Martha Dandridge Washington also inherited her husband's slaves on the condition that they be freed upon her death. Fearing that these slaves might hurt her, Washington freed them. She did not have the authority to free her dower slaves, and Washington chose not to free the one slave, Elish, whom she personally owned. Washington retained an interest in the presidency after her tenure as first lady, beginning the tradition of advising her successors. The Washington family long disliked Thomas Jefferson and Jeffersonian politics, in part because of the central role he played in criticizing the Washington administration. Washington took offense when Jefferson became president, as she felt that he did not give adequate respect to the office. Washington's health, always somewhat precarious, declined after her husband's death. She had anticipated her death since that of her husband. When she developed a fever in 1802, Washington burned all of her husband's letters to her, summoned a clergyman to administer last communion, and chose her funeral dress. Two and a half years after the death of her husband, Washington died on May 22, 1802, at age 70. Following her death, Washington's body was interred in the original Washington family tomb vault at Mount Vernon. In 1831, the surviving executors of George's estate removed the bodies of the Washingtons from the old vault to a similar structure within the present enclosure at Mount Vernon.