The Minor Family of Somerset

EDWARD LLOYD (VII)
MASTER OF WYE HOUSE
1825-1907
For evident reasons peculiar difficulties oppose the compil
ation of the lives of living persons. So great are these difficu
lties that many of the best biographical compendiums exclude acc
ounts of those who have not finished their course. But in orde
r togive a certain completeness, to this series of papers it i
s necessary to saysomething of the present representative of th
e Lloyds, Edward Lloyd, Seventhof the name, who may be denomina
ted the Master of Wye House. What sHall be done in this emergenc
y of having to speak of a man face to face, as it were, and spea
k truly, "nothing extenuate nor sit down aught in malice," mus
t necessarily be to give but a sketch, mere outlines without sha
ding or coloring from the literary artist; for to attempt more t
han to men- tion the principal incidents of the life of Col. Llo
yd, without comment or reflection upon them would be running th
e risk of offending his modesty by praise, or his pride bycensu
re, either of which would be violations of the proprieties. Offe
nce may be given to a man of sensibility ahnost as easily by pan
egyric as by disparagement. It is agree- able to all to be wel
l spoken of, but accompanying thepleasure of praise is the pain
ful distrust of its being wholly merited; and as for blame, it c
an hardly be meted out so justly that the subject will feeltha
t he has got merely his due. Edward Lloyd (VII), the son of Edwa
rd Lloyd(VI), the fariner, and Alicia McBlair, was born in th
e house of his maternalgrandparents in the city of Baltimore o
n the 22d Day of October, 1825, the eldest of five children an
d the only son that attained majority. His early edu- cation wa
s conducted by tutors, but when he arrived at proper age he wa
splaced under the care of the Rev. Dr. Muhlenburg at College Po
int, near Flushing, in the State of New York. By this eminent in
structor he was prepared forcollege and he was entered at Princ
eton, New Jersey; but as his preference lay in the direction o
f a life of activity he did not complete the prescribedcourse
. He proposed to himself the following of the calling of his for
efathers, that of the farmer, and soon after leaving college h
e took charge of oneor more of his father's farms, living a
t " Presq'ile " formerly the residence of Mr. Murray Lloyd, hi
s uncle. Since that time he has given himself unremittingly to t
he duties of his avocation, with occasional diversions into poli

• tics, which seems to be at the present the principal amusemen
  t of countrygentlemen, as they afford a substitute for the exci
  tements of the fox-hunt and the horse-race, and like those sport
  s have they a pretended utility. Thosewho follow the hounds cla
  im that they are destroying noxious vermin; those who patroniz
  e the turf that they are improving the breeds of horses; so poli
  tics are pursued under the thin disguise of solicitude for publi
  c welfare. Asthose sports have been in great measure abandone
  d by self-respecting men, there is dangerpolities may also be fo
  rsaken by the same class and for the samereasons, namely, thei
  r disreputable associations and their discreditable methods. S
  o noble a pursuit as politics, in its best sense, should confe
  r honorupon and not receive it from any man, however worthy, wh
  o follows it; but that Col. Lloyd and men like him still partici
  pate in the pastime or the game as it is played is the cause o
  f its maintaining a respectability which would otherwise be lost
  .
  The first appearance of Mr. Edward Lloyd, Jr., in a publi
  c capacity however, was as a military man. In the year 1846, whe
  n he had barely attained his majority, the Mexican war broke out
  , under circumstances farfrom creditable to the nation; but a
  s men have not yet lost the propensitiesof their savage ancesto
  rs, or even their more remote brutal progenitors, when blood i
  s once shed, the ravening madness seie