1884.] ^-»- [Carson. 



to be maintained by the Czar, horses and coaches, and servants, and if 

 these were insufficient, he could name his own terms. After a day's 

 consideration, Humphreys replied : " The salary is greater than I 

 could earn ; more than I need ; more than I want ; more than I could 

 use. As to the town house and country-house, I need but one, and 

 that should be near my business. As to the coaches and servants, I alwaj's 

 walk and wait upon myself, and should find myself unable to govern a 

 multitude of servants. I do not know that I possess the talents my 

 friend, Mr. Peters, ascribes to me ; but I do know and feel that, whether 

 my merit be great or small, I owe it all to the flag of my country, and that 

 is a debt I must pay." * 



In the history of refusals of dazzling oflfers, where can the parallel of 

 this instance of lofty patriotism be found ? 



Such a man was the father of Andrew Atkinson Humphreys. 



The maternal grandfather of General Humphreys, and for whom he was 

 named, was Andrew Atkinson, of Prehend Caven-Garden, Ireland, and 

 his maternal grandmother was Jane Murray, the daughter of Sir Archi- 

 bald Murray, the descendant of that Murray of Black Barony, in Scotland, 

 who espoused the cause of the Pretender. The story runs that Andrew 

 Atkinson, then a gallant ensign in the British army, of nineteen years of 

 age, first saw Jane Murray, a beautiful girl of sixteen, on the battlements 

 of Edinburgh Castle, and, captivated by her charms, gracefully lowered his 

 colors as he passed. He sought and obtained an introduction, which re- 

 sulted in their elopement and marriage. He subsequently purchased a 

 plantation in Florida, upon the St. John's river, and after the cession of 

 Florida by Spain, came to Philadelphia, where he died. His daughter, 

 Letitia Atkinson, met Samuel Humphreys at Dungeness, the house of the 

 widow of General Nathaniel Greene, upon Cumberland Island, Georgia, 

 whither he had been sent, as a youth of eighteen, to inspect live-oak 

 timber for the great battle ships, and the meeting led to their marriage. 

 They had eight children, of whom Andrew Atkinson Humphreys was the 

 second son. 



I have dwelt at length upon the ancestry of General Humphreys, 

 because in the analysis of his character it is interesting to trace to their 

 source his many admirable traits. f The blood of Normandy, Scotland, 

 Ireland and Wales was commingled in his veins, an apt admixture for the 

 production of tliorough manliness. From his father's side he inherited his 

 dauntless spirit, his inflexible resolution, his spotless integrity, his parti- 

 otism and great philosophical powers of mind. From his mother, who 

 was a woman of loveliness and grace, his exquisite charm of manner, his 

 strict self-control, his unwillingness to believe evil report of any one, his 



* Samuel Humplireys, Chief Naval Constructor of the United States, The Penn- 

 sylvania Magazln'e of History and Biography, Vol. viil, p. 216. 



fMr. Galtou,inhi3 worlv on Hereditary Genius, marshals an Imposing array of 

 evidence in support of his proposition, that genius, talent or whatever we term 

 great mental capacity, follows the law of organic transmission— runs in fami- 

 lies, and is an atfair of blood and breed. 



