Rare Martha Washington Letter Details Her Daughter's Epilepsy

A newly acquired letter is shedding light on one of George and Martha Washington's deepest family crises. The Library of Congress has purchased a 1760 note Martha wrote about 4-year-old daughter Patsy, whose "fitts" and fevers historians now identify as epilepsy—an illness poorly understood at the time and one that would claim her life at 17. The letter, purchased at auction for $47,500, is the only one in Martha's own hand in the library's collection, reports the Washington Post. It reads, in part:

• "I have the pleasure to tell you my dear little girl is much better. We [carried] her out yesterday in the charriot and the change of air refreshed her very much."

Martha and George Washington had married only the year before the letter was written, with the wealthy widow bringing her two surviving children to the marriage; the Library of Congress notes that the pair were "devoted parents" to Patsy and Jacky. The document, addressed to Margaret Green, captures a rare, personal glimpse into the Washington household before the American Revolution, as the couple tried a series of now-outdated remedies—bleeding, mineral springs, mercury, folk charms—to help Patsy. George Washington's later diary entries chart worsening seizures; his letters after her sudden death at Mount Vernon in 1773 describe his stepdaughter as a "Sweet Innocent Girl" and his wife as nearly undone by grief.