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The Peter Family

Martha Parke Custis and Thomas Peter

Martha Parke Custis was born in the Blue Room at Mount Vernon on December 31, 1777. Her father, John Parke Custis (1754-1781), was Martha Washington’s son from her first marriage to Daniel Parke Custis, and her mother was Eleanor Calvert Custis (1758-1811), the granddaughter of Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore and Proprietary Governor of Maryland. John Parke Custis died from Camp Fever contracted at Yorktown in 1781 and two years later, his widow Eleanor married Dr. David Stuart (1753-1814), a close friend and business associate of George Washington. Martha and her elder sister Elizabeth “Eliza” Custis grew up with her mother and stepfather at his Hope Park estate in rural Fairfax County while the two youngest siblings Eleanor “Nelly” Custis (1779-1852) and George Washington Parke Custis (1781-1857), were raised at Mount Vernon as the adopted children of their grandparents, George and Martha Washington. In September of 1793, Martha Parke Custis and her sister accompanied George Washington to the ceremony for the laying of the Capitol Building’s cornerstone.

In 1795 Martha Custis married Thomas Peter. Thomas Peter was the eldest son of Robert Peter. From 1801 until his death in 1834, Thomas served five terms as a Justice of the Peace for the County of Washington. He was also a director of the Bank of Columbia and a vestryman of St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church in Georgetown. Along with many other citizens of the day, he enjoyed thoroughbred horse racing as a favorite hobby.

Their wedding ceremony took place at Hope Park, the Fairfax County estate of Martha Custis’ mother and stepfather, Eleanor and David, and occurred on the 35^th anniversary of George and Martha Washington’s wedding. After the wedding, they resided in a house built by Thomas’ father, Robert, on Wapping Street (now K Street) near Rock Creek. President Washington, Martha’s step-grandfather, was often a guest at the house, when he rode over to survey the progress of construction on the Federal city. The former president spent his last night in the Federal City at the Peter’s K Street house in November 1799.

Following her grandmother’s 1802 death, Martha Peter received two significant gifts: the 1796 engraving of General Washington after a portrait by Trumbull that had formerly hung in the stair hall at Mount Vernon and the writing table that Mrs. Washington had used in Philadelphia and in her retirement. Her husband, Thomas, was one of the executors of the estate. In accordance with Mrs. Washington’s will, certain items were bequeathed to family members and the remaining items sold in an estate sale. Martha and Thomas purchased a large quantity of objects at the sale at Mount Vernon ranging from furniture and porcelain to personal items and letters.

Martha and Thomas Peter acquire Tudor Place

In 1805 Martha and Thomas Peter purchased Tudor Place. The Peters then asked their friend and self-taught architect, Dr. William Thornton (1759-1828), to design a home for the property overlooking the Potomac and the port of Georgetown. In addition to owning Tudor Place, they owned a large agricultural estate of more than 500 acres called Oakland that was located near Seneca, Maryland and a small farm in Northeast D.C. known as Effingham.

Martha and Thomas Peter had ten children. Born at Tudor Place on January 28, 1815, Britannia was the youngest of the ten children arriving just five months after the British attacked Washington in August 1814, she was given the middle name Wellington at her christening. Unlike her sisters who were educated in Philadelphia, Britannia was schooled locally in Georgetown spending four years at the Young Ladies Academy at Georgetown’s Visitation Convent, now Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School.

Martha Eliza Eleanor Peter (1796–1800)

Thomas and Martha’s eldest daughter died at only four years old. President Washington was strongly attached to the little girl who used to walk with him up and down the covered portico of Mount Vernon. This information was recounted by her mother Martha Custis Peter many years later. After her death in August 1800, she was buried in the Old Tomb at Mount Vernon and her casket was placed atop Washington’s casket. In 1832, her remains along with those of everyone interred in the vault of the Old Tomb were transferred to the New Tomb at Mount Vernon.

Columbia Washington Peter (1797–1820)

Thomas and Martha Peter named Columbia after the city and District of Columbia according to her aunt and godmother, Eleanor “Nelly” Custis Lewis. Columbia was educated at Madame Rivardi’s School for Girls in Philadelphia and later died at age 23 from a “bilious colic” during a visit to Woodlawn, her aunt’s Virginia estate. Columbia was originally buried in a family cemetery on the Peter’s Effingham property but was later moved to the family cemetery in Montgomery County, Maryland in the 1840s.

