Dr. John Irving

As a young boy, was sent from Jamaica to Charleston, SC with his brothers, while his mother returned to Jamaica to live with his father. From Charleston, 4th December 1806, his grandfather, Mr. Thomas Corbett, thus wrote to the father: "It may surprise you, but it is nevertheless true, that little John is the best scholar of the three. He reads better than either of the others. Neither of them want capacity, but John having been put younger to school contracted an earlier habit of liking for his book than his brothers, and is consequently less irksome to him than to them."

Sent to school in Liverpool, England, in 1809; placed at Rugby, then went to Cambridge, where he became friends with Thomas Babington Macaulay. Studied medicine in Philadelphia, and returned to Charleston to practice.

Owned rice plantations in South Carolina, and wrote "A Day on Cooper River," a reminiscence of South Carolina plantation life; sided with the South in the Civil War, and as a result lost everything he owned. His wife and eldest son died, and he was left with his youngest son, who had married and had a large young family to support.

Went to New York at age 65, where he became salaried secretary and manager of Jerome Park, a horse-racing establishment. When his youngest son died, the grief overcame John Beaufain, and he died in poverty.