Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis

Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis (March 31, 1779 – July 15, 1852), known as "Nelly", was a granddaughter of Martha Washington and a step-granddaughter of George Washington. Childhood Nelly was a daughter of John Parke Custis and Eleanor Calvert Custis. Her father was the only surviving son of Daniel Parke Custis and his widow, Martha Dandridge Custis, who married George Washington in 1759. She was also the granddaughter of Benedict Swingate Calvert, an illegitimate son of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, whose mother may have been a granddaughter of George I. He was certainly descended from Charles II through the king's daughter by Barbara Villiers, Charlotte FitzRoy. Nelly was most likely born at Mount Airy, her maternal grandfather's estate in Prince George's County, Maryland, although local tradition holds that she was born at Abingdon, her father's estate in Arlington, Virginia (now the site of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport). Following the premature death of their father John Parke Custis in 1781, Nelly and her brother, George Washington Parke Custis, were placed under the guardianship of the Washingtons and grew up at Mount Vernon, although they visited their mother, stepfather David Stuart and older sisters at Abington and later at Dr. Stuart's estates in Fairfax County. During George Washington's presidency, Nelly helped entertain guests at the first presidential mansion on Cherry Street in New York City, the second presidential mansion on Broadway in New York City, and the third presidential mansion in Philadelphia.