G46 WILLIAM SUMNER APPLETON. 



ily." In 1899 he prepared and printed a small pamphlet en- 

 titled " The Family of Armistead of Virginia." This embodied 

 little original research, but was mainly an abridgment and 

 rearrangement of a larger genealogy prepared by Lyon G. 

 Tyler, President of William and Mary College, and printed in 

 the Quarterly of that institution. " The reason of my own 

 interest in the family," says Mr. Appleton, " appears in the 

 sixth generation. I have therefore arranged in simple genea- 

 logical shape so much of the matter in the Quarterly as was 

 necessary for the purpose," which was to trace his wife's 

 ancestry. His last genealogical publication was issued a 

 little more than a year before his death under the title of 

 " Family Letters from the Bodleian Library, with Notes." 

 The collection comprises thirty-six letters relating to the fam- 

 ily of Appleton of Little Waldingfield, the immediate rela- 

 tives of the immigrant to New England. An examination of 

 these independent publications shows how persistent was the 

 energy which he put into his genealogical researches, and fully 

 justifies his reputation as a genealogist. 



His wide travels had stored his mind with a fund of useful 

 knowledge, and on many subjects he was an authority of the 

 first rank. His interest in the broader aspects of history, it 

 must be said, was subsidiary to his interest in his earlier 

 studies, and his very numerous communications in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Historical Societ} r , which were usually quite 

 short, were mainly illustrative of them. These communications 

 need not be enumerated here ; and it will be sufficient to 

 mention two or three of the more important ones. The first 

 of these, and one of the longest, was made in April, 1870, at 

 a social meeting held at the house in Beacon Street, which 

 had been the residence of his father and mother. He then 

 exhibited a rare collection of coins and medals relating to 

 America, and communicated a minute description of them 

 which is printed in the eleventh volume of the Proceedings 

 of the Society. 



In March, 1895, he communicated a complete roll of the 

 United States Senate for the first century of its existence, 



