He liked life and gayety and conversation, he liked music and dancing or a game of cards when the weather was bad, and he enjoyed heartily the presence of young people and of his own friends.

So Mount Vernon was always full of guests, and the master noted in his diary that although he owned more than a hundred cows he was obliged, nevertheless, to buy butter, which suggests an experience not unknown to gentlemen farmers of any period, and also that company was never lacking in that generous, open house overlooking the Potomac.
Beyond the bounds of his own estate he had also many occupations and pleasures.

He was a member of the House of Burgesses, diligent in his attention to the work of governing the colony.

He was diligent also in church affairs, and very active in the vestry, which was the seat of local government in Virginia.

We hear of him also as the manager of lotteries, which were a common form of raising money for local purposes, in preference to direct taxation.