George and Martha Washington were an odd first First Couple

‘Would Washington have ever been commander of the revolutionary army, or President of the United States, if he had not married the rich widow of Mr Custis?’ asked John Adams. The answer, says Flora Fraser, is no. We like to see our ‘men of destiny’ as striding the world alone before stepping onto the customary plinth, so some might find it inconvenient to consider the role, in George Washington’s glorious career, of America’s first First Lady. But in her lifetime, no one put Martha in the corner.

George and Martha Washington is a balanced and vivid account of a marriage which was both remarkable and strikingly down-to-earth. Because Martha burned their correspondence after his death, Fraser takes what she calls ‘an oblique look’ at the couple. Her sources are those who observed them: Washington, one friend noted, was ‘more respectful’ to his wife than ‘tender’, while Martha was known to be pious, outspoken and fiercely loyal, a woman who ‘talked’, it was reported, ‘like a Spartan mother to her son’.