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was very ill; I mounted instantly and hurried to his house, in Bowery Lane, but on the way wasalarmed by a call ‘ that all was over,’ and too true I found it; he. sat reclined in ids chair, one legdrawn in, the other extended, his arms over the elbows, so naturally, that had I not been apprizedof it, I certainly should have spoken as I entered the room. No body but his youngest daughter, achild, was present at the time, so little did the family apprehend the least danger. Never didthese eyes behold such a spectacle, or did my spirits feel such an impression. The idea affects mewhenever I think of it; to lose such a companion, such a counsellor, such a friend.”
Lieut. Governor De Lancey left three sons and three daughters. James, the eldest, educated atEton and Cambridge University, was a prominent member of the Assembly for many years prior,and up to the Revolution. He went to England on a visit in the spring of 1775, and, the war com-mencing, did not return. His son, Lieut. Col. James De Lancey , of the First Dragoon Guards,is the only male member of his family now living. Stephen, the second son, whose intellect wasaffected by disease in his infancy, was killed accidentally in 1795. Of the daughters, Mary marriedWilliam Walton of New York ; Anne became the wife of the Hon. Thos. Jones of Fort Neck, Recorderof New York, and one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the Province; and Susannah diedunmarried. John Peter, the youngest child of the Lieut . Governor, was also educated in England,at Harrow, and at the military school at Greenwich; he entered the army, served till 1789, whenhe threw up his Commission of Captain, returned shortly after to America , and resided till his deathin 1828, at his grandfather Heathcote’s old seat, at Mamaroneck, Westchester county , of which hewas the proprietor. 1
No American had greater influence in the colonies than the subject of this sketch. Circumstances,it is true, aided in raising him to this elevation, such as education, connections, wealth, and hishigh conservative principles; but lie owed as much to personal qualities, perhaps, as to all theother causes united. Gay, witty, easy of access, and frank, he was personally the most popularruler the Province ever possessed, even when drawing tightest the reigns of government.
It was this unusual admixture of the popular spirit with that of the incumbent of office, thatrendered him so obnoxious to the assaults of his enemies. There are few instances in our history,of attempts to destroy a public man, such as those which were made by the enemies of JamesDe Lancey . When Sir Danvers Osborn was found suspended in a garden, dead, it was whisperedthat ire had come to his end through the ambition of his successor, the new head of the colony. 3Subsequently it was proven beyond a cavil, that Osborn, borne down with grief at the death of hiswife, had made two previous attempts at suicide; but so frantic were the efforts of his opponents,that the unscrupulous did not hesitate covertly to bring the charge of murder against theirsuccessful rival. After withholding his commission wrongfully for six years, they consummatedtheir opposition by hinting at this atrocious calumny.
Religious acrimony greatly heightened the intensity of the hostility to De Lancey . He and hisassociates openly laughed at what they termed “the sanctimonious grimaces” of the other sects, andpossibly were more careless of those cutting wounds inflicted by the tongue, than was either rightor prudent. As a consequence, his name has passed into history under colors which take their linesrather from the passions of the day than from the light of truth. The head of the court party, he
1 Thomas James, the eldest son of this gentleman, died a judge of Westchester county , at the age of 32 ; William Heathcote, his younger son, is the present Bishop of Western New York; Edward Floyd, another son, died in early manhood.His eldest daughter, Anne Charlotte, married John Loudon McAdarn, immortalized by his system of making re ads; thesecond, Susan Augusta, the wife of the late J. Fennimore Cooper, Esq., died 20th Jan'y, 1852; and the two youngest arestill living unmarried.
2 Smith’s History of New York; II., Chap. 3t '