on January 31st, 1867, to Miss Virginia Jones. His widow and three children survive him.

The melancholy duty of presenting this paper gives an occasion which permits me, with sad pleasure, to mingle with his laurel my very tender memories of his rare friendship.

R. G. BICKFORD.

GEORGE DABNEY GRAY.

George Dabney Gray, of Culpeper county, departed this life on the evening of the 21st of August, 1902, just as the sun was sinking behind the Blue Ridge mountains, in sight of which he spent nearly the whole of his life.

He was born on the 29th day of July, 1829, and was consequently seventy-three years of age at the time of his death. He was a son of Gabriel Gray and his wife, Emily Dabney. His ancestors resided in Culpeper for several generations. His grandfather, Gabriel Gray, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and was wounded at the battle of Guilford Court House, while his father was in the War of 1812. His mother was a member of the well known Dabney family of Virginia.

His parents were highly cultivated and intelligent, and in the main directed the education of their son in their own home, with such assistance as the neighborhood schools of the day afforded. At the age of seventeen he left the parental roof to seek his fortune, and lived for some time in Western Tennessee, where he taught school. Returning to Virginia, he studied law in the office of the Honorable Shelton F. Leak, of Madison county, who had married his sister, and who was then in the zenith of his fame and success as a lawyer and politician.

In 1851 Mr. Gray obtained license to practice, and settled in his native county (Culpeper), where he resided up to the time of his death.

Shortly after entering upon the practice of law, he married Miss Charlotte Johnson, of Rockbridge county, who, with two daughters, Mrs. Wm. H. Gilkeson, of Culpeper, and Mrs. Henry R. Miller, of Richmond, Va., survive him. For many years he was an honored elder of the Presbyterian Church, and frequently its representative in the assemblys and courts of that denomina

tion, and was the chief stay, support and counsellor of the local body.

Mr. Gray was an excellent lawyer, and enjoyed all of his life a good practice in the courts of Culpeper and adjoining counties, as well as the Court of Appeals. Although, as heretofore stated, his education was obtained principally at his own home, he nevertheless was an educated and highly cultured man in the classics and general literature, as well as the science of the law, and had a well drilled and disciplined mind. He was an exceedingly careful and painstaking lawyer. He had a clear conception of the principles of law applicable to the facts of his case, and studied and investigated such principles with zeal and industry. His pleadings were carefully drawn, and the statements of facts or law were set forth in them with a force and conciseness that carried conviction with them; especially was this true of his chancery, for which practice he was perhaps better fitted than for the rough and tumble contest of a law case before a jury. He never sought political preferment. He was a lawyer devoted to his profession, and followed it with industry and zeal all of his life-in fact he was hardly fitted for political life. He was a man of strong convictions, frank, open and candid in his views of public men and public measures, and expressed himself freely on all subjects, and in such a manner as to hardly draw him political sympathy or support.

In his domestic life Mr. Gray was a model husband and father, a most affectionate, kindly and lasting friend, and the motto on the armorial bearing of his mother's family: "Faithful and grateful," may be truly said of him.

D. A. GRIMSLEY.