Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/97

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BYNUM.


BYRNE.


•was for some time imprisoned in New York city. After the close of the war he studied law with liis stei^father, Chief Justice Pearson, and was admitted to the bar in January, 1867, practising his profession at Morganton, N. C. In 1878 he was elected to the state senate. In January, 1889, he was appointed by Governor Scales judge of the superior court for the tenth judicial dis- trict of North Carolina, and in 1890 he was elected to the same position.

BYNUM, William D., representative, was born near Newberry, Greene county, Ind., June 26, 1816. He was graduated at the Indiana uni- versity in 1869, and was admitted to the bar in the same year. He was city attorney of Wash- ington, Ind., from 1871 to 1875, and was mayor from 1875 to 1879. In 1876 he was a Democratic elector. He removed to Marion county in 1881, and was elected a member of the state legislature in 1883, and speaker of the house in 1883. In 1884 he was elected a representative from the

seventh Indiana district, and served from the

49th to the 53d Congress, inclusive. He resumed his law practice at Indianapolis, and was a mem- ber of the commission to revise the laws of the United States in 1900.

BYRD, William, colonist, was born in London, England, in 1650; son of Jolin and Grace (Stegge) Byrd. He emigrated to America in 1674 to take possession of a large " ti'act of land in Virginia," which had been bequeathed to him by his uncle, Capt. Thomas Stegge, "gent." The present site of Richmond was included in the es- tate, and that town was founded some years later by his son and heir. By rea.son of his wealth and -ability he at once obtained prominence in the colony. He was a member of the council and •of the house of burgesses, and he was ' ' receiver- general of his majesty's revenues for the colony," serving in each capacity for many years. " West- over," the mansion purchased by Mr. Byrd from Theodorick Bland, became one of the old-time landmarks in Virginia, and was still owned by his descendants in 1897. He died in Westover, Va . Doc. 4, 1704.

BYRD, William, lawyer, was born in West- over, Va., March 16, 1674; son of William and Mary (Horsemanden) Byrd. He was called to the bar in the Middle Temple, London, England, and returning to Virginia he became one of the most prominent and influential citizens of the -colony. He succeeded his father as " receiver- general of revenues," undertook and successfully executed three important missions to England on behalf of the colony, and was for thirty- seven years a member of the colonial council, acting for some years as its president. When in 1699 some three hundred Huguenots .sought ^shelter in the colony he received them with


fatherly affection and his liberality to them wa.'s princely. He was indefatigable in his efforts to promote the growth and development of the colony, and offered large tracts of his own pri- vate property by way of inducement to attract settlers. He was a fellow of the Royal society of Great Britain, and was noted for his literary and scientific tastes, and for his patronage of the arts. To the library left bim by his father he made valuable additions until it comprised some thirty- five hundred volumes. He served on a commis- sion appointed to adjust the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina, and on his return from his tour of inspection had his notes of the journey copied. Later these notes were edited and published under the titles: The History of the Dividing Line between Virginia and Norfli Carolina, A Journey to the Land of Eden (1783). and ^4 Progress to the Mines, known as the Westover Manuscripts. He died at West- over, Va., Aug. 26, 1744.

BYRNE, Andrew, R. C. bishop, was born at Navan, Ireland, Dec. 5, 1802. While a student at the College of Navan he decided to join the American mission, and in 1820 he accompanied Bishop England to the United States, where he finished his theological studies, and was ordained in 1827. He was sent as a missionary priest to the scattered Catholic families in North and South Carolina. Three years of this arduous work, with its long and fatiguing journeys, made inroads upon his health, which caused his return to Charleston in 1830, where he was made vicar-general, and accompanied Bishoi? England as theologian to the council of Baltimore. In 1836 he was assistant pastor at the cathedral in New York, and afterwards pastor of St. James's church in that city. In 1841 he made a journey to Ireland at the request of Bishop Hughes, to induce Christian brothers to take charge of the parochial schools in New York, but was unsuc- cessful in accomplishing the object of his mis- sion. Father Bj'rne now became pastor of the church of the Nativity in New York until, in 1841, he opened the new St. Andrew's church, which through his exertions had been transformed from a secular edifice into a Christian church. In 1843 the new diocese of Little Rock, Ark., was erected, and he was chosen its first bishop, and consecrated at St. Patrick's cathedral, by Bishop Hughes, March 10, 1844. His missionary labors, which extended to the Indian nation, were even more arduous than those of his first charge, as he had often to travel from seven hundred to one thousand miles from one mission to another. He twice visited Ireland, where he procured a number of assistants and co-laborers. He, with the assistance of a colony of sisters of merry, founded five convents and numerous