PARENTAGE 5 



ceased. He died in 1832, leaving a fortune of some 

 ,12,000 a year, of which about a quarter went to 

 each of his three sons, of whom my father was the 

 eldest, and the rest between his three daughters. 



The Galton family had been Quakers for many 

 generations. They came to Birmingham from 

 Somersetshire, in the time of my great-grandfather, 

 Samuel Galton (1720-1799). Some of its earlier 

 members are buried at Yatton. There is a hamlet 

 in Dorsetshire called Galton, adjacent to Owre 

 Moigne, with which one at least of our name, and 

 apparently a far back relative, was connected many 

 generations ago. 



My grandmother Galton (1757-1817) was also of 

 Quaker stock, being daughter of Robert Barclay of 

 Ury, a descendant of Robert Barclay (1648-1690) 

 "the Apologist," as he used to be named from 

 his work, Barclay's Apology, which, to quote the 

 Dictionary of National Biography, is the standard 

 exposition of the tenets of his sect, of which the 

 essential principle is that "all true knowledge comes 

 from divine revelation to the heart of the individual." 



My grandmother's half-brother, Robert Barclay 

 Allardice (1779-1854), commonly known as "Captain 

 Barclay," was a noted athlete and pedestrian, and in 

 later years an active agriculturist. When upwards 

 of seventy years old he was dining at my father's 

 house in Leamington, and on being asked, while 

 sitting at dessert, whether he still performed any 

 feats of strength, he asked my eldest brother, then a 

 fully adult man of more than 12 stone in weight, 

 to step on his hand, which he laid palm upwards on 

 the floor by slightly bending his body. My brother 



