Peter Delancey

From The Peopling of New York City

Peter DeLancey

Peter DeLancey was a French merchant affiliated with the Court Party. His slave, Albany, was accused but not arrested.

I began my research on Peter Delancey on ancestry.com and familysearch at the NYPL. Because there was more than one Peter DeLancey and although all the information seemed to be leading to one specific person there was not sufficient information to eliminate all the other ones until it was confirmed by the inconsistent information such as year dates that were associated with other Peter Delanceys. After this confirmation I was able to more easily search for specific information regarding Peter DeLancey from New York Burning. With the preliminary research I also found that Delancey and De Lancey are interchangeable.

According to most sources and records on ancestry.com and familysearch.org, Peter DeLancey was born on August 26, 1705 in New York, New York^[1] and died on October 17, 1770 in West Farms, West Chester Co., NY. At this point I was pretty sure that I had the right person since his death place information was consistent with New York Burning by its mention of the Delancey Farms. He was born to the parents - Stephen (Etienne) DeLancey and Anne van Cortland (alternate spelling is Cortlandt). On January 07, 1737, Peter Delancey married Alice (or Elizabeth) Colden(pictured right^[2]), the daughter of Governor Cadwallader Colden.^[3] He had 7 siblings, including an Oliver Delancey and the prominent James Delancey, who I believe is probably one of JB's people to research.

Peter DeLancey is from the the DeLancey's that were a French nobility in France. His father, Stephen DeLancey, was born on October 24, 1663 in Caen, Normandie Province, France. His parents, and thus Peter's grandparents, were Seigneur Jacques de Lancy and Marguerite Bertrand.^[4] (I searched on the title 'seigneur' and found that it was used for someone who had a lot of land and became a feudal lord.) Stephen DeLancey moved from France after the Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685 to Holland, then to London, and then to NY. He sailed to New York on March 20, 1686 and arrived on June 7, 1686. In New York City, Stephen DeLancey became a merchant and was quite influential in his town. He even represented the city at one point. He used his money very wisely to help the public. For example, he helped introduce (with John Moore) the use of fire-engines in New York in 1731.^[5] Based on the continuous popup of James Delancey's name, it seemed that he was the one that took after him in becoming as influential as he was in public affairs.)

Stephen Delancey married Anna van Cortlandt on January 19 1700. They had 7 children: James, Peter, Oliver, Stephen, Susan, who married Admiral Sir Peter Warren, and Ann, who married John Watts, Senior.^[6] James Delancey was appointed Chief Justice of New York in 1733 and in 1753 he became Lieutenant Governor. Oliver Delancey served in the French and Indian War, was elected to House of Assembly in 1759, and became a Member of the Council in 1760.^[7]

Peter Delancey married Elizabeth Colden and had 12 children: 1.Stephen, who was named after his grandfather. He was a lawyer, Recorder of Albany, and Clerk of Tyron County 2.John, who was a Member of the Assembly from Westchester County and High Sheriff of that county. He married a Miss Wickham. 3.Peter, who became a lawyer of Charleston, South Carolina. 4. Anne, who married Joh Coxe of Philadelphia. 5.Alice, who married Ralph Izard of South Carolina, a delegate to the Continental Congress and a US senator from South Carolina. 6.Elizabeth, who died unmarried. 7.James, who was High Sheriff of Westchester County and a Tory during the Revolution. In Nova Scotia he was appointed a Member of the Council in 1794 and died there in 1800. 8.Oliver, who was born in West Farms. He resigned his Lieutenancy in the British Navy because of his loyalty to America at the time of the Revolution. He died in Westchester on September 4, 1820. 9.Susanna, who married Colonel Thomas Barclay 10.Warren, who was drowned during his childhood. 11. Warren, who ran away from home to join the British forces. He was made a Cornet of Horse for his bravery at the Battle of White Plains. He then moved to Madison County, New York. 12. Jane, who was born on September, 5 and died on March 2, 1809. She married her cousin, John Watts, Junior, the son of John Watts, Senior.^[8]

In his will, Stephen DeLancey bequeathed a lot of property to his sons and his wife, attesting to the wealth of the DeLancey's. He particularly mentions a "mansion house" on Broadway to the north of Trinity Church. He also had a lot on the corner of Broad and Pearl Streets, which was once Fraunce's Tavern.^[9] On the left is a picture I took of Fraunces Tavern during my self-guided tour that began on Wall Street.

