Martha Dandridge Custis Washington was born at Chestnut Grove in New Kent County, Virginia, on June 2, 1731. Her father, John Dandridge (1700/1701-1756), had emigrated to Virginia from England with his older brother William when John was either 13 or 14 years old. He had settled in New Kent County and had become clerk of the county in 1730, the year he married Martha's mother, Frances Jones (1710-1785) of York County. Frances had some Williamsburg connections; her widowed mother had lived in Williamsburg with her second husband, watchmaker John Flournoy, and her grandfather Rowland Jones (Martha's great-grandfather) had been the first rector of the newly formed Bruton Parish Church from 1674 until his death in 1688.

Martha was the eldest of three brothers and five sisters, the youngest of whom was born when Martha was 25 and had already had four children of her own. Martha married Colonel Daniel Parke Custis in 1750 and lived in his Pumunkey River mansion called White House. Custis managed the large New Kent County plantation of his father, Councillor John Custis, who lived at the brick house known as Custis Square in Williamsburg.

Martha and Daniel Custis had four children: Daniel, born in 1751; Frances, born in 1753; John (Jacky) born in 1755; and Martha (Patsy), born in 1756 or 1757. Unfortunately, Daniel only lived three years and Frances four. On July 26, 1757, when Martha Custis was only 26 years old, her husband died suddenly.

Martha married Colonel George Washington (1732-1799) on January 6, 1759. Washington had been commander of the First Virginia Regiment in the French and Indian War and had been elected a burgess representing Frederick County in 1758. He had acquired Mount Vernon by lease from the widow of his half-brother Lawrence in 1754. (He inherited the plantation upon her death in 1761.) Before his marriage, Washington had increased the size of Mount Vernon from the original one and one-half story dwelling to a two and one-half story home. George and Martha Washington and her children Jacky and Patsy moved to Mount Vernon in April 1759.

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