The only son to survive childhood of
Daniel Parke Custis, a wealthy planter with nearly three hundred slaves and thousands of acres of land in five Virginia counties, and the former
Martha Dandridge, he was most likely born at
White House, his parents' plantation on the
Pamunkey River in
New Kent County, Virginia. To his family, he was known as "Jacky" as a boy, then "Jack", especially after attaining his inheritance. Following his father's death in 1757, under Virginia's laws concerning intestacy (dying without a will), almost of land and personal property including about 285 enslaved persons (worth £30,000) were held in trust for Custis until he came of age. However, the estate prompted a transatlantic legal battle with relatives in the
Leeward Islands, which prompted Martha Custis to seek assistance from
John Robinson. In January 1759, when Custis was four years old, his mother married
George Washington, who thereupon became his legal guardian and the administrator of the
Custis Estate. The Washingtons raised Jacky and his younger sister
Martha "Patsy" Parke Custis (1756–1773) at
Mount Vernon. When his sister died of a seizure in 1773, aged 17 years, Custis became the sole heir of the Custis estate. His stepfather was not overly fond of Custis, and considered the child troubled, lazy and "free-willed" for taking no interest in his studies. Martha Washington had supervised the boy's earliest education, but by 1761 the family hired Scotsman Walter Magowan as a private tutor. When Magowan returned to England in 1767, Washington sent Custis to a boarding school run by Rev.
Jonathan Boucher, initially in
Caroline County, Virginia. Although Boucher too considered the boy indolent, the arrangement continued after Boucher moved the school to
Annapolis, Maryland. In May 1773 Custis began to attend King's College (later
Columbia University) in
New York City, but left soon after his sister died. ==Career==