Martha [Markie] Custis Williams

This portrait of Markie was painted by her father when she was about twelve years old. It is believed to have hung in Markie’s room upstairs at Arlington House between 1853 and 1861.

Markie, a favorite cousin of the Lee family, moved to Arlington to help care for the elderly George Washington Parke Custis after the death of his wife in 1853. She became a confidant of Robert E. Lee’s. An ardent Unionist, Markie nonetheless remained very close to her cousins throughout the Civil War and to the end of her life. During the war she rescued many items from the house to prevent their theft by Union soldiers.