ments and great intellect, whose grace and conversational powers contributed much to the advancement of her husband's home, and naturally gave her a leading place in the most cultured society of that day. Judge Bedford's residence in Wilmington was at what is now known as No. 606 Market Street (now occupied by William J. Fisher, and for many years known as the McCaulley house). It was built by Abijah Dawes, an early resident of Wilmington, and in the Revolution is said to have been the head-quarters of the French army. It was at that time the stateliest house in the borough. Afterwards this house was owned and occupied by Louis McLane, a distinguished Delawarean who served as United States Senator, Secretary of State, and Secretary of the Treasury under President Andrew Jackson, and twice as United States Minister to Great Britain. Judge Bedford occupied the house for some years, but in 1793 bought from the Charles Robinson estate a farm of two hundred and fifty acres on the Concord Turnpike in Brandywine Hundred, being, as described in the deed, "Pisgah, part of a larger tract called New-work." He renamed the place "Lombardy," and the present Lombardy Cemetery is a part of the same farm. The large and handsome stone mansion which he built on the farm is still standing; and there he made his home during the remainder of his life. Elizabeth Montgomery in her "Reminiscences of Wilmington" says: "Judge Bedford and his lady were remarkably handsome persons and of noble stature. Mrs. Bedford received an accomplished education and spoke French fluently, her mother being a native of France. When emigrants from that country crowded this town, Mrs. Bedford was their friend and patron. Her entertainments excelled in tasteful arrangement and ornamental display-so said foreigners." Judge Bedford died on March 30, 1812, in the sixtyfifth year of his age. His wife, one son, and a daughter survived him. Mrs. Bedford lived nineteen years after her husband, dying in 1831. For several of the last years of her life she was blind, yet still retained the charming manners which had characterized her youth and prime. The son, whose name was Gunning James Bedford, and who was always of feeble mind, died in 1845. The daughter, and youngest child of Judge Bedford, was Henrietta Jane Bedford, who lived to reach her eighty-third year, having died in this city in 1871. She possessed intellectual gifts of a high order. She alone of all the children of her father's house appeared to inherit the abilities with which her parents were endowed. Her education was the best that her day afforded for women, and she was trained in all the accomplishments then in vogue. She was a passionate lover of music, performing skilfully upon piano and guitar, and having learned to play the harp when nearly seventy years old. Her conversational powers were very fine, and even in her old age she entered most vivaciously into social intercourse. Retaining full recollection of most of the famous people who had gathered at her father's fireside, she brought the past into contact with the present in a remarkable manner. Animated, witty, full of anecdote, |