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Francis N. Selkirk was the seventh of eight sons of James Selkirk, a Scotchman who came to America just
before the beginning of the revolutionary war. He enlisted as a soldier in the war, and after being engaged in several battles was finally present at the surrender of Cornwallis, at Yorktown. After the close of the war he settled as a farmer in Bethlehem, Albany county, where Francis was born in October, 1809. His professional studies were under the direction of Dr. Joel A. Wing, and he received his license from the County Medical Society, which he joined in 1829.
Having friends in Texas, he was induced to seek his fortune in that remote portion of the country. He accordingly sailed With his wife in the Walter Scott, in the autumn of 1838, for some port in Texas, but the vessel was wrecked off of one of the Bahama islands. They were fortunately taken from the wreck by another vessel a few minutes before it went beneath the waves, to be lost in the ocean. Everything was lost in the wreck. The vessel was bound for New Orleans, where Dr. Selkirk arrived without means to continue his journey. He abandoned his enterprise and returned to New York. He was never successfully established in his profession, and for a time sought employment in other engagements. His health, which was never vigorous, at length failed, and he died in Albany in July, 1849, at the age of forty years.
