[62]

Marriage, civilian, and political life (1755–1775)
Colonel George Washington, a portrait by Charles Willson Peale (1772)
Martha Washington in a 1757 portrait by John Wollaston
On January 6, 1759, Washington, at age 26, married Martha Dandridge Custis, the 27-year-old widow of wealthy plantation owner Daniel Parke Custis. The marriage took place at Martha's estate; she was intelligent, gracious, and experienced in managing a planter's estate, and the couple created a happy marriage.[63] They raised John Parke Custis (Jacky) and Martha Parke Custis (Patsy), children from her previous marriage, and later Jacky's children Eleanor Parke Custis (Nelly) and George Washington Parke Custis (Washy). Washington's 1751 bout with smallpox is thought to have rendered him sterile, though it is equally likely that "Martha may have sustained injury during the birth of Patsy, her final child, making additional births impossible."[64] The couple lamented not having any children together.[65][h] They moved to Mount Vernon, near Alexandria, where he took up life as a planter of tobacco and wheat and emerged as a political figure.