Obituary notices of fellows deceased

Isaac Bayley Balfour, third child and second son of Prof. John Hutton Balfour and his wife, Marion Spottiswood Bayley, born in 27, Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, on March 31, 1853, was descended from families well known in his native city. John Balfour, mariner and merchant, burgess of Edinburgh and owner of estates in America, married in 1696 a daughter of William Arroll, merchant in Stirling, and obtained sasine of the Midlothian property of Braidwood at Temple, near Gorebridge, in 1710. John, first child of John Balfour and Isobel Arroll, born in 1697 and still living in 1710, predeceased his father ; Sarah, second child, born in 1698, was married in 1720 to William Hutton, merchant in Edinburgh and treasurer of the city; Andrew, third child and younger son, born in 1700, succeeded his father in 1731 and was still owner of Braidwood in 1774. Andrew Balfour, first child of Andrew Balfour of Braidwood, and his wife, Margaret Robertson, born in 1737, became a merchant in Edinburgh; John, their fifth child and second surviving son, born in 1749, settled when a young man in Charlestown, South Carolina. Four years later his brother Andrew, abandoning business in Edinburgh, also emigrated to America. Arriving in New England in 1772, he settled in Rhode Island, and espoused the cause of the colonies, taking part during 1775-77 in the War of Independence against England. Now styled Col. Balfour, he visited his brother in Charles­ town. John, however, was a loyalist, and the brothers soon separated ; Andrew in 1778 became a farmer in North Carolina. When John Balfour died in South Carolina on November 15, 1781, his house was destroyed by irregulars who claimed to be republicans. Four months later—March 10, 1782—Col. Andrew Balfour was assassinated in North Carolina by irregulars who professed to be loyalists. The widow of Andrew Balfour brought up her two children as American citizens ; the widow of John took her three children to Edinburgh, where one of those to advise her as regards their education was her late husband’s cousin, Dr. James Hutton (1726-97), son of William Hutton and Sarah Balfour, best remembered now as the author of the Huttonian ‘ Theory of the Earth.’