Thomas Law was a British businessman who was relatively new to life in America when he began courting George and Martha Washington’s granddaughter Eliza Parke Custis. Law, who had lived in India for many years, was the father of three illegitimate children born to an Indian woman. His scandalous reputation made it difficult for him to obtain George and Martha Washington’s blessing to marry their granddaughter, yet he eventually secured it. Law and Eliza separated after fewer than 10 years of marriage and later divorced. Law emancipated many of the enslaved individuals his wife inherited after the death of her grandmother in 1802.