John Parke Custis Peter (1799–1848)

Thomas and Martha’s eldest son was born in November 1799. Martha Peter was unable to attend George Washington’s funeral at Mount Vernon because she was still recovering from the birth. John attended Yale graduating in 1820 and married Elizabeth Jane Henderson in 1830. He built Monte video on Peter family land in Seneca, Maryland and resided there until his death in 1848.

George Washington Peter (1801–1877)

George was called as “Washington” by his siblings. He married Jane Boyce (1813-1882), whose family resided nearby in Georgetown at the Montrose estate in 1840. The couple resided in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia but then returned to live in Georgetown. He later acquired an estate, Lynwood, in Howard County, Maryland. He died in 1877 and was buried in a family plot in Oak Hill Cemetery.

Daniel Parke Peter (1802-1802)

died in infancy.

America Pinckney Peter (1803-1842)

“Mec” as she was called by her siblings, was educated in Philadelphia at Mrs. Mallon’s Seminary. America met her future husband, Lt. William G. Williams, at a reception held at Tudor Place during the Marquis de Lafayette visit in October of 1824. Williams was a topographical engineer in the U.S. Army. The couple was married in the Tudor Place Parlor in the summer of 1826. While her husband traveled all over the country to perform his topographical duties, America remained at Tudor Place with her growing family. Eventually she joined her husband in Buffalo, New York, where he was stationed. The couple had five children who lived to adulthood. America died in the spring of 1842 in Buffalo, and four of her children—three daughters and one of her sons, were brought to live at Tudor Place. Captain Williams died in 1846 while leading a charge during the Mexican-American War at the Battle of Monterrey. The orphaned Williams children were cared for by their grandmother, Martha Peter, and later by their aunt, Britannia Kennon. According to the terms of Martha Peter’s will, a portion of the Tudor Place property to the north was sold to provide for the support of her daughter America’s daughters.

Robert Thomas Peter (1806-1808)

Martha Custis Castania Peter (1808-1809)

Unnamed child (born and died in 1810)

Britannia Wellington Peter (1815-1911)

Born at Tudor Place on January 28, 1815, Britannia was the youngest of the ten children born to Thomas and Martha Peter. Born just five months after the British attacked Washington in August 1814, she was given the middle name Wellington at her christening. Unlike her sisters who were educated in Philadelphia, Britannia was schooled locally in Georgetown spending four years at the Young Ladies Academy at Georgetown’s Visitation Convent, now Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School. At an 1841 reception at the Octagon, home of the Tayloe family, Britannia met her future husband, Commodore Beverley Kennon, then Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard. The couple married in the Tudor Place Drawing Room on December 8, 1842. For the first few months of their marriage, they resided in the Commandant’s Quarters in the Washington Navy Yard and later purchased a house on H Street after Kennon was promoted to Chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Construction & Repair. Their only daughter, Martha [Markie] Custis Kennon, was born on October 18, 1843. On February 28, 1844 Commodore Kennon died in an explosion aboard the USS Princeton during a demonstration of a deck gun called the Peacemaker. Britannia Peter Kennon returned to Tudor Place with her four-month-old daughter.

Following Martha Peter’s death in 1854, Britannia inherited Tudor Place and all its furnishings. At that time she sold the northern most portion of the 8½-acre estate, according to her mother’s will, to provide support for her sister America Peter Williams’ orphaned daughters. For a brief period of time between 1858 and 1861, Britannia leased Tudor Place to the Pendleton family and resided in the home of another Georgetown widow. She and her daughter were traveling when the Civil War broke out and lived briefly in Staunton, Richmond, Petersburg, and Norfolk, Virginia. In January of 1862, she returned to Georgetown and opened Tudor Place as a boarding house to prevent its seizure for use as a hospital. A known Southern sympathizer, Britannia asked her boarders who were Union Officers and Doctors to refrain from discussing the war in her presence.

After the Civil War, Britannia sold several additional acres to the north of the property. In the spring of 1867, her daughter Markie married a first cousin, once removed, Dr. Armistead Peter. The couple and their growing family of what eventually became five children spent the next fifteen years living at Tudor Place. During her ownership of the estate, Britannia served as a guardian of the family home and the collection of Washington objects displayed within it. Beginning in the 1890s, Britannia’s grandchildren prompted her to share her memories and other stories recounted from her childhood. The grandchildren wrote down this information and it provides a valuable insight into the history of Tudor Place. Prominent within Georgetown and Washington City, Britannia was President of the Sewing Society of St. John’s Church in Georgetown; President of the Sewing Society of Christ Church, Georgetown; President of the Benevolent Society; President of the Bible Society of Georgetown; a Directress of the Georgetown Orphans Asylum; Second President of the Aged Woman’s Home in Georgetown; an original Directress of the Louise Home in Washington, D.C.; President of the District of Columbia Society of Colonial Dames; and Vice-President of The National Society of Colonial Dames of America. She was also the National Vice President of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and the First State Regent of the local District of Columbia DAR chapter.

