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
JLU^^^l^^C^^
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
