1891.] [Ruschenberger. 



two sons and five daughters, the youngest of whom is the sole survivor. 

 The eldest of them, Gouverneur Emerson, was born August 4, 1795, near 

 Dover, Kent county, Del. In after-life he remembered with pleasure 

 that when little more than seven years old he was permitted to roam in 

 the woods with a gun. 



At an early age he was sent to the Westtown School, a famous boarding 

 school under the direction of the Society of Friends, which was opened 

 May, 1799, in Westtown township, Chester county, Pa. He returned to 

 Dover in 1810, and was for a short time at a boarding school in Smyrna. 

 Thence he was transferred to a classical school at Dover, the principal of 

 which was the Rev. Stephen Sykes. 



With the preliminary education acquired at those schools, and prompted 

 by his mother, he began to study medicine at the age of sixteen, 1811, 

 unuer the preceptorship of Dr. James Sykes, a prominent surgeon 

 and eminent citizen, who was a first cousin of his mother. Dr. Sykes 

 was once Governor of the State of Delaware, and during many years 

 presided in its Senate.* 



His father, Jonathan Emerson, died in 1812, leaving his family an 

 ample real estate, consisting of farms and improvements thereon. 



Gouverueur continued his study and went to Philadelphia, probably in 

 the autumn of 1813, to attend medical lectures. 



His mother, in 1814, married Manlove Hayes, who had children by two 

 previous wives. He was born in 1769 and died in 1849, aged eighty 

 years. The children of his third marriage were Harriet Sykes, Manlove 

 and Charles P., all of whom are living. Their mother, a lady endowed 

 with excellent womanly qualities and a strong character, so managed her 

 family that her children and those of her husband were never aware of 

 any difference or preference of kinship, and were affectionate friends 

 during their lives. 



Having attended three complete courses of lectures and submitted an 

 inaugural thesis on Hereditary Diseases, the University of Pennsylvania 

 granted Gouverneur Emerson, March, 1816, the degree of Doctor of 

 Medicine. He was a member of the Philadelphia Medicul Society from 

 1813, and was elected its Secretary in 1816. 



Prior to his graduation he was a private pupil of Dr. Thomas Chalkley 

 James, an eminent practitioner, who was professor of midwifery, the first 



Ann m. (second time) Manlove Hayes, Esq., of York seat, near Dover, Del. His great- 

 grandfather, Richard Hayes, the first American ancestor of the family, settled in 

 Delaware in 1698, at the age of 20, and m. Dolly Manlove. 

 Issue Harriet Sykes, Manlove, Charles P. 

 Mary m. 1st Jones, 2d Francis, 3d Edgar. 

 Agnes m. James Sykes (a delegate to the First American Congress). 



Issue James, Nancy (who m. Commodore Jacob Jones, U. S. Navy), Matilda, 



John, Harriet. 

 Lucy m. Rev. William Magaw, D.D., Rector of St. Paul's P. E. Church, Philadelphia. 



Buried under the church. 



* Biographical Memoir of Dr. James Sykes. By Gouverneur Emerson, M.D. Journal 

 of the Medical and Physical Sciences, February, 1823. 



