JAMES DUNLAP MONCURE: M. D.,
Present superintendent of the Eastern Lunatic Asylum, Williamsburg,
was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1842. After attending the Abbott
school, in Fauquier county, Virginia, he was sent abroad, and studied at
Bernhardts Austallt, Meiningen, Germany; College Rollin, Paris, France;
the Heidelberg University, Germany, where he began his medical studies.
Returning to Virginia, he entered the Virginia Military Institute, where
he was at the breaking out of the war between the States. He served
through the war, first in the corps of cadets, as drill master at Camp
Lee; then in the field in a Virginia cavalry regiment. Resuming his
medical studies, he attended the University of Virginia and the University
of Maryland, graduating from the latter. He practiced medicine in
Baltimore; in Fauquier county, Virginia; in Richmond; in Huntington;
again in Richmond. A profound student of the great profession to
which he devotes his life, Dr. Moncure has made a special study of mental
and nervous diseases. He has filled the chair of adjunct professor at
the Medical College of Virginia; he founded, in 1876, the "Pinel Hospital,"
near Richmond, and was its first superintendent; in 1884 was elected
to his present position, which he has filled continuously since that time.
He has received from the College de France degree of
Bachelier es Lettres
et es Science; is a member of the Medico-Legal Society, and chairman
of its Committee on Naturalization for Virginia.
At St. Pauls (Episcopal) Church, Richmond, Virginia, October 11,
1871, Dr. Moncure married Annie Patterson McCaw, of Richmond.
Their living children are three: Gabriella Brooke, James Dunlap,
William Anderson Patterson, and they have buried three: Richard
Cary Ambler, died in 1873, aged ten days; Delia Ann, died in 1876,
aged eight months; James Dunlap, died in 1878, aged a few hours.
The genealogy of Dr. Moncure's family in America is thus traced:
Gerard Fowlke (or Ffolk) of Gunston Hall, England, settled near Port
Tobacco, Maryland, in 1680. His daughter Frances married Dr. Gustavus
Brown, and their daughter Frances married, in 1738, Rev. John
Moncure. The latter came to America, in 1710, as a physician, later
became a minister of the Episcopal Church. The name Moncure was
originally Moncoeur, changed in Scotland to Moncur and Monkur, later
in America to Moncure. William, son of Rev. John Moncure and wife,
married Sarah Elizabeth Henry. Their son, Henry Wood Moncure, was
born in Richmond, and died in 1866, aged sixty-six years. He married
Katharine Cary Ambler, and Dr. James Dunlap Moncure is their son.
Annie Patterson, wife of Dr. Moncure, is a daughter of Dr. James
Brown McCaw and his wife, Delia Ann, nee Patterson. Dr. McCaw is a
son of Dr. William McCaw, who was a son of Dr. James Drew McCaw,
whose father was Surgeon McCaw, of Lord Dunmore's staff.
