Frances Orlando ‘Fanny’ Dandridge

Biography

Frances Orlando Jones was born August 9, 1710 (alternate date is April 9, 1710)[2] St Peters, New Kent, Virginia, United States. [3], the daughter of Orlando Jones and Martha Macon Woodward[4]

She was the mother of the first First Lady of the United States, Martha (Dandridge) Washington.

Family

Fanny Jones married Col. John Dandridge of Chestnut Grove (14 July 1700 – 31 August 1756), who was a colonel, planter, politician, and Clerk of New Kent County, Virginia from 1730 to 1756.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dandridge

Frances bore eight children:[1]

1. Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (1731–1802)
2. John Dandridge III (1733–1749)
3. William Dandridge III (1734–1776)
4. Bartholomew Dandridge II (1737–1785), father of John Dandridge (delegate)
5. Anna Marie "Fanny" Dandridge Bassett (1739–1777)
6. Frances Dandridge (1744–1757)
7. Elizabeth Dandridge Aylett Henley (1749–1800)
8. Mary Dandridge (1752–1777)

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Biography

Frances Orlando Jones (06 Aug 1710 – 9 July 1785) was born in New Kent County, Virginia, where she also died.

Frances married John Dandridge on July 22, 1730 in New Kent County, Virginia. Frances was the daughter of Orlando Jones and Martha Macon, prosperous Virginia landowners, and she is more commonly known as the mother of the first First Lady of the United States, Martha Washington.

Politics runs in the family

Frances' father, Orlando Jones, was a Burgess for New Kent County in 1718 in the House of Burgesses, the leading legislative body in Colonial Virginia. Her grandfather, Col. Gideon Macon (father of Martha Macon), was also a member of the House of Burgesses from 1696 to 1702, and was secretary to Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, during his second term in office.

Upon Col. Macon's death in 1702, his widow, Martha Woodward Macon, married Captain Nathaniel West who was also a representative in the House of Burgesses.

Captain Nathaniel West and Martha Woodward Macon West had two children. Their daughter, Unity West, married John Dandridge's brother, William Dandridge. William Dandridge was appointed to the Governor's Council in 1727, the highest political position available to colony residents.[1] All of this would suggest that Frances, her husband, and children would have been quite familiar with colonial politics.

Childhood

Frances, or Fanny, was born on a plantation near Williamsburg on Queen's Creek within easy distance of the growing capital. Frances had an older brother, Lane Jones, born in 1707, and Frances was born in 1710. Her mother, Martha Macon Jones, died when Frances was only six years old.

Orlando Jones soon remarried. His second wife, Mary Elizabeth William Jones, became the sole parent of the two children just three years later when Orlando Jones died. Orlando and Mary had no children together.

A year later, Orlando's widow married John James Flourney and her stepchildren lived with them in Williamsburg. Mary Elizabeth William Jones Flourney was their guardian, and as such, could use the income from the Queen's Creek plantation to support the two stepchildren. The sister of the late Orlando Jones sued twice for custody of her niece and nephew, but was denied. When Lane Jones reached the age of eighteen, he legally emancipated himself and moved in with his aunt in Timson's Neck.

Ten months later, when Frances was sixteen, she also sued for emancipation. She did not move in with her aunt, but instead lived with a planter in New Kent. Her mother's parents had been from that region and a number of Macon relatives lived there.

Their Virginia home

Shortly after Frances Jones married John Dandridge in New Kent County, Virginia on July 22, 1730, they moved to their new home, Chestnut Grove. John Dandridge became Clerk of Courts in New Kent and kept that position for the next 26 years. He was also vestryman and churchwarden for St. Peter's Church, Church of England. John was a prominent planter, and a Colonel in his military district.

The Dandridges' home, Chestnut Grove, was on the bank of the Pamunkey River in New Kent County, Virginia. John's older brother, William Dandridge (1689–1743), lived on the opposite bank of the river with his wife Unity West Dandridge at their estate, Elsing Green, in King William County, Virginia. Chestnut Grove Plantation burned down in 1926, but its former site was only four miles from the location of New Kent's current County Courthouse.

John and Frances Jones Dandridge also owned a house in Williamsburg and visited there frequently.

References

• Cary, Wilson Miles. “The Dandridges of Virginia.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 5, no. 1, 1896, pp. 30–39. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1921234 also Archive.Org

Married July 22, 1730 New Kent Co Virginia* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 29 2023, 19:31:06 UTC