Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/152

132 preceding, b. in the city of New York about 1740; d. in Annapolis, Nova Scotia, in 1801. In 1765 he was commissioned clerk of the city and county of Albany, which latter then comprised all of the province west of Hudson river and north of Ulster county. Later he was also recorder of the same city, and several times served as a commissioner to treat with the Indians. He was a member of the Albany committee of safety in 1775. On 4 June, 1776, he was dining with the mayor and a number of loyalists in celebration of the king's birthday, when he and others were seized by the Revolutionary party and thrown into prison. A few days later they were taken to Hartford, Conn., where they remained in confinement, on a charge of &ldquo;disaffection,&rdquo; until liberated, on 26 Dec., by order of Gov. Trumbull. De Lancey did not take up arms, but remained in New York until 1783, when he removed to Annapolis, Nova Scotia, where in 1786 he was made a member of the council. &mdash; John, lawyer, brother of the preceding, b. in the city of New York about 1741; d. there in 1829. He was high sheriff of Westchester county in 1769, and succeeded his father as member of assembly for that borough, serving from 1768 till 1772, and being re-elected from 1793 till 1795. He was also a member of the general committee of one hundred (May, 1776), and of the first provincial council for the city of New York in 1775-'6. He was not attainted of treason, nor was his property confiscated. &mdash; James, soldier, brother of the preceding, b. in West Farms, Westchester co., N. Y., about 1750; d. near Annapolis, Nova Scotia, in 1809. He succeeded his brother, John, as high sheriff of his native county in 1770, and served till 1776. He took no part in the Revolution till 1777, when Gov. Tryon commissioned him captain of a troop of light-horse of fifty men. called by that official &ldquo;the élite of the county,&rdquo; and selected from the Westchester militia regiment, then commanded by Col. Hewlett. At their head he began those rapid and successful raids within the enemy's lines in Westchester and Connecticut that made him famous. He succeeded Hewlett as colonel of the regiment (or &ldquo;Refugees,&rdquo; as they were commonly called) in 1780, after the members of his troop had been nearly all killed or captured. The latter, from their seizures of cattle, had earned the sobriquet of &ldquo;Cowboys,&rdquo; a designation afterward applied to marauders who, without commissions or military organization, robbed friend and foe alike. Col. De Lancey never served outside of Westchester county and its borders, or held a commission in either of &ldquo;De Lancey's battalions&rdquo; commanded by his uncle, Oliver, as has been erroneously said. He was twice taken prisoner by stratagem, but the troop itself was never captured. Many plans to this end were laid by Washington and his generals; but the alertness, dash, and courage of its leader always served to bring them to naught. At the close of the war he retired to Nova Scotia, having been attainted and his estate confiscated by the act of 1779. After his arrival in Nova Scotia, he was appointed member of the council, in which body he sat for several years. By many biographical writers (notably Sabine) he has been confounded with his cousin, James, son of Lieut.-Gov. De Lancey. &mdash; Warren, soldier and loyalist, brother of the preceding, d. in Madison county, N. Y., in 1855. He was the youngest son of Peter, ran away from home to join the British army, and received a commission as cornet of horse in reward for his gallantry at the battle of White Plains, N. Y. After the war he resided in the city of New York and in Poughkeepsie, subsequently removing to Madison county.

&mdash; Oliver, soldier, youngest son of Etienne, b. in New York city, 16 Sept., 1708: d. in Beverley, Yorkshire, England, 27 Nov., 1785. He was originally a merchant, being a member of the firm founded by his father. He early took an active part in public affairs, and was noted for his decision of character and his personal popularity. He represented the city of New York in the assembly in 1756-'60, and served as alderman of the out-ward from 1754 till 1757. He was active in military affairs during the entire French war, and, in 1755, obtained leave from Connecticut to raise men there for service in New York, for which he received the thanks of the assembly of his own province. In March, 1758, he was appointed to the command of the forces then being collected for the expedition against Crown Point, and succeeded in raising the entire New York city regiment within ten days. He was placed at the head of the New York contingent, under Gen. Abercrombie (about 5,000 strong), as colonel-in-chief. In the attack on Fort Ticonderoga, 8 July, 1758, he supported Lord Howe, and was near that officer when he fell mortally wounded. In November of the same year the assembly of New York again voted him its thanks &ldquo;for his great service and singular care of the troops of the colony while under his command.&rdquo; In 1760 he was appointed a member of the provincial council, retaining his seat until 1776. In 1763 he was made receiver-general, and, in 1773, colonel-in-chief of the southern military district of the province. &ldquo;In June, 1776,&rdquo; says the historian Jones, &ldquo;he joined Gen. Howe on Staten Island; and, had that officer profited by his honest advice, the American war, I will be bold to say, would have ended in a very different manner from what it did.&rdquo; In September of that year he raised three regiments of loyalists, largely at his own expense. of 500 men each, known as &ldquo; De Lancey's battalions.&rdquo; Of these regiments a brigade was formed, and Col. De Lancey was commissioned brigadier-general, becoming the senior brigadier-general in the loyalist service. He was assigned to the command of Long Island, where he remained during the war. One of his battalions served in the south with great credit under his son-in-law, Col. John Harris Cruger, doing effective service in the defence of Fort Ninety-Six against Gen. Greene. In November, 1777, his country-seat at Bloomingdale, on the Hudson, was robbed and burned at night by a party of Americans from the water-guard at Tarrytown, his wife and daughters being driven from the house in their night-dresses and compelled to spend the night in the fields, now the Central Park. Having been attainted, and his immense estates in New York and New Jersey confiscated, Gen. De Lancey retired to England, where he resided in Beverley, until his death. Of his four daughters, Susanna married Sir William Draper, while Charlotte became the wife of Sir David Dundas, K. C. B., who succeeded the Duke of York as commander-in-chief of the British army. &mdash; Stephen, lawyer and soldier, eldest son of the preceding, b. in New York city about 1740; d. in Portsmouth, N. H., Dec. 1798. He was educated in England, and practised law in New York before the Revolutionary war, during which he served as lieutenant-colonel and colonel of the &ldquo;De Lancey's&rdquo; second battalion. After the war he was appointed chief justice of the Bahama islands, and subsequently was made governor of Tobago and its dependencies. His health becoming impaired while he held the latter office, he sailed for England to rejoin his family. But he grew rapidly worse on the voyage, and, at his own request, was transferred to an American