James Blair

Info added per Mary S Lockwood's "Lineage Book of the Charter Members" of the DAR. Son of Francis Preston Blair and Eliza Violet Howard Gist. Married Mary Serena Eliza Jesup, 14 Jan 1846.

Children:

• 1. Ann Jesup, b. 10 Dec 1846, d. 18 Mar 1847.
• 1. Violet, b. 14 Aug 1848, d. 14 Jan 1933; m. (Judge) Albert Covington Janin.
• 2. Jesup, b. 13 Feb 1852, d. 1 Apr 1902.
• 3. Lucy James "Jimmie", b. 26 Dec 1853, d. 4 Feb 1902; m. George Montague Wheeler.

James Lawrence Blair was a U.S. naval officer. As a young man, he accompanied Commodore Charles Wilkes in his historic voyage to the Antarctic (1838-42). James made his fortune in the California gold rush by piloting ships into the San Francisco harbor, and established the first steamship line on the Sacramento River in 1849. He resigned from the Navy in 1851 and died suddenly in San Francisco, never having fully recovered from badly frozen limbs during the Antarctic expedition. His widow, Mary Serena Eliza (Jesup) Blair, daughter of Thomas Sidney Jesup, and three children: Violet, Jesup, and Lucy James, were left under the protection of the powerful Blair family in Washington, DC

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 7 2020, 14:47:26 UTC
• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Aug 7 2020, 15:13:14 UTC