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Undocumented Sources
Undocumented Sources
Following are four other respected sources which have published their own accounts of the legend that a Montague was the grandmother of George Washington (followed by parenthetical commentary by this writer):

  • George Washington - A Life, by Willard Sterne Randall, 1997, p. 15, "Mary Ball had gone to London to be introduced into English society. On her illiterate mother's side she was a Montague, a member of a famous landed family." (Only problem here is that I find it hard to believe that Mary Montague, granddaughter of Peter who was a member of the House of Burgesses, could not read or write? She is from a well-to-do family, a very prominent family, yet had not been taught what basically separated the upper class from the lower, the ability to read & write? Also, no source is provided for the "Illiterate" Montague statement.)

  • Montague Genealogy and Virginia Genealogy, by Rev. Hayden, p. 664, "Joseph Ball would select his wife from the neighboring family of Montague." (Again, no source cited. Also, could it be that this Mary was a servant of the Montague's? Big stretch .. but have to be open to all possibilities.)

  • George Washington, by Douglas Southall Freeman, p. 532, Note 23, "It has been .... Maintained that she was Mary Montague before her marriage and that from her George Washington received the Montague seal he used." (Again, no source cited.)

  • Colonial Families of the Southern States of America, by Stella Pickett Hardy, p. 39, In the genealogy of Col Joseph Ball, "m. (second) 1707, Mary (Montague) Johnson, of Lancaster Co., VA, a native of England." (Again, no source cited.)
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