MOSES ASHLEY CURTIS. 1 



Moses Ashley Curtis was born in Stockbridge, Massa 

 chusetts, on the lltli of May, 1808. His father was the Rev 

 Jared Curtis, of Stockbridge, afterward for many years chap 

 lain of the state prison at Charlestown. His mother was \ 

 daughter of General Moses Ashley. He was fitted for col- 

 lege chiefly under his father's tuition, and was graduated at 

 Williams in the class of 1827. Three years afterward he 

 went to Wilmington, North Carolina, as a tutor in the family 

 of Governor Dudley, while at the same time he studied divin- 

 ity. There he resided until the year 1841, with the exception 

 of a year and a half passed with his father in Charlestown. 

 In the autumn of 1834 he married Miss De Rosset, of Wil- 

 mington, who survives him. He took holy orders at Rich- 

 mond, Virginia, in the summer of 1835 ; became rector of the 

 Protestant Episcopal Church at Hillsborough, North Carolina, 

 in 1841, and fulfilled the duties of this station for the re- 

 mainder of his life, with the exception of ten years, from 1847 

 to 1857, during which he had the pastoral charge of a parish 

 at Society Hill, South Carolina. The degree of Doctor of 

 Divinity was conferred on him by the University of North 

 Carolina, at Chapel Hill. His health for a few years past 

 was sensibly impaired ; but he was able to perform his pro- 

 fessional duties, and, in a measure, to prosecute his scientific 

 studies, until the 10th of April last, when he died suddenly, 

 probably of heart-disease. 



Dr. Curtis's attention must have early been attracted to 

 botany, and his predilection fixed by his residence at Wil- 

 mington, one of the richest and most remarkable botanical 

 stations in the United States. For it was in the year 1843, 

 after only three years' residence there, that he communicated 

 1 American Journal of Science and Arts, 3 ser., v. 391. (1873.) 



