USA > New York > Colonial records of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1768-1784 : with historical and biographical sketches > Part 34
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About this time James Desbrosses, a brother of ELIAS, first appears. One of his negroes, Primus, made confession concerning the Plot. He was to have stolen his master's gun and helped kill the white people. He resided at the "last house on the East River to Kip's Bay," described by David Grim as the house at which the line of Palisades of Cedar logs commenced, which was stretched across the island to the North River, in 1745, "for the security and protection of the inhabitants of the city, who were at that time much alarmed and afraid that the French and Indians were com- ing to invade the City." This house was near the shipyards at the foot of Catharine Street. An advertisement in the "New York Journal," April 2, 1767, shows that he was still residing there.
A part of the family, however, still occupied the house
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in Hanover Square in 1755. An advertisement in Gaine's " New York Mercury," of June 16th of that year, gives an approximation to its situation. It alludes to a house on Hanover Square wherein "Mr. Lewis Morris lived, next door to Mr. Walton's, and directly opposite to Mr. Grant's and DESBROSSES." Here ELIAS DESBROSSES carried on a gen- eral business, trading with Madeira and the West India Islands. He was also part owner of the sloop Success, as his applications to Gov. Hardy for permits show.
His name now begins to appear quite often in adver- tisements of real estate. "In Gaine's "Mercury," of Feb- ruary 7th, 1757, he calls attention to a tract of land in New Jersey which he has for sale. He here signs himself Mer- chant.
James Desbrosses appears also to have been somewhat engaged in commerce. An advertisement of "A variety of Paper Hangings, imported from London," to be sold by him, appeared in 1761. The name of still another of the family is recorded in an order issued by Governor Monckton, March 5th, 1763, to Capt. Lawrence, of Kings County, to deliver a certain negro boy, named Touissant, to Stephen Desbrosses, to be sent by him to .Mr. Veyer, his former master at Martinico.
With these various enterprises MR. ELIAS DESBROSSES continued to increase his property and influence, and to win the esteem of his neighbors. In 1767 he was chosen Alder- man of the East Ward, which he continued to represent in the City Councils until 1770.
In 1768 he was one of the founders of the Chamber of Commerce, and its first Treasurer-an office which he held until 1770, when he was chosen Vice-President, and the next year President, of this Corporation.
MR. DESBROSSES does not seem to have had any desire 28
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for public life. He was one of the Committee of Corre- spondence of fifty-one, chosen by the citizens in May, 1774, but the minutes only show him in his seat at the first meet- ing. He took no part in the stirring and angry scenes which followed. He was too little of a partisan to meet any an- noyance from either side, and passed untroubled through the occupation of both armies. He showed his strong sympathy with the English side by signing the very loyal. address of Lord Howe, in October, 1776, and though not claimed by Sabine as a loyalist in his comprehensive col- lection of sketches, he must be classed in this body.
In May of the following year, when the British author- ities undertook to raise troops for the King's service in New York, MR. DESBROSSES, whose residence is given as in Queen Street, was one of a Committee, together with Henry White, Nathaniel Marston, and Thomas White, "appointed to receive donations which will be applied for the Comfort and Encouragement of such of his Majesty's faithful Sub- jects as already have or hereafter shall enter into the Provin- cial Regiments raising in this Province."
In December, 1777, he was named first on the Vestry appointed by General Robertson for the Relief of the Poor of the City. With him were many of his old commercial associates-Miles Sherbrooke, Isaac Low, Charles Nicoll, Gabriel H. Ludlow, and others.
He seems to have taken no further active part in busi- ness, and when the meetings of the Chamber were renewed by such of the members as adhered to the Crown, he did not resume his connection with it.
MR. DESBROSSES was a very religious man, and forward in every charitable enterprise. The family were among the early and liberal contributors to the Huguenot church, L'Eglise du St. Esprit, erected in Pine Street, and James
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was one of the elders while the church was under the ministry of Jean Carle. ELIAS DESBROSSES early connected himself with the Established Church. He was a Vestryman of Trinity from 1759 to 1770 and Warden from 1770 to 1778, and he was a liberal contributor to the support of the Charity School of that Corporation. His name appears first signed to the report of the great loss the Corporation sus- tained in the fire of 1776, amounting to £22,000,-the Church, Charity Schools, Library, and Rectory being all destroyed,-and it was he who, as Churchwarden, inducted Mr. Inglis as Rector, the following year, the ceremony being completed by "placing his hand (Mr. Inglis') on the wall of the said church, the same being then a ruin."
He was one of the early patrons of the New York Hos- pital, and a Governor from 1775 to 1778.
The time was now rapidly approaching when the career of MR. DESBROSSES, the latter days of which appear to have been devoted to good works, was to close. He died in New York on the 26th March, 1778. An elaborate obitu- ary notice appeared in Rivington's "Royal Gazette," for Saturday, April 4th, 1778, which gives a careful analysis of his character.
" On Thursday, the 26th of last month, departed this life, in the 60th year of his age, ELIAS DESBROSSES, EsQ., for many years an eminent Merchant in this City. By the death of this worthy man, who was much loved and re- spected, this Community hath lost a most useful member.
" His conduct through life was regulated by the strictest probity; and he ever supported a fine, unspotted character. He was active, sober, and just; mild, easy, and humane ; devout, benevolent, and sincere. No man had a more feel- ing heart for the distresses, or more interested in the welfare of others. In him the poor and needy always found a gen-
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erous benefactor; every scheme that could be subservient to the comforts of Society, a zealous patron-all who required his services (and their number was great), a faithful, steady Friend.
" An invariable adherence to this line of conduct evinced that it was the result of fixed principles-that it flowed from a deep and awful sense of