Britannia’s daughter Markie and her son-in-law, Dr. Armistead Peter, both predeceased her. Britannia died in January 1911, on the eve of her 96th birthday. Her will provided that her real and personal property be equally divided among her five grandchildren. The contents of the house, including objects purchased at the 1802 sale at Mount Vernon, were inventoried in the summer of 1911 and then dispersed equally among the grandchildren. Britannia’s grandson, Armistead Peter, Jr., purchased his four siblings’ shares in Tudor Place to become the sole owner of the property.

Thomas Peter died at Tudor Place in April 1834 at the age of sixty-five; he was buried at the family cemetery located on the Montgomery County, Maryland, estate of his son John Parke Custis Peter, formerly part of his parents Oakland farm.

Britannia Wellington Peter marries Commodore Beverley Kennon

At an 1841 reception at the Octagon, home of the Tayloe family, Britannia met her future husband, Commodore Beverley Kennon, then Commandant of the Washington Navy Yard. The couple married in the Tudor Place Drawing Room on December 8, 1842. For the first few months of their marriage, they resided in the Commandant’s Quarters in the Washington Navy Yard and later purchased a house on H Street after Kennon was promoted to Chief of the Navy’s Bureau of Construction & Repair.

Martha Custis Kennon, affectionately called Markie, was the only child of Britannia Wellington Peter Kennon and Commodore Beverley Kennon and born on October 18, 1843. On February 28, 1844 Commodore Kennon died in an explosion aboard the USS Princeton during a demonstration of a deck gun called the Peacemaker. Britannia returned to Tudor Place with her four-month-old daughter from their residence on H Street. Markie attended Miss Lydia English’s Seminary in Georgetown, then the Misses Hawley’s school, the Reverend Mr. Clark’s school, both in Washington, and then Ingleside, the Misses Gibson’s boarding school near Catonsville, Maryland. From there she went to the Misses Casey’s Boarding School in Philadelphia.

Her grandmorther Martha Peter continued managing the estate and the family’s other holdings for the next twenty years until her own death in 1854.

Tudor Place’s 2nd and Longest Owner: Britannia Wellington Peter Kennon

Following Martha Peter’s death in 1854, Britannia inherited Tudor Place and all its furnishings. At that time she sold the northern most portion of the 8 1/2 acres estate, according to her mother’s will, to provide support for her sister America Peter Williams’ orphaned daughters. For a brief period of time between 1858 and 1861, Britannia leased Tudor Place to the Pendleton family and resided in the home of another Georgetown widow. She and her daughter were traveling when the Civil War broke out and they lived briefly in Staunton, Richmond, Petersburg, and Norfolk, Virginia. In January of 1862, she returned to Georgetown and opened Tudor Place as a boarding house to prevent its seizure for use as a hospital. A known Southern sympathizer, Britannia asked her boarders who were Union Officers and Doctors to refrain from discussing the war in her presence.

Britannia’s daughter, Markie, marries Dr. Armistead Peter

In 1867, Markie Kennon married her first cousin once removed, Dr. Armistead Peter. Dr. Armistead Peter was a son of Major George Peter and his third wife, Sarah Freeland. Armistead was privately tutored and studied medicine in the Medical Department of the Columbian University [later George Washington University]. He graduated in 1861 and located his practice in Georgetown. When the Civil War began he volunteered his services to the Confederacy as a surgeon, but was told there were already more surgeons than the Confederacy could employ. Upon returning home, he found out that he had been drafted so he offered his services to the Union Army. During the Civil War, Dr. Peter served as a ward surgeon at Seminary Hospital [Officers Hospital] in Georgetown formerly Miss Lydia English’s Seminary. He was a member of the Georgetown Board of Health and physician to the poor at the smallpox hospital in 1866.

Markie and Armistead Peter had five children, all of whom were born at Tudor Place. In 1882 they moved to a house they constructed at the corner of 31st and O Streets two blocks away. Markie died unexpectedly in September 1886, she was 42 years old. Dr. Armistead Peter died in 1902.

