with a certain Clifton for
the purchase of a tract of one thousand eight hundred six acres called
Brents was productive of much annoyance. Clifton agreed in February,