YOUNG FRIENDS INTERPRETERS: Today, 10 a.m.–4 p.m., George ’s Boyhood Home at Ferry Farm, 268 Kings Highway, Stafford County. Young Friends, first- person interpreters, will offer glimpses into 18th-century life. For all ages. Admission: adults, LO CA L $5; children and students, $3; under 6, free. 540/370-0732; ferryfarm.org. H I STO RY TOWN & COUNTY FREDERICKSBURG, VA. SATU R DAY, APRIL 4, 2009 THE FREE LANCE–STAR 5 THE WORLD OF MARY BALL: CHAPTER SEVEN ARRIVING AT THE RAPPAHANNOCK FARM Last of a seven-part series that links the early years of To be sold, for Cash, October next, by way of Auction to the highest Mary Ball, the mother of Bidder, several Tracts of Land, belonging to the Estate of William , to her Strother, late of King George County, Gent., dec’d . . . a very heritage and handsome Dwelling house, 3 Store houses, several other Out- her Washington connections. houses, and a ferry belonging to it.

BY PAULA S. FELDER . . . a beautiful Situation, and very commodious for Trade. The Sale FOR THE FREE LANCE-STAR to be at the Manor Plantation, where Mr. Strother liv’d. N MARCH 1731, Mary — Gazette, April 1738 Ball married Augustine I Washington and went to live in his house on . The relocation to Little may have been postponed, but

ONLINE >> See Paula Felder’s series at f re d e r i c k s b u rg .c o m / mar yball.

it would go forward. Time SIDNEY KING was needed for Augustine This drawing by the late artist and historian Sidney King to reactivate his plans and of Caroline County illustrates a ferry like the one that to prepare his new wife to assume the role that was served the lower end of the Washington farm in 1738. to have been Jane Butler’s. By 1734, Mary Ball Wash- This opportunity warrant- months that 6-year-old ington had borne three chil- ed a renegotiation of the George first made the ac- dren at the Popes Creek farm: original contract. Augustine quaintance of his older George, named for George relocated the family to one of brother Lawrence, whose Eskridge, and Betty and the cottages at the mouth of marriage into the Fairfax L.H.BARKER / THE GEORGE WASHINGTON FOUNDATION ©2008 Samuel, named for her sister . And family would introduce This sketch of the house at Ferry Farm and brother-in-law. Augus- after attending his first George to the world that is based on current archaeological research, historical tine’s daughter Jane may vestry meeting for Truro would shape his ambitions. documentation and surviving Colonial structures. have been in frail health, Parish in August 1736, he which delayed the family’s sailed for England. MOVING NEARER move. Her death early in He returned by midsum- TO THE ACCOKEEK MINE sylvania. In 1726 Johnson manor house, and the pur- January 1735 may have re- mer in 1737, now owning obtained a license to operate chase was recorded in moved the last ties to their one-twelfth share of the Augustine was now free to relocate closer to his Acco- a ferry across the river from Nov e m b e r. home place. entire Principio Company her property at the mouth of The young family, now But there were other con- keek mine, and his choice on and a contract to receive Hazel Run. (In 1729 her son consisting of four sons and a siderations. An important 20 shillings for every ton the was probably not accidental. His James Williams was autho- daughter born in the span of one must surely have been of ingots he delivered to his seven years, moved into their the opportunity now afford- brother-in-law Henry Willis, rized to operate both a wharves on the Potomac new home that winter. A new ed by Mary Ball’s valuable who was busily planning the tobacco warehouse and R iv e r. daughter, Mildred, arrived 600 acres adjoining the development of the new an ordinary at the site.) Lawrence, his eldest son, the following June. Sadly, she m i n e. followed him home from Ap- town of Fredericksburg, Strother’s estate had died in October 1740. And Augustine’s profits came pleby by the spring of 1738 to would have seen an opportu- strategic advantages for then from mining and transport- manage the Hunting Creek nity in the Virginia Gazette Washington’s mining ven- ing the ore. Mary’s large farm, and by this time two advertisement of April 1738 ture, with convenient access was struck down by a sudden tract, which came to be more sons, John Augustine and announcing the sale of the to his wharves on Aquia illness and died in the spring known as “Washington’s Ore Charles, had been born. The William Strother estate on Creek and also to Fredericks- of 1743, leaving Mary wid- Banks,” represented a sub- family was briefly together the Rappahannock River. burg’s new port. And it was owed at the age of 35. stantial potential increase in except for Augustine Jr., who Strother’s estate lay oppo- ready to receive a family. The farm would be her the income from the mining remained at Appleby. site the land of Jael Johnson The auction took place home for another 30 years, o p e rat i o n . It was during these in the new county of Spot- on the Oct. 25, 1738, at the SEE MARY BALL, PAGE 6