Walter Gibson Peter (1868-1945)

Walter was the eldest son of Dr. and Mrs. Peter was an architect. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) in the class of 1892. He was a practicing architect in Washington where he was principle in the firm of Donn & Peter and later Marsh & Peter. He oversaw the 1913-1914 renovations to Tudor Place when it was owned by his younger brother Armistead Peter Jr., and also designed the garage located on the property. Notable buildings by his firm include The Farmers & Mechanics Bank (now a PNC Bank) at the corner of Wisconsin Avenue and M Street in Georgetown, the main administration building at Walter Reed Hospital and the Evening Star Newspaper’s Building on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Armistead Peter Jr. (1870-1960)

Armistead Peter Jr. was born at Tudor Place in 1870, and spent the first twelve years of his life here. In 1882, his parents completed a house three blocks away at the corner of 31st and O Streets. Even after moving to the O Street house, Armistead was especially close to his grandmother, Britannia W. Kennon, and visited her frequently at Tudor Place. From an early age he evidenced a strong interest in photography, and was a talented amateur photographer.

Beverley Kennon Peter (1872-1922)

Beverley was called Kennon by the family, studied law and was admitted to the Bar in 1893. He practiced law in the District of Columbia arguing several cases before the United States Supreme Court. He later became a surveyor and resided in Ohio.

George Freeland Peter (1875-1953)

Reverend Dr. G. Freeland Peter was an ordained Episcopal minister who served as a Canon of the National Cathedral from 1928 to 1936 and prior to that appointment, he ministered at churches in the District, Virginia, and West Virginia. He was educated at the University of the South, Hampden-Sydney, and Oxford University.

Agnes Peter (1880-1957)

Agnes, was the youngest of the five children of Dr. and Martha Kennon Peter was a companion to her grandmother Britannia for the final two decades of Britannia’s life. After the end of World War I, Agnes worked abroad for the YMCA as part of their partnership with the French government known as the Union Franco-Americaine. She later conducted iconographic research for the design of the stained-glass windows at Washington’s National Cathedral. In 1953, at age 73, she married for the first time to a widower, Dr. John Mott whom she first met in the 1920s when both did war-related work for the YMCA.

Armistead Peter Jr. marries Anna Wright Williams

In 1894 Armistead married Anna Wright Williams (1872-1961), a wealthy heiress and his second cousin whose maternal grandfather, George Law, had made a fortune in railroads and shipping. Anna was the only daughter of Laurence Williams, a grandson of Thomas and Martha Peter through their daughter America. The newlyweds had a suite of rooms at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City and later leased and eventually purchased a house on Q Street in Washington.

Britannia died in January 1911, on the eve of her 96th birthday. Both her daughter and son-in-law, precede her in death. Britannia’s will provided that her real and personal property be equally divided among her five grandchildren. The contents of the house, including objects purchased at the 1802 sale at Mount Vernon, were inventoried in the summer of 1911 and then dispersed equally among the grandchildren.

Armistead Peter Jr. becomes 3rd Owner of Tudor Place

Armistead Peter Jr., bought his siblings’ shares of Tudor Place following Britannia Kennon’s death and became the estate’s third owner. His primary occupation was the management of Tudor Place and other family properties as well as managing the family’s financial investments and business interests. For a time, he sat on the board of the Eighth and Ninth Avenue Railroads, streetcar lines in New York City. Even when he shared the management of his home with his son, no detail about the house and grounds was unimportant to him and he kept meticulous records. Numerous archival materials connected with Armistead Peter Jr., including diaries, correspondence, and legal documents, remain in the Tudor Place Collection & Archive.

Anna and Armistead Peter Jr. had one son, Armistead Peter 3rd (1896-1983). Armistead Peter 3rd was born in Washington County, New York in July 1896. He attended The National Cathedral School for Boys (now Saint Albans School), graduating in 1915. He enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve as a radio operator in December 1917 and was assigned to the Navy’s Radio station at Arlington, Virginia before being transferred to the Naval Communications facility located in the State, War and Navy Building (now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) and he remained in the Naval Reserve until he was honorably discharged in December 1918.

In 1913-14 he initiated an extensive renovation of the house under the guidance of his brother Walter Gibson Peter, a Washington architect. This included the introduction of electricity, a more advanced steam heat system, telephone service, modern plumbing, a modern kitchen and a reconfiguration of stairs to the second floors of the wings of the house. A garage was also constructed after the Peters acquired their first automobile in 1913.

In the fall of 1923 Armistead Peter Jr., and his wife separated. He remained at Tudor Place for the rest of his life and she resided in New York until her death in 1961.

Armistead Peter 3rd, was the only child of Anna and Armistead Peter Jr. Armistead Peter 3rd was born in Washington County, New York in July 1896. He attended The National Cathedral School for Boys (now Saint Albans School) and graduated in 1915. He enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve as a radio operator in December 1917 and was assigned to the Navy’s Radio station at Arlington, Virginia before being transferred to the Naval Communications facility located in the State, War and Navy Building (now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building) and he remained in the Naval Reserve until he was honorably discharged in December 1918.

Armistead Peter 3rd marries Caroline Ogden-Jones

In December 1920 he became engaged to Caroline Ogden-Jones (1894-1965). They were married at the Church of the Transfiguration in New York City on February 14, 1921. Following the advice of Caroline’s stepfather, American sculptor Paul Wayland Bartlett to further his interest in painting and drawing, Armistead and Caroline left for Paris in November of 1921 where he enrolled at the Grande Chaumière and Académie Colarossi. After spending the winter in Paris, he and Caroline traveled in the spring to Barbizon and then on to Italy.

Born in Paris in 1922, Anne Custis Peter Pearre (1922-1985) was the only child of Armistead Peter 3rd and Caroline Ogden-Jones, and the last of the six generations of the Peter family to grow up at Tudor Place. Anne returned with her parents to Georgetown in October 1922 when she was one month old and spent much of her childhood in the company of her grandfather, Armistead Peter Jr. She attended Mrs. Cook’s School in Washington and Westover School in Middlebury, Connecticut. After graduating from Bryn Mawr College, she worked at the Pentagon during World War II and married in 1953.

When her father Armistead Peter 3rd formed the Carostead Foundation in the late 1960s, she served as one of the first Trustees.

After his mother transferred the ownership of a family estate in upstate New York to him in 1926, Armistead also began raising livestock and engaged in commercial egg production with a large clutch of hens. He and Caroline returned to France on several occasions to visit her mother who resided there.

Following the outbreak of World War II, Armistead re-entered the Naval Reserve in early 1942 and he was subsequently assigned to the Map Room of the Joint Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington. In the spring of 1944, he requested a transfer to a combat zone and after receiving the rank of Lt. Commander, joined the Third Amphibious Force as a Communications officer aboard the U.S.S. Mount Olympus. He witnessed the attacks on Leyte and Linguyan Gulf as part of the campaign to liberate the Philippines. He was aboard the ship when it arrived in Tokyo Bay, Japan on the day of the Japanese surrender. When the war ended, Armistead was assigned to the post-war military staff in Japan where he spent time traveling through the country and purchasing Japanese objects and works of art. He began painting more frequently following his return from the Pacific and held a number of exhibitions in the Washington area.

Armistead Peter 3rd becomes 4th and last owner of Tudor Place

In the fifth generation, Armistead Peter 3rd envisioned a gift to the nation—one that would celebrate the site’s association with George Washington and the founding family while honoring the fact that Tudor Place “was lived in and loved by generations of our family and in which they found great happiness.” By securing status as a National Historic Landmark in 1960 by the National Park Service, he also sought conveying a preservation easement to the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Following Caroline’s death in 1965, he began work on a book focused on the history of Tudor Place. A year later he established the Carostead (Caro for Caroline + stead for Armistead) Foundation to preserve and protect Tudor Place after his death and creating a charitable foundation, laid the groundwork for this gift.

Published in 1969, Armistead Peter 3rd’s book on his remembrances of Tudor Place is an invaluable source of information about the history of the property and the Peter family.

Armistead married for a second time in 1973 to Helen Tucker Andrews Macondray (1900-1995).

A family home becomes a museum

Following his death in 1983, under the ownership of the Carostead Foundation (later renamed the Tudor Place Foundation, Inc.), the house and grounds opened to the public in October of 1988 with the mission to preserve the property and open it to the public for the study of American history.

In The News

Press Release: Tudor Place Wins MAAM’s, Making an Impact Award

October 15, 2024/by Comms2018

Up in Arms: A Family’s Service

August 29, 2024/by Janet Wall

Mark Hudson, Executive Director, Featured in Podcast introducing, Ancestral Spaces: People of African Descent at Tudor Place

January 17, 2024/by Comms2018

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