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MEMOIR OF THE HON. JAMES DUANE.

On the 21st October, 1759, Mr. Duane married Mary, the eldest daughter of Col. Robert Livingston,then proprietor of Livingston’s Manor. This marriage tended to give a direction to his studiesand practice, and caused him to become actively engaged in all the lawsuits and discussions relativeto the boundaries of our then colony.

As early as 1753, the Massachusetts people had intruded on and laid claim to the eastern partof both Livingston’s and Rensselaer’s Manors, and notwithstanding the eiforts of our Governors,of Legislative commissioners, and even of the Home Government, no satisfactory settlement of theseintrusions had been made in 1759. The inroad of the New Hampshire men, upon the New York territory, now Vermont , stimulated by the avarice of Gov. Wentworth for patent fees had commencedat a still earlier period, and had already dotted it with what were called New Hampshire grants.Before his marriage, Mr. Duane had been to some extent employed in examining the rights ofNew York in reference to her eastern boundary line, and from that time to the final compromisewith Massachusetts in 178C, he became the most active advocate and diligent and able expositorof her territorial rights and jurisdiction. In the private suits depending on these questions betweenowners of lands along the lines of Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Jersey ; in the discussionsbetween these colonies and New York ; in the controversies between New York and the claimantsof lands along Lake Champlain under the French grants, and in the final settlement of these mattershe was always employed as attorney, counsel, or commissioner, and always on behalf of the rightsof his native State. In the disputes relative to the New Hampshire grants, he was considered thelife and soul of the New York claim and claimants, and at him was aimed most of the coarse witand abuse which the Vermonters showered so bountifully upon all their opponents. He conductedmuch of the correspondence with the agents of our colony in England, while the above disputeswere pending before the King in council, or the Board of Trade, drew several of the reports made tothe General Assembly by its committees, and the elaborate “ State of the Rights of New York, ”published by its order, and a most comprehensive but concise summary of the questions then agitatedand about to be transferred to England for decision between New York and all her neighbors, in aletter to the celebrated Edmund Burke, who was then her agent . During the Revolution, when thedispute relative to “ the grants” was agitated before Congress, as it was for several years, he was themain reliance of New York , and, although at times a most difficult task, .he succeeded inpreventing that body from yielding to the powerful influence of the Eastern States, all of whomtook part with “ tire Green Mountain boysand New York from vindicating her rights by forcewhen irritated by some supposed concession made to “ the revolters,” or at some delayed decisionwhich her authorities insisted ought to have been made at once in her favor.

The standing Mr. Duane had acquired in his profession before the Revolution, caused him to beretained in most of the suits which, on account of the principle involved in them, interested largemasses of the people both in New r York and New Jersey . Among these may be mentioned in thelatter colony, that against the proprietors of East Jersey, and that between the partners in the Coppermine Company; in our own colony, Trinity Church (New Rochell) against Flandreau and others;Sir James Jay against King’s College; Schermerhorn against the Trustees of Schenectady Patent;the King, on the information of the Attorney General, against Lt. Governor Colden. In this lastsuit he was employed for the defendant, and the Lt. Governor expressed much obligation to him forundertaking his cause after other counsel had declined, through fear of Governor Monckton’s dis-pleasure, for the latter was in reality the plaintiff as well as the Judge, the suit being for fees andbefore the Governor as Chancellor. He was also the attorney and counsel of Trinity Church, NewYork , in tire suits against the intruders on that part of their property called the King’s Farm, so notedin the revived claims of the numerous descendants of Aneke Janse. His briefs and written argil-