Martha Washington

John Cheney, born South Manchester, CT 1801-died South Manchester, CT 1885 · ca. 1859

In 1757, the year her first husband died, Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802) sat for a portrait by John Wollaston. Martha was then only twenty-six years old, and within two years would marry her second husband, George Washington. Wollaston’s portrait of Martha was engraved in 1859 by John Cheney, of the firm Cheney & Kellogg. Cheney then painted this miniature, based on his own engraving.