34 Heredity and Eugenics 



Another son of Richard and Laetitia Lee was Henry, 

 who married Mary Bland, a descendant of Sir Thomas 

 Bland, and a granddaughter of Theodorick Bland, speaker 

 of the House of Burgesses and member of the Council. 

 Their three sons were all members of the House of Bur- 

 gesses and some were in the House of Delegates, in con- 

 ventions and in the state senate. Such was the product 

 of the first families of Virginia statesmen, military men 

 the necessary product of their germ plasm. 



The Kentucky aristocracy. Nearly two centuries ago, 

 John Preston of Londonderry, Irish born though English 

 bred, married the Irish girl, Elizabeth Patton, of Donegal, 

 and to the wilderness of Virginia took his wife and built 

 their home, Spring Hill. 



Of this union there were five children: Letitia, who married 

 Colonel Robert Breckinridge; Margaret, who married Rev. John 

 Brown; William, whose wife was Susannah Smith; Anne, who mar- 

 ried Colonel John Smith; and Mary, who married Benjamin Howard. 

 .... From them have come the most conspicuous of those who bear 

 the name of Preston, Brown, Smith, Carrington, Venable, Payne, 

 Wickliffe, Wooley, Breckinridge, Benton, Porter, and many other 

 names written high in history. 



They were generally persons of great talent and thoroughly edu- 

 cated; of large brain and magnificent physique. The men were 

 brave and gallant, the women accomplished and fascinating and 

 incomparably beautiful. There was no aristocracy in America that 

 did not eagerly open its veins for the infusion of this Irish blood; and 

 the families of Washington and Randolph, and Patrick Henry, and 

 Henry Clay, and the Hamptons, Wicklifles, Marshalls, Peytons, 

 Cabells, Crittendens, and Ingersolls felt proud of their alliances with 

 this noble Irish family. 



They were governors and senators and members of Congress, and 

 presidents of colleges and eminent divines, and brave generals from 

 Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, California, Ohio, New York, 

 Indiana, and South Carolina. There were four governors of old 



