specially in its benevolent sphere, few persons were so liberal, devoted, active and useful. Independently of that, his habit was to lend a helping hand, and his charities were more numerous than will ever be known, and wherever else he may be lamented, in that fair field, it is a testimony to his reputation, that so much will be lost in his absence.

A man of marked force of character, Captain Blackford would have been a striking figure in any environment. In the social and intellectual life of the community in which he moved, he was ever a leader and trusted adviser. In clearness of perception, calmness of judgment and dispassionate action, he had few superiors.

He was endowed with extraordinary intellectual powers, equal to unlimited routine labor; he followed high ideals and dedicated his resources unsparingly to what he thought right. In the stirring practical questions of the day, whether of business or social concern, with which the people of his State were dealing, he took a prominent part, and by tongue or pen on all those issues he displayed signal skill and ability.

For a person who never held or sought political officethough there was no time when he could not have had such honors-perhaps no man in the State was so widely known.

It was in his character as such citizen that he attained his chiefest prominence. So far as his own city is concerned, I am sure, that it will be cheerfully conceded that he was the foremost citizen, and his towering figure will be more missed than any of a past or present generation.

While it may not be our lot to look upon his like often, his rich example shines before us, illustrating what well directed perseverance can achieve, and the lesson of his career cannot but be useful to us all.

His position in the legal profession, his identification with and his devotion to the interests of this Association; his labors in its behalf; his qualities of head and heart, entitle him to the immortelles of our tenderest love.

JOHN H. LEWIS.

JAMES CHRISTIAN LAMB.

James Christian Lamb, late Judge of the Chancery Court of the city of Richmond, was a native of Charles City County, Va. He was born at "Rural Shades" in that county, on November 18th, 1853, and died at his home in Richmond on January 1st, 1903, in the fiftieth year of his age. He was twice married. His first wife was Miss Loula Brockenbrough, of Richmond City; the second was Miss Saide Brockenbrough (a cousin of the first), of Richmond County. It is only necessary to say of them that they were both refined, cultivated women, and congenial companions of their devoted and now sainted husband. By the first wife he had no children; by the second he left three, two sons and a daughter.

Judge Lamb was a son of the late Lycurgus A. Lamb and Ann Elizabeth, his wife, who was Ann Elizabeth Christian, a daughter of the late Rev. James H. Christian, after whom Judge Lamb was named. His parents were people of culture and refinement, and the stock on both sides was the purest and best of Tidewater Virginia. Judge Lamb was the youngest child of his parents, and was only two years old when his father died, leaving a dependent family, consisting of a widow and six children, two sons and four daughters. The eldest, a son, then in his sixteenth year, is the Hon. John Lamb, now a member of Congress from the Metropolitan District of Virginia. The responsibilities and burdens of rearing and caring for this family fell almost entirely on the mother and eldest son, and it can be safely said, that these could not have been more bravely, faithfully and conscientiously met and discharged than they were. Until he had reached his thirteenth year, young Lamb was educated solely by his mother, who was not only an educated woman, and thus well fitted for this task, but she was also a deeply pious Christian mother who, along with her other teaching, instilled in her boy those prin

ciples of morality, integrity and christianity, which he made the foundation, as well as the "guiding star," of his whole life, as will be seen most clearly towards the close of this sketch.

Between the ages of thirteen and sixteen young Lamb attended school at an academy in the adjoining county of James City, taught by the late Col. James Allen. To do this he had to walk four miles, and row across the Chickahominy river twice a day. This fine exercise, however, developed his naturally frail physique, and the habit of rowing stimulated in him a fondness for that sport, which made him somewhat famous as an oarsman, both whilst attending the University of Virginia, and even after he had come to the Richmond Bar.

In 1870-'71 he attended "Northwood" Academy, in Charles City County, then conducted by the late A. H. Fergusson, а famous educator of his time, and one who laid great stress on the importance of correct spelling and composition. It was here that young Lamb cultivated and developed a talent for writing, which was rarely excelled, and which was subsequently displayed as associate editor of the University Magazine during his stay at that institution, as editor of the journal of the Kappa Alpha fraternity, of which he was a leading member, and as editor of the Virginia Law Journal. Many evidences of his accomplishments in this line could be cited, but we can only refer to his sketches of the late Professor John B. Minor and Frank H. McGuire, Esq., as, in our opinion, among the most chaste and elegant compositions of their kind we have ever read.

In 1872 he attended a commercial school in Baltimore, from which he graduated the following year. He then returned to Charles City, and was employed for a while as a book-keeper in a country store. Subsequently he removed to Richmond, and was engaged in the same capacity with the Singer Manufacturing Company. During both of these employments he was conspicuous for his fidelity, accuracy and efficiency, and soon not only earned the means for completing his education at the University of Virginia later on, but, in addition to his labors as a book