James De Lancey (politician)

[5] Following the footsteps of his father, he was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1753, where he pursued his studies in law in company with other wealthy provincials who found this method of legal education more attractive than a pedestrian apprenticeship to a colonial attorney at home.

[1] De Lancey was, with the possible exception of Frederick Philipse, the wealthiest man in the Province of New York, and for a number of years devoted himself to increasing his landed properties.

At first, the political fortunes of the De Lancey family suffered a decline under James Jr., who lacked his father's dominant official position and his powerful influence in London.

[8] Although a leader of the court party, James De Lancey won favor with the general public by his opposition to the Stamp Act, but he was opposed to the use of mob violence to protest British measures and alarmed at the increasing activity of the unenfranchised.

The De Lancey party won the city delegation to the Assembly in 1768, James receiving the second highest number of votes of the group, which defeated the Whig lawyer combination.

[citation needed] As late as April 1, 1775, he was put on a committee to correspond with other colonies, but by this time the masses had little confidence in the De Lancey controlled Assembly.

Realizing that his influence in the province had been virtually destroyed, he left the colony in April of that year, following the Battle of Lexington; journeying via Fort Stanwix to Canada, he sailed for England in May 1775.

[15] James De Lancey built himself a mansion north of Broadway and Thames Street, a large brick edifice with a semicircular driveway leading through a row of magnificent shade trees, an outstanding feature of his extensive estate.

When, in 1765 his sister Ann married the judge and Loyalist historian, Thomas Jones, James De Lancey gave them a two-acre estate known as "Mount Pitt", at the highest part of Grand Street.

The rentals from this lower East Side property made up the chief part of De Lancey's income, which he invested in the acquisition of numerous other parcels of real estate.

[citation needed] Fifteen years of accumulation added to his holdings a thirty-acre farm at Bloomingdale, running from the southern boundary of Central Park to the North River.

With his boyhood friend James Duane, he was one of the Socialborough Proprietors, holding an area obtained by grant in 1771 and located on both sides of Otter Creek in the present towns of Pittsford and Rutland, Vermont.

The estate of James De Lancey is often regarded as a classic illustration of the democratic effects of the Revolution, as his East Side property alone was repurchased from the Commissioners by some 275 owners.