Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/455

 HUMPHREYS

HUMPHREYS

secretary to General Washington with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, 1780-81. Upon the sur- render of Lord Coruwallis at Y^'orktown, Va,, Oct. 19, 1781, he was allowed the distinguished honor of receiving the English colors, and as a mark of approbation, was appointed to bear them from General Washington to congress, with copies of the number of prisoners, arms and ordnance sur- rendered, and also a letter from Washington, warmly commending the bearer to the considera- tion of the government, which led to his pres- entation by congress of an elegant sword. He accompanied Wasliingtonto Mount Vernon, where he remained for nearly a year in the general's family. Through Washington's influence he was appointed secretary of legation to Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson in Paris and London, serving 1784-86. He was a representative in the Connecticut legislature, 1786-89, and a commissioner to treat with the Creek Indians in 1789; was again at Mount Ver- non until the formation of the Federal govern- ment, when lie accompanied Washington to New York and remained a member of his family until 1790. He was the first U.S. minister to Portugal, 1791-97, and was commissioner plenipotentiary to Algiers with the general oversight of theBarbary states, 1795-97. He was married at Lisbon, in 1797, to Ann Frances, daughter of John Bulkeley, an English banker at Lisbon. He was transferred to the court of Madrid and served as U.S. com- missioner plenipotentiary there, 1797-1802. He had imported one hundred merino sheep, and on his return from Spain, in 1802, he engaged extensively in the manufacture of woollens. The Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture presented him with a gold medal for intro- ducing these sheep into New England. At the outbreak of the war of 1812 he was ap- pointed to the command of the "Veteran Volun- teers," composed of two regiments of Connecticut infantry, with the rank of brigadier-general. He was elected a member of the Royal Society of England. The honorary degree of A.M. was given him by Y'ale and the College of New Jersey in 1783 and by Harvard in 1787, and that of LL.D. by Brown in 1803, and by Dartmouth in 1804. He is the author of: An Essay on the Life of the Honourable Major-General Israel Putnam (1788); Dissertation on the Breed of Spanish Sheep Called Merino (1803); Oration on the Political Situation of the United States of America in the Year 1759 (1803). Among his poems are: Address to the Armies of the United States of America; The Happiness of America; The Future Glory of the United States of America; The Industry of the United States of America; Love of Country; Death of General Washington; Anarchiad, and other satiric verses, produced in conjunction with

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the " Hartford Wits " in 1786, and publisheil in book-form in 1861; The Widow of Malahae, a tra- gedy translated from the French of La Pierre. Wi^ Miscellaneous Works were published (1790- 1804.) He died at New Haven, Conn., Feb. 21.1818. HUnPHREYS, David Carlisle, was born in Smith county, Va., Oct. 14, 1855; son of Dr. Wil- liam Finley and Betsey (McFarland) Humplireys, and grandson of Samuel and Margaret (Moore) Humphrej's, and of the Rev. Francis and Mary (Bent) McFarland. His great-grandfath- er, David Carlisle Humphreys, emigrat- ed to America from Armagh, Ireland, in 1763; settled in Au- gusta county, Va., and was a private soldier in the Revolu- tionary war, and his ancestor, Plulip Hum- phreys, suffered mar- tyrdom at Bury Saint Edmunds, Suffolk, during the reign of "Bloody Mary," for

denying the supremacy of the pope, and re- jecting the mass. William Finley Humphreys was born in 1823, graduated at Transylvania, M.D., 1853, was a surgeon in the Confederate army, and lived in Rockbridge county,. Va., 1864- 73; Calloway county. Mo., 1872-85, and Leesburg, Fla., where he died in 1894. David Carlisle Hum- phreys studied at the private schools and under his father's tutorage; was employed as assistant to Jed Hotchkiss, mining engineer at Staunton, Va., 1872-74; and was draughtsman and office assistant in the Valley railroad, a branch of the Baltimore and Ohio, 1874-75. He entered Wash- ington and Lee university in 1875, receiving the Taj'lor prize scholarship in 1876; the honorary scholarship in 1877 and the Robinson prize medal in 1878; was assistant professor of mathematics, 1877-78, and was graduated C.E. in 1878. He was a teacher at the McDonogh school, 1878-79; U.S. assistant engineer on improvement of the Missouri river at St. Louis, Mo., 1879-85; and was made professor of applied mathematics (later civil engineering) at Wasliington and Lee imiversity in 1885. He engaged during his vacations in private practice as a civil engineer at Lexington, Va. He was appointed resident hydrographer of the U.S. geological survey in 1895; and a mem- ber of the school board of Lexington, Va., in 1898. He was president of the Association of Engineers of Virginia; was elected a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1887, the Society for the Promotion of Engineering