To his son, Peter, he wrote "all my mills, mill houses, mill boat, farm and lands situate in Westchester County, upon the Bronx river." Peter also received from him 3,000 pounds. Peter Delancey became known as "Peter of the Mills" because of his posession of this valuable property on the banks of the Bronx River.^[10] Peter Delancey left his estate amongst 10 children and his Widow, whose share was later given to the youngest son when he came of age. All the buildings on the spot were burnt - 2 dwelling houses, 3 stories, and 2 stables. At first it was thought that the fire was accidental but reports then caused the Delanceys to believe it to have been on purpose. On record is the fact that Susanna had 1/11 of the estate of her father which consists of "divers Lots and houses" in New York. This estate was actually left undivided until 1782 and Susanna obtained one share. The whole estate was worth 7000 pounds. However, after the destruction of the houses by the fire Susanna Barclay sold her share for 250 pounds.^[11] Pictured on the right is an article that attests to the prominence of the Delancey's and their property, specifically in Westchester.^[12]

Peter DeLancey was a member of the Assembly from Westchester County for many years, and was High Sheriff of Westchester County.^[13] He defeated Lewis Morris for a New York Assembly seat in Westchester County in 1752. When this happened, Morris complained that Peter used "threatening and bribery...barefacedly" but he did not follow with ths claim.^[14]

Because Peter Delancey was very frequently in New York City for his job, it is recorded that his wife, Elizabeth, had to supervise all the slaves.^[15]At first I thought that Peter Delancey only owned one slave, but then I found evidence of more. Looking through Appendix B in New York Burning, I found another slave, Pompey, that belonged to Peter DeLancey but was not part of Appendix C. Pompey was arrested and transported in addition to the listed Albany who was accused but not arrested. According to Jill Lepore, Peter Delancey actually offered testimony at one point about a slave named De St. Bendito. Peter said that "De St. Bendito had been at DeLancey's farm in the courntry before Christmas..."^[16] However, it is not clear whether De St. Bendito had any relations with Delancey beforehand. It doesn't stop with those 2 slaves, Albany and Pompey, either. After searching on the databases at the New York Public Library I found another one. In the NYPL database of newspapers from the 18th Century, I came across one particular advertisement among many others that was about a run-away slave named Sam who belonged to Peter Delancey. ^[17]I then found another record of a run-away slave that belonged to Peter by searching extensively on Google Books. This slave, Hannibal, was about 5 feet 8 inches with sharp features and who spoke English well. It said that anyone who finds him will be rewarded by Peter Delancey.^[18]Pictured on the right is a copy of the advertisement I found at NYPL.

My next stop was the New York Historical Society. I searched on the society's catalog for Peter Delancey. I found some books that I already looked at by the New York Public Library and some papers that, according to site, can only be used by "qualified researchers". As soon as I got excited that I found manuscripts which included information on Peter Delancey I was let down by the statement about qualified researchers. However, after speaking to the person in charge of the manuscripts I found that I was able to and quickly gave him the call numbers to Family Papers by James Delancey and the Family Papers by Nicolls Colins which, according to the site, included information on the Delancey family. The manuscript director then returned with 3 huge boxes of manuscripts by James Delancey and a 2 small ones for Colins and I quickly began to pore over the ancient ripped papers from the 1700s. I really felt like a historian at that point. They included receipts, invoices, coresspondences, wills, indentures, and legal documents. It was so hard to decipher the handwriting but nevertheless I went about to search for the name Peter Delancey through the hundreds of papers by trying to narrow down where I might find him. Much to my disappointment, I could not find anything on him through these papers. I searched and searched until I had to return them because they were closing. But I have to admit, it was kind of cool looking through actual papers from the 1700s. (I actually found it interesting the way they used to "staple" papers together.)

While researching for information on Peter Delancey, I found that his children continued to hold the high status of the Delanceys. Many books that mentioned Peter for just a sentence or so were either about or included information on his children. Up to now, I did not take note of the stories and facts I found on his children because I was focusing on Peter Delancey. However, because I didn't seem to find any more information besides for what I already have found, I decided to move on to research on some of his children and the legacy Peter Delancey left behind. Ironically, when I started doing this, I found a little more on Peter Delancey and it pushed me to keep searching for him. I then realized there was no more time to organize specific narratives on the children.

Along the way, two other interesting advertisements regarding Peter Delancey are below. I am unsure of their significance. I tried searching on google and Google Books but have not found anything on them.

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