Obituary of William Robert Lamberton of Pelham Published in 1894

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In 1894, The Scotch-Irish Society of America published an obituary as a memorial to William Robert Lamberton of Pelham. The item read as follows:

"WILLIAM ROBERT LAMBERTON.

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AT Saybrook, Conn., died on Thursday, August 9, Willie Robert Lamberton, in the thirty-third year of his age.

Willie Robert Lamberton was the only child of the late Col. W. H. Lamberton, of Carlisle, Pa., and Mrs. Constance M. Lamberton-Miller, of this city. The funeral ceremonies took place at Grace Church, Old Saybrook, Conn., on the morning of August 10, 1894, and his remains rest in the family plot at Woodlawn, New York City. He died of consumption.

From his extreme youth he gave evidence of a strong mind and great will power. He rapidly developed a legal mind of the highest order, and attracted the attention and love of the late Charles O'Conor, whose mantle seemed to have fallen upon him and who bequeathed to him his private library. He was as a son in the latter years of the life of that great master in jurisprudence. His father, Col. William Harkness Lamberton, was on Gov. Porter's staff when twenty years old. He was in Florida when the war broke out. The Lamberton family is a very old one, and Willie Robert Lamberton is directly descended from William de Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrew's (Scotland), 1297. The ancient Coat of Arms are: 'Arms-Argent, three escollop shells, table, crest, stag's head at gaze, St. Andrew's cross between the Attires. Motto: Volonte de Dieu."

His first important action in a brief life of great activity was the organization, completion, and successful operation of the Pelham Park Railroad Company, of which he as President until affliction compelled him to retire to the position of Vice President about a year since; he was prominent in a number of railway cases in which large amounts were involved; he was the youngest street railway President in the United States at the English Annual Convention of the New York State Street Railway Association, held at Rochester, N. Y., September 16, 1890, and whose likeness appears in a group of the Association and friends photographed on that day; he was a prominent and influential man in the interests of the town of Pelham, Westchester County, N. Y., where his advice and opinions were much sought after and successfully followed; he was frequently importuned to accept proposed offfcial positions in vari- [Page 210 / Page 211] ous societies; he was a member of the Country, New York Athletic, and Pelham Manor Clubs. His kindness to the poor, from whom he never withheld possible assistance, was proverbial.

At the very threshhold of a brilliant and most promising life he passed away from amongst men at the village of Saybrook, Conn., where he was temporarily residing, on the morning of August 9, at nine o'clock.

His private life was that of devotion to home and to his mother; latterly, to her inculcations of the truth, touching imperishable honors, and of which he gave evidence that he had assuredly secured -- a blessed immortality.

J.B.M."

Source: The Scotch-Irish in America -- Proceedings and Addresses of the Sixth Congress, at Des Moines, IA., June 7-10, 1894, pp. 210-11 (Nashville, TN: Barbee & Smith, Agents 1894) (Published by order of The Scotch-Irish Society of America).

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