GEORGE W. CLINTON. 1 



George W. Clinton died, at Albany, on the 7th of Sep- 

 tember last, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. He was 

 the son of DeWitt Clinton, one of the most distinguished 

 governors, and the grand-nephew of George Clinton, the first 

 governor of the State of New York. He was born on the 13th 

 of April, 1807, whether in the city of New York or in the 

 home on Long Island is uncertain. He became a student in 

 Albany Academy in the year 1816, when his father entered 

 upon his first tenure of office as governor, entered Hamilton 

 College in 1821, was graduated in 1825, was led by his early 

 scientific tastes to the study of medicine, which he pursued for 

 a year or two ; at least he attended two courses of lectures at 

 the then flourishing country medical school at Fairfield, New 

 York. There his acquaintance with Professor James Hadley 

 further developed his fondness for chemistry and botany, as it 

 did that of the writer of this notice a few years afterwards. He 

 also came under the instruction or companionship of Dr. Lewis 

 C. Beck, a younger brother of his medical preceptor Dr. T. 

 Romeyn Beck, attended a course of private lectures on bot- 

 any given by Dr. William Tully, entered into correspondence 

 with Rafinesque, Torrey, etc., and so bid fair to give himself 

 to scientific studies, as we may suppose with the approval of 

 his father, who, it is well known, had a decided scientific bent. 

 But Governor Clinton's death in February, 1828, wrought a 

 change in his prospects and in the course of his life. Acting 

 upon the advice of his father's friend, Ambrose Spencer, the 

 distinguished chief justice of the State, he took up the study 

 of law, attended the law lectures of Judge Gould at Litchfield, 

 Connecticut, and continued his studies in Canandaigua, New 

 York, in the office of John C. Spencer, whose daughter he 



1 American Journal of Science and Arts, 3 ser., xxxi. 17. (1886.) 



