like all the women of her family, and slight in early life, with light-brown hair and hazel eyes. The eldest daughter of a large family of brothers and sisters, she was capable and mature beyond her years, and far too sensible to allow her head to be turned by the many compliments paid her. We read that she was soon recognized as a reigning belle in the small world of Williamsburg, where she straightway engaged the affections of one of its most desirable partis, Mr. Daniel Parke Custis.

The family with which Miss Dandridge was soon to be allied deserves more than passing mention. John Custis, the first whose name appears in Virginia, was from Rotterdam, although the family seems to have been of English origin. John Custis of Rotterdam was in Virginia in 1640, and here three of his six sons settled, John, William, and Joseph. John, the ancestor of Daniel Parke Custis, was sheriff of Northampton County, a member of the Governor's Council, and in 1676 Major-General in Bacon's Rebellion. His tomb stands at Arlington upon the Eastern Shore of Virginia, and records these and other facts. The Custis arms, three parrots, are engraved upon his tombstone, as upon another near by, under which lie the remains

of Colonel John Custis, grandson of the old councillor, himself a King's Councillor. This latter headstone bears the following unique inscription:

BENEATH THIS MARBLE TOMB LIES YE BODY

OF THE HONORABLE JOHN CUSTIS, Esq., OF THE CITY OF WILLIAMSBURG AND PARISH Of Bruton FORMERLY OF HUNGARS PARISH ON THE EASTERN SHORE

OF

VIRGINIA AND THE COUNTY OF NORTHAMPTON THE

PLACE OF HIS NATIVITY.

AGED 71 TEARS AND YET LIVED BUT SEVEN YEARS
WHICH WAS THE SPACE OF TIME HE KEPT

A BACHELOR'S HOUSE AT ARLINGTON

ON THE EASTERN SHORE OF VIRGINIA.
THIS INFORMATION PUT ON THIS TOMB WAS BY HIS
OWN POSITIVE ORDER.

As Colonel John Custis was born in 1678, and married at the age of twenty-eight, the singular reference to but seven years of living evidently refers to the years intervening between his majority and his marriage to Frances Parke in 1706. This lady, beautiful and well born, was possessed of an uncertain temper; or perhaps it would be more correct to say of a certain shrewish temper, which she seems to have inherited from no stranger, as her father, Daniel Parke, who rejoiced in the title of "Capt. Generall and Chief Governor of the

Leeward Islands," is spoken of as "a sparkish gentleman around town, who knowing something of the art of fencing was as ready to give a challenge, especially before company, as the greatest Hector in Williamsburg."

In writing of the governorship of Sir Edmund Andros in Virginia, Dr. Lyon G. Tyler relates the following instance of the ungovernable temper of this gentleman:

"With a view to recommend himself to the Governor's favor, young Parke undertook a crusade of insult against all friends of the College [William and Mary]. He abused and challenged to mortal combat Francis Nicholson, who was then, though Governor of Maryland, a member of the Board of Visitors and Governors of the Institution; and at length to vent his ill humor against Dr. Blair personally, whose gown protected him from challenges, he set up a claim to the pew in church in which Mrs. Blair sat, and one Sunday with great fury and violence, pulled her out of it in the presence of the minister and congregation, who were greatly scandalized at this ruffian and profane action."

This gentleman, who was upon occasions capable of such ungentlemanly behavior, wrote his daughter Frances long letters from abroad, giving her many pages of good advice upon her deportment, which was easier than coming

home to instruct her himself, as he evidently found the atmosphere of foreign courts more congenial than the cruditics of the transplanted sort. Colonel Parke remained in England many years, was appointed aide-decamp to the Duke of Marlborough, attended him in the battle of Blenheim, and bore back to Queen Anne tidings of the great victory. For this service his Sovereign Lady rewarded the messenger by giving him her miniature set in diamonds, a gift which appears in Kneller's portrait of this magnificent gentleman, hung upon a red ribbon about his neck, where it accords well with the sumptuous costume of crimson velvet, embroidered in gold, which adorns his handsome person. Colonel Parke afterwards received a general's commission, and was made governor of the Leeward Islands, where he lost his life in an uprising of the people. Of the two daughters who survived him, Lucy had become the second wife of Colonel William Byrd of Westover, and Frances had married Colonel John Custis of Williamsburg.

A florid and impassioned epistle addressed by Colonel Custis to his lady-love is still preserved among their descendants, in which occurs the following unique period: "May angels guard my dearest Fidelia,' and deliver

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her safe to my arms at our next meeting; and sure they won't refuse their protection to a creature so pure and charming that it would be easy for them to mistake her for one of themselves." Despite this and other hyperbolic protestations, a tradition exists to the effect that the lover was well aware of the unangelic disposition of his mistress, and married her with the avowed intention of subduing the high spirit of the beautiful Virginia Katherine; but being less happy in his methods than Shakspeare's hero, he was obliged to admit his defeat, and content himself with the petty post-mortem revenge inscribed upon his tombstone.

Daniel Parke Custis, the child of a union of these somewhat tumultuous elements, was an amiable and estimable gentleman, universally respected, and although many years her senior, possessed sufficient attractions of mind and person to recommend himself to the girl of sixteen whom he desired to make his wife. Handsome, well bred, and with family connections equal to his own, Miss Dandridge seemed a most suitable wife for Mr. Custis; but true to himself, Colonel John placed obstacles in the way of the marriage of these true lovers. Earlier in life-for Daniel Parke Custis was nearly thirty years of age at the time of his