By Marjorie Gaestel, Happy Retreat Historian
Occasionally, I get a peek into the private lives of Charles Washington and his family. Once again it involves the lovely Frances (Fanny) Bassett Washington Lear whose beautiful portrait hangs in our Happy Retreat parlor. Frances was married to Charles and Mildred’s eldest son George Augustine. This was a happy match and revered by both George Washington and his brother Charles.
See More Family Portraits Here
George Augustine and Frances settled into married life and had three children within a few years. They even started building their own home on The River Farm, on property owned by George Washington near Mt. Vernon
Very often the dreaded disease tuberculosis became the future for people of their time. This was the case with George Augustine Washington. He died in 1793 at the young age of 33 years. He left his widow Fanny with their three children, Anna Maria, George Fayette, and Charles.
In order to give her children a secure future, Fanny married her Uncle George Washington’s Secretary, Tobias Lear who had recently lost his wife. They were married only a short time when Fanny also came down with tuberculosis. She passed away in March of 1796. She was only 29 years old.
This new tragedy in the Washington Family left Tobias Lear with all three of Fanny’s children along with his own young son Benjamin. He brought all four children to Berkeley (now Jefferson) County to visit Charlestown. Charlestown (now Charles Town) is where our Charles Washington and his wife Mildred lived. They were of course the grandparents of Fanny’s children.
Tobias Lear decided to enroll the three boys, George Fayette, and a young Charles along with his own son Benjamin, in the new Charlestown Academy built in 1797.
A young Anna Maria, the daughter of George Augustine and Frances was left in the care of her “Aunt Milly”, Mildred Gregory Washington, the sister of George Augustine. Mildred was still living with her parents and about to be married to Capt. Thomas Hammond. I have also read where Mildred had been a companion to her sister-in law Frances and had become like a mother to Anna Maria.
According to an article by Jefferson County historian Doug Perks, excerpted below, a girls’ school had also been started in Charlestown. And it’s believed Anna Maria was eventually enrolled in this girls’ school.
When I look back at these stories and dates, I feel so sad realizing what short lives they all had. And the dreaded tuberculosis was always hanging over their heads.
Daughter Anna Maria was only 8 years old when her mother passed away. Son George Fayette was 6 years old and son Charles was 5 years old.
More sadness fell to this family in 1799 when Charles Washington passed away on September 16th. His wife Mildred Thornton died in October 1804 and daughter Mildred Gregory Washington Hammond (Aunt Milly) passed away later that
same year.
We know from further research that Anna Maria also spent time with her other Aunt, Frances Thornton Washington Ball Payton, Charles and Mildred’s oldest daughter