Shameless Wonder: George Washington's Step Grandson-in-Law

I recently finished reading You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe, a biography of George Washington. It was pretty good; I gave it 3 ½ out of 5 stars on Goodreads.com (follow me to share book recommendations and reviews). I learned a few new things, but what peaked my interest most, and caused me to look up further info, was this sentence here:

Betsy, their eldest granddaughter, had “Suprize[d]” them with an engagement...he (Washington) hoped that Thomas Law, a British citizen who had arrived from India with two of his three children, who were half-Indian, would be “fixed in America.”

Elizabeth Parke Custis (I wouldn’t want to run into her in a hemp field.)

George Washington’s granddaughter married a man who had three half-Indian children! It’s been suggested that Washington-maybe even Elizabeth- did not know that Law would be accompanied by his children (Wikipedia referencing (2)) but I could not find mention of that.

How did Thomas Law get from India to the U.S.? How did he and Elizabeth Parke Custis hook up? What were the implications of him having biracial kids? What did others think of this? Did it affect his social standing? How and why did he end up bringing them across the world? Where was their mother? Who was their mother? What happened to Thomas and his boys?

With the small amount of research (Googling) I’ve done so far, it looks like Thomas Law was a man I would admire. He was handsome, worldly, enterprising, compassionate, and a humanitarian.

He rose through the ranks of the East India Company and was a reformer of British policy in India, formulating the basis for land tenure and taxation policy for natives during British rule. (1)

Law formed a long-term relationship with an Indian woman and they had three sons together. Due to his health and wanting more opportunities for his sons, Law left India for England. England proved to be problematic as well, and to escape the prejudice of “complexion,” (2) Law left with his two older sons for the U.S. colonies.

I can’t find anything on how Eliza and Thomas met (he was twice her age), but being the headstrong girl she was, at 19, she engaged herself to him. She seems to have cared for his boys as her own, even after they had their own daughter together. (2)

Thomas and Eliza seem to have never actually lived together. Eliza was certainly petulant and spoiled as a child (4), which presumably carried over as ill-tempered or peevish as an adult. Perhaps both she and Thomas were “prickly” sorts and just could not get along together. Law was definitely busy with his business ventures, as well as his philanthropic pet projects. The couple separated after eight years of marriage, divorcing six years later (an unusual occurrence for the time).

The two did not have an amicable post-marital relationship, but Eliza continued to keep in touch with her stepsons, and Thomas had custody of their daughter and paid an allowance to Eliza for the rest of her life. (1-4:)

Thomas survived his ex-wife and all of his children. He was involved in the arts as well as the political, social and economic life of D.C. He supported the abolition of slavery, as well as the colonization of free blacks outside the U.S. He wrote poetry and moral philosophy and eventually became an agriculturalist. I find Thomas Law’s life no less interesting a story than that of Alexander Hamilton: maybe Lin-Manuel Miranda can make a musical about him!