McClurg Descent; Wm. and Mary Qrtly., Vol. 1, No. 3

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McClurg Descent

   James B. McCaw

   William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Papers, Vol. 1, No. 3.
   (Jan., 1893), pp. 164-165.

                                 McCLURG DESCENT

                              BY DR. JAMES B. McCAW.

   Dr. Walter McClurg of Hampton, Surgeon in the British Navy, sent to Hampton to open the
first hospital to inoculate for small-pox in America, lived there many years and left one
son, Dr. James McClurg, born in 1747, educated at William and Mary, afterwards in Edinburg
for years and at the leading schools on the Continent.  Afterwards Professor of Medicine at
William and Mary College.  He married Miss Selden of Hampton and had two children, a son
"Walter", who died in his 7th year and a daughter "Betsy", who married John Wickham of
Richmond, Va.

   Dr. McClurg, although a Tory, held many positions of prominence -- superintendent and
inspector of hospitals in Virginia, a member of the Convention of '78 and on the committee
to draw up the Constitution of the U.S., Edmund Randolph, chairman.  Many of the con-
servative sections of the Constitution were originated by Dr. McClurg, - vide Moncure Daniel
Conway's Monogram on this subject.

   Dr. McClurg, having no son to succeed him, educated his nephew, Dr. James Drew McCaw,
who graduated at Edinburgh, 1792, and joined his uncle McClurg at Richmond the same year,
residing at the McClurg house (still extant) corner Grace and 6th St., where his grandson,
Dr. James B. McCaw now lives.

   Inscription on Dr. McClurg's Tomb.

   "Here lies interred the body of James McClurg, M.D.
                In life,
    admired and honoured for learning, taste and genius and vener-
    ated for virture; of studious and retired habits -- yet of the most
    easy and polished manners; of the readiest and happiest wit,
    tempered with modesty and benignity; with a native dignity of
    character and deportment, always sustained without effort,
    united with unaffected simplicity, and softened with the ut-
    most suavity of temper; formed to delight, instruct and adorn
    society, his conversation and acquaintance were courted by the
    most distinguished person of his Country and of his age.
    Having studied his profession in the most celebrated schools of
    Europe, and distinguished himself even in youth, by the ele-
    gance and ability of his writings, he was early placed, by com-


Page 165.

    mon consent, abroad and at home, in the highest rank among
    its professors, which he occupied for half a century.
                   In old age,
    cheerful and tranquil; his mental faculties unimpaired, the
    serenity of his temper undisturbed, even his social gayety hardly
    clouded to the last by the decay and infirmities of the body; hon-
    oured, beloved,

                    Content to live, content to die,
                    with equal mind he sank to rest,
                    on the 9th day July, A.D.
                    1825, in the 78th year of his age.
   "Here also likes the body of his affectionate and beloved wife
    Elizabeth McClurg, daughter of Cary Selden, Esq., who died on
    the 28th day of June, 1815, age 54 years.

    "To the memory of the venerated parents, their only sur-

     viving child, Elizabeth Selden Wickham, and her husband John
     Wickham erect this monument."(1)
_________________________________________________
   (1) I certify the above is a true copy of the Inscription on the monument erected to
James McClurg.
                         ANTONI GRAFFIGNA,
                          Sexton St. John's Church,
                           Richmond, Va., May 6th, 1890.