Patsy was set for life when her hubby died. Daniel passed suddenly in his early 30s, and the young widow found herself one of the wealthiest women in the country. To begin with, her real estate was in the tens of thousands of acres of productive farmland. She now possessed rental houses. She owned property totaling sums that most people only imagine. And it was all hers because Daniel had died without a will; everything passed to her as executrix.

But it was not all rosy for Pasty. She and Daniel had bore four children. You see, Patsy had come from a large family and wanted a large family, and Daniel agreed with his wife. So, she was worried about raising her children alone and managing what was now a large financial portfolio. That’s when she decided to call in someone who could help her make the best decisions for herself, the children, and the legacy that Daniel had left her.

Now, before we look at that, let’s remark that this was an incredibly attractive woman under the age of 30–even discounting the fact that she was enormously wealthy at this point. Surely a prospective life-partner would find that appealing. But Patsy didn’t want any man. She was smart enough to manage on her own, but she preferred that her attention be on the children and leave the financial matters to someone else. That’s why Patsy was really asking not really for advice on how to manage the vast wealth, but, rather, she really wanted someone to take it all on for her and do the managing so she could concentrate on raising the kids.

Now, please know that a certain man who lived not too far away from Daniel and Patsy made his, shall we say, services available to the young widow fairly quickly after Daniel was buried. He was a military man who had some decent land himself (but nothing like Patsy) that he had improved over the years. He was a few years younger than she, but his skills at managing his financial affairs impressed the young woman. So, she invited him for a meeting to see what his plans were for her holdings.

The pair instantly found a connection. There was a physical attraction between them on top of the fact that Patsy recognized the young man’s fiscal acumen. Here was someone who could manage things for her while she raised the kids, and he would be someone she felt sure that Daniel would approve of. About a year after she wore a widow’s veil, Patsy’s wedding was planned–more like a wedding with some overtones of a financial merger, perhaps.

Now, you might wonder if Patsy should have made a pre-nuptial agreement. That’s something that is common when one party is substantially wealthier than the other. But she did not. She trusted the man. His reputation for fairness and honesty preceded him. She allowed him to have the full control over all her finances–the land, the rental property, and all possessions. In return, all he had to do was insure that her and Daniel’s four kids would be looked after in perpetuity, and that she herself wouldn’t have to worry about the inheritance she’d received.

But, why should she worry? After all, it’s not every day that someone like Martha “Patsy” Custis would be so lucky as to put her life and her entire fortune in the hands of someone as honest as George Washington.