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office in his native land ; and in the various political controversies in which the latter becameafterwards engaged, the archbishop’s influence was always exerted in his behalf in the councils oftheir Sovereign. How long Mr. De Lancey remained at the University is uncertain, as heentered at an advanced period and not at the beginning of the academic course. Towards the closeof 1725, he returned to New York . 1 Admittted, soon after his arrival, to the bar, he commenced thepractice of his profession in his native city, and soon rose to that eminence to which his greatnatural abilities and sound and cultivated judgment entitled him. He was early distinguishedfor the active and responsible part which he took in political affairs. Three years after his return,Gov. Montgomerie upon the death of Mr. John Barbarie, recommended him as that gentleman’ssuccessor in the Council of the Province. In his letter to the Lords Commissioners for Trade andPlantations 2 dated May 30 th , 1728, the Governor says : “ I am now fully convinced that it will befor his Majesty’s service to appoint Mr. James De Lancey to be one of the Council here. He is everyway qualified for the post ; his Father is an eminent merchant, a member of the Assembly, one ofthe richest men of the Province, and he his eldest son. I beg your Lordships will recommendhim as a proper person to succeed Mr. Barbarie.”
The board followed the Governor’s suggestion and did recommend him to the King, George II. , bywhom lie was called up to the council by mandamus bearing date Jan. 26 th , 1729. 3
Shortly before he entered the council Mr. De Lancey married Miss Anne Heathcote, the eldestof the two daughters of Hon. Caleb Heathcote a Councillor of the Province, and Receiver Generalof his Majesty’s Customs in North America . 4 Already through his professional exertions, and theliberality of his father, in very easy circumstances, this marriage made Mr. De Lancey a wealthyman 5 , for Miss Heathcote inherited upon her father’s death one half of his large estate, real andpersonal; the latter alone amounting to upwards of £10,000 sterling and the former being one of thelargest landed estates in the Province.
Stephen De Lancey, his father, died in 1741, upwards of 80 years of age, “worth at least£100,000 gained by his own honest industry, and that with credit, honor and reputation.” 6 Besideswhich he possessed large tracts of land on New York Island and in Westchester , and Ulster counties.The whole of which estate he left to his five surviving children equally, 7 and the share which thusfell to James De Lancey , added to what he already possessed, made him one of the richest men inAmerica .
1 Lond. Doc. XXXI., 136. 2 Lond. Doc. XXIY., 15. 3 Smith’s Hist. N. Y. i. 245.
4 This gentleman was a son of Gilbert Heathcote, Mayor of Chester in England, and was a merchant and a man of wealthin that country. The cause of his emigration was very different from that which brought most Englishmen to America . Hewas engaged to a very beautiful lady, to whom he introduced his eldest brother, Sir Gilbert Heathcote, (afterwards M. P. forLondon, and Lord Mayor of that city in 1711, at the very time his brother was Mayor of New York , and one of the chieffounders and the first, governor of the Bank of England ), a circumstance most unfortunate for him, for the lady soon found
she preferred the elder brother, and broke her engagement with the younger, who at once left England and came to NewYork, where he arrived in 1692. He bought large tracts of land in Westchester , from Indians and others, which he had
erected into a manor called the Manor of Scarsdale. He became a leading man in the colony, w’as judge of AYestchester andColonel of its militia all his life, first Mayor of the borough of Westchester, a Councillor of the Province, Mayor of New York for three years, for a time Commander of the colony’s forces and from 1715 to his death, in 1721, Receiver General of thecustoms for all North America. He married Anne, daughter of Col. (Tangier) Smith, of Long Island , so called from havingbeen governor of that city in Charles 2d’s time, and left two daughters: Anne who married James De Lancey and Marthamarried to Lewis Johnston, M. D., of Perth Amboy.
5 When he first opened his office after his return from England, his father gave him £3000 currency towards “ his advance-ment in the world,” as the recital in his AVill expresses it. See Will, N. Y. Surrogate’s office, XIV., 91 &c.
6 Jones’Mss. Hist, of N.Y. 7 Will Book XIV., 91, N. Y. Surrogate’s office.