4o8
VIRGINIA BIOGRAPHY
Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, of
Richmond. Dr. Sanford has never been
active in public affairs, but, at the polls and
in sympathy, has been a Democratic sup-
porter. He is an enthusiastic motorist, be-
longing- to the Richmond Automobile Club.
Dr. Sanford is a demonstrator in obstetrics
at the (Greater) Medical College of Vir-
ginia, formerly being instructor in the
Medical College of Virginia.
He married at Richmond, V^irginia, Janu- ary I, 1896, Louise Moore, daughter of Jacob Owen McGehee, of Prince Edward county, Virginia, a descendant of Scotch- Irish forbears and a veteran of the conflict between the states. Jacob Owen McGehee married Anne Rebecca Duncanson, of Cul- peper county, Virginia, a great-great-grand- daughter of Colonel James Duncanson, who served with George Washington in the French and Indian wars and later fought under that general's command in the war for independence. Children of Dr. Harry Bennett and Louise IMoore (McGehee) San- ford ; Harry Bennett Jr., Carrie Owen, Anne Louise and Virginia Stuart.
Dr. William Selden, a native of Norfolk, Virginia, came of a line of professional men. Samuel Selden, the founder of the family in Virginia, was a lawyer born in England, who, with his wife Rebecca, daughter of Sir James Yeo, a Welsh baronet, and four sons, emigrated to America in 1699. His Virginia estate, a tract of land granted to his wife, was Buckroe Plantation, in Elizabeth City county, where he was justice.
His son, John Selden, who was born in England and emigrated with his parents to Virginia, was also a lawyer, being sheriff of Lancaster county, and justice and King's attorney of Elizabeth City county. William, the son of John Selden, was educated at William and Mary College. For a few years he practiced law, but in 1770 abandoned this profession for the church, being ordained in England by the bishop of London. Re- turning to Virginia, the remainder of his life was spent at Hampton, where he was the last Colonial rector of St. John's Church. His son. Dr. William Boswell Selden, was educated as a physician in the city of Phila- delphia and in Scotland, and settling in Nor- folk, in 1798, there practiced his profession for many years. In 1802 he married Char- lotte Colgate, of Maidstone. Kent, England,
daughter of Robert Colgate, a university
graduate and friend of William Pitt. The
children of Dr. and Mrs. Selden were : Mary
Ann; John; William, the subject of this
sketch ; Susan ; Robert Colgate, who mar-
ried Courtney Warner Brooke ; Henry, a
physician, whose widow, after his death in
the yellow fever epidemic of 1855, married
Baron Henry von Zollikofer ; and Charles.
Dr. W^illiam Selden, the son of Dr. Wil- liam Boswell Selden and Charlotte (Col- gate) Selden, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, August 15, 1808. The house in which he was born had been built by his father, as a summer residence, in the previous year, and still stands at the southwest corner of Bote- tourt and West Freemason streets. Wil- liam Selden was educated in the schools of his native city and at the University of Vir- ginia and studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1830. He continued advanced work in medi- cine in London and Paris for several years and after returning to America began prac- ticing in his native city. He devoted par- ticular attention to internal diseases and enjoyed an extensive reputation as a diag- nostician throughout the South. His wide experience in matters of public health, par- ticularly in regard to yellow fever, with which he had come closely in touch in the epidemic of 1855, led to his appointment b}' Congress in 1878 on the commission of ex- perts to investigate the nature and cause of that disease, but he was prevented from serving by failing health. He was for sev- eral years also a member of the town council and board of health of Norfolk. During his early career he was offered professorships in the L^niversity of \'irginia and the Uni- versity of Pennsylvania, but was unable to accept them.
Unfortunately Dr. Selden wrote very little, most of his productions being short articles published in medical magazines. His two best known are "The History of the Yel- low Fever Epidemic in 1855 in Norfolk," and his paper on "Fractures of the Neck of the Femur ;" in the latter paper he reported some of the earliest recorded cases of bony union as a result of the now recognized method of treatment.
Although deeply deploring the necessity for secession he was loyal to his state and accepted an appointment as physician in the Confederate service, serving in the hospitals
