John "Black Jack" Custis

With his slave Alice, John Custis (1678–1749) had a son christened John (but called Jack) whom he freed in February 1748. At that time Custis deeded him 250 acres of land on Queen's Creek in York County and the boy's mother, all her other children, and four male slaves about ten years old of his own choosing. Custis had a portrait painted of his son, posted a bond that required his heirs to provide John with £20, fine clothing, and provisions each year until he reached age twenty-one, and in his will instructed his son and heir, Daniel Parke Custis, to build John a house furnished with Russian leather chairs, two black walnut tables, and three feather beds.

Comments by James B. Lynch Jr., author of The Custis Chronicles, regarding Black Jack Custis: Probably the supreme humiliation heaped upon poor Daniel Parke Custis by the terms of his father's will was his appointment as sole executor. One tries to visualize Daniel, Martha (whom he married in the year following his father's death) and Jack living in a sort of ménage a trios at White House on the Pamunkey River (Daniel's chief residence) or possibly even Custis Square. No wonder Martha is believed by at least one source (see Prologue, Part Two) to have discarded spitefully many of her father-in-law's possessions when she "cleaned house" a number of years later at Custis Square. As for Jack, he obligingly died young without keeping Daniel an unseemly length of time from his inheritance. Jack must have been a bright, good-natured and attractive young man to merit such affection and loyalty from John Custis IV. Moreover, he must have charmed not only John but others. That Mrs. Moody, according to the terms of the will, was to receive Jack's portrait implies that the boy had won a place in her heart. Unfortunately, Jack scarcely outlived his master. John Custis' dear friend John Blair inscribed these words in his diary in the following entry: "September 19 (1751). Ab' 1 or 2 in ye morn, Col. Custis' Favorite Boy Jack died in ab' 21 hours illness being taken ill a little before day the 18th with a Pain in the back of his Neck for Wch he was blooded." Jack, whose portrait long ago vanished, is hard to visualize. Apart from his color, he perhaps resembled his father John, whose Christian name he was given by either his master or his mother. Daniel, who according to his father bore a remarkable resemblance not to his father but to grandfather Daniel Park II, probably reminded Custis daily of the cross he had borne ever since the death of the governor of the Leewards in 1711. How often, one wonders, did Custis compare Jack with Daniel and perhaps even with his dead daughter Frances? Although born from the womb of an African slave, Jack was nevertheless the child of his spirit, and the only child who had never proved a disappointment, who had never let him down.