Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/150

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DE LANCEY
DE LANCEY

held at Alexandria, Va., to concert measures with Gen. Braddock against the French. In September of the same year (1755) Sir Charles Hardy arrived and assumed the functions of governor, the lieutenant-governor returning to the bench. Twenty-two months later, however, Sir Charles, who was an admiral in the English navy, having asked for active employment, sailed (2 July, 1757) from New York in command of an expedition against Louisburg, leaving De Lancey again the ruler of the province, which he remained till his death, three years later. Gov. De Lancey was a man of great learning as a jurist and almost unbounded personal influence, and was undoubtedly one of the ablest of the provincial rulers of New York. Unfortunately, he did not escape the criticisms of his contemporaries. Gov. De Lancey left three sons, two of whom are mentioned below. Of his four daughters, one, Anne, married Judge Thomas Jones, the historian. — James, soldier and political leader, eldest son of the preceding, b. in New York city in 1732; d. in Bath, England, in 1800. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, and he entered the army on his return to New York at the beginning of the French war. He served in the Niagara campaign of 1755, under Sir William Johnson, and commanded the detachment that, aided by a small re-enforcement under Col. Massey, defeated the French force sent to succor Fort Niagara, and compelled the surrender of that work the day following. He also served as aide-de-camp to Gen. Abercrombie in the expedition against Ticonderoga in 1758. On succeeding to his father's estate in 1760, and thus becoming the richest man in America, he took a prominent part in public affairs. He was a member of the assembly in 1768-'75, and assumed the leadership of the conservative party, refusing a seat in the council lost it might hamper his freedom of action. He was the author of the resolution (adopted 25 March, 1775) ordering that a petition be sent to the king, a memorial to the lords, and a remonstrance to the commons, demanding redress of the grievances of the colonists. These were subsequently presented by Edmund Burke, but contemptuously refused and voted down. The remonstrance to the commons was drafted by James de Lancey. In May, 1775, he sailed for England to urge the views of the assembly of New York on the home government. But he was unsuccessful, and, as hostilities had meantime begun, he decided to remain abroad, and in the following year sent for his family. He never returned to this country. His immense estates were confiscated and he was banished, for voting against the resolutions of the congress of 1774. When, in 1788, parliament finally passed an act partially compensating the loyalists for their losses, De Lancey was chosen by those from New York to act as their representative in the board of agents, and he became, after Sir William Pepperell, its most active member. Of his live children, his two sons (one of whom was in the British navy, the other in the army) died bachelors. His eldest daughter married Sir Jukes Granville Clifton, Bart. — John Peter, soldier, brother of the preceding, b. in New York city, 15 July, 1753; d. in Mamaroneck, N. Y., 30 Jan., 1828. He was educated in England, entered the British army in 1771 as ensign, and was promoted to be captain of the 18th regiment of foot. During a portion of the Revolutionary war he served, by special permission, as major of the regiment of Pennsylvania loyalists, and was present at the battles of the Brandywine and Germantown, and at the capture of Pensacola. At the close of the war he returned to his regiment, and was successively stationed in the island of Jersey and at Gibraltar. Resigning from the army, he returned to the United States in 1789, and resided until his death at Mamaroneck. —

William Heathcote, bishop of western New York, son of the preceding, b. in Mamaroneck, N. Y., 8 Oct., 1797; d. in Geneva, N. Y., 5 April, 1865. His education, beginning at the village schools in Mamaroneck, and carried on at the academy of New Rochelle under Messrs. Waite and Staples, was continued at the private school of the Rev. Seth Hart, at Hempstead, L. I., and at that of the Rev. Dr. Lewis Ernest Eigenbrodt, at Jamaica, L. I., by whom he was fitted for Yale, where he was graduated in 1817. He studied divinity under the Rt. Rev. John Henry Hobart, then bishop of New York, and was ordained deacon on 28 Dec., 1819, and priest, 6 March, 1822. As deacon he was chosen by the vestry of Grace church, N. Y., in the spring of 1820, to take temporary charge of that parish, and served till January, 1821, when the Rev. Dr. Wainwright was elected rector. Mr. De Lancey was immediately chosen by the vestry of Trinity church, N. Y., for three months, to fill the vacancy caused by 1 Dr. Wainwright's acceptance of the rectorship of Grace. In 1821 he was called to St. Thomas's church, Mamaroneck, a parish he had founded while in Yale, with the aid of his father and Peter Jay Munro, and served it for ten months without salary, also aiding in securing the erection of a church edifice. In March, 1822, as soon as he was ordained priest, Mr. De Lancey went to Philadelphia, on the invitation of the venerable Bishop White, at the suggestion of Bishop Hobart, to become the former's personal assistant in the three united churches of Christ church, St. Peter's, and St. James's. Thus began that intimate friendship with Bishop White which was only terminated by the death of the latter in the summer of 1836, a friendship so marked that Bishop White called him his adopted son, and consulted with him privately on all matters of importance. No man had the confidence of that venerable prelate to so great an extent as he, and no man knew directly from the bishop so many of the details of the history of the inception and progress of the Protestant Episcopal church from the close of the Revolutionary war to the year 1836 as did Mr. De Lancey. In March, 1823, he was unanimously elected by the vestry of the three united churches in Philadelphia one of the assistant ministers of the parish, the other two being the Rev. James Abercrombie, D. D., and the Rev. Jackson Kemper, D. D. In May, 1823, he was chosen secretary of the Convention of the diocese of Pennsylvania, and was annually re-elected till 1830, when he declined further re-election. In the same year (1823) he was chosen secretary to the house of bishops, and re-elected by them to the office in 1826. In 1827 he was called to St. Thomas's church, New York, the wardens coming to Philadelphia to deliver the call in person. But he deemed it his duty to remain where he was. In the same year, though not quite thirty years of age, Mr. De Lancey was unanimously elected provost of the University of Pennsylvania,, which had somewhat, declined. At the request of Bishop White and Horace Binney, Mr. De Lancey though he much preferred to continue in his chosen profession, accepted the office. This was that old “college in Philadelphia” founded by Benjamin Franklin, Chief-Justice Allen, and other noted men of that day. He also received (in 1827) the degree of D. D. from his alma mater, being the youngest person upon whom, up to that time, that honor had been conferred. He remained