357 



Young Gilpin was at this school for four years, and the well- 

 grounded tastes and acquirements there instilled never abandoned 

 him. His immediate paternal ancestors were Americans, coming 

 from a British stock. His father (Mr. Joshua Gilpin), was a 

 highly respectable merchant of Philadelphia, and afterwards re- 

 moved to the State of Delaware. He there continued to reside 

 during the remainder of his life, connected with his brother in a 

 large manufacturing establishment on the Brandywine. He parti- 

 cipated, as long as his health continued, in the relations of social 

 life, and in institutions of literature, science, and taste, in Philadel- 

 phia. He died after some years of delicate and infirm health, at the 

 age of seventy-four, at Kcntmere, in Delaware, that being the name 

 given by him to the house which he built and occupied as his 

 family residence. This name was derived from the legends and 

 annals of the Gilpin family, in the north of England. It is stated, 

 that about the year 1206, the Baron of Kendal gave to Richard de 

 Guylpyn the ancestor, the manor of Kentmere, for his prowess and 

 skill in killing a wild boar which had annoyed the forests of West- 

 moreland and Cumberland. 



Henry D. Gilpin was born in Lancaster, England, the birthplace 

 of his amiable mother, who survives him at an advanced age. His 

 birth took place, April 14th, 1801 ; and his death, January 29th, 

 1860. He was thus in his fifty-ninth year, or fifty-eight years, nine 

 months and fifteen days old. In very early infancy, he was brought 

 (September, 1801), to this country with the family, which remained 

 here until the year 1811. They, then, all returned to England. 

 He was placed at the school which has been mentioned, and derived 

 from good instruction, constitutional and habitual industry, and apt 

 faculties, fondness for the languages of Greece and Rome, and 

 advancement in an acquaintanceship with them, both of which 

 were cultivated and improved during his life. In 1816, they 

 returned for a permanent residence to the United States. The sub- 

 ject of our memoir received his college instructions at the University 

 of Pennsylvania. After taking his degree there, he entered upon 

 the study of the law, and was admitted to practice in 1822 : having, 

 while a student and under age, filled with credit, the place of Secre- 

 tary of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company, of which he 

 afterwards became one of the directors. 



He was now a member of a learned profession, and prepared to 

 engage in its duties and responsibilities. He did not, however, at 

 any time plunge into the vortex of early professional life to the 



