MEMOIR OF THE HON. JAMES DE LANCEY.

639

was termed a demagogue—a gentleman, a scholar, affluent, and of a peculiarly gay and social tempera-ment, lie is accused of the sordid vices of the miser and extortioner,—delicate, a martyr to asthma,and obliged to be abstemious, he is charged with low excess—beloved by all around him, lie isdenounced as hateful—and approved by the ministry in England, even when opposing their policy,he is pointed out to posterity as a political sycophant.

The near approach of the Devolution, and the uncontradicted odium that the popular writers ofthis country lavished, as a matter of course, upon the servants of the crown, contributed to thesuccess of the false character thus given to Lieut . Governor De Lancey. The representations ofdefeated opponents have been received for historic truth, and an almost village littleness of gossipaccepted for an analysis of character.

James De Lancey was the fourth, and last, native of New York that administered the affairsof that colony. He corresponded personally, as well as officially, witli Pitt, afterwards Earl ofChatham , during the critical period of the war of 1756. At his death, his sister, Lady Warren,applied to that statesman to put her yougest brother, Oliver De Lancey, in the office lie had filled ;but finding the minister turning a cold ear to her application, she cried with warmth, “I hope, Mr.Pitt, you have had reason to be satisfied with the brother I have lost.” “Madam,” was the answer,“had your brother James lived in England, he would have been one of the first men in it.” 1 Thegreat fault of his character was indolence. He read but did not like to write. So far from beingavaricious or grasping, he even loved his ease more than he loved money. One of the sources ofprofit to the colonial Government W'as the fees payable upon the signing of land patents. At thedeath of Lieut . Governor De Lancey, it is said that so many of these patents awaited his approval,that the signing them gave a large sum at once to his successor, Mr. Colden.

1 This remark was mentioned by Lady Warren to the Lt. Governor’s youngest son, John Peter De Lancey, by whom theanecdote was related to his son and son-in-law, Bishop De Lancey, and J. Fennimore Cooper, Esq.

MISCELLANIES.

The First Church in New Netherlanu.— It is stated by the Rev. Mr. Prime, in his History of Long Island, 132,that the church erected at Southold and that at Southampton, “ were the first sanctuaries erected for the worship of theLiving God, within the entire province of the New Netherlands .” This is entirely a mistake. The earliest of these buildingsdoes not date further back than 1640, whilst it is on record in the Secretary of State’s office, that Director Van Twillercaused a church to be erected in New Amsterdam, now New York , as early as the year 1633.

Christmas on the Mohawk River in 1769.—The manner in wch. ye ppl. in yse parts keep Xmas day in commemor’gof the Birth of ye Saviour, as ya pretend is very affect’g and strik’g. They generally assemble for read’g prayers, or Divineservice—hut after, they eat drink and make merry. They allow of no work or servile labour on ys day and ye follow’g—their servants are free—but drink’g swear’g figlit’g and frolic’g are not only allowed, but seem to be essential to ye joy of yeday.— Rev. S. Kirkland’s Journal.

The first Episcopal Church in Poughkeepsie was erected in 1774. It was a very handsome stone building fifty-threefeet by forty. Rev. John Beardsley had, however, been a missionary at that place for several years previous. This gentle-man adhered to the Crown on the breaking out of the Revolution; was appointed Chaplain to the Loyal American Reg’t in1782, and in 1783 emigrated with his family to New Brunswick and settled at a place called Maugerville, where he died.

4 Apl. 1788 — The mail was seat fer the first time te Seheseetaif, — Sir Wm. Johnson’s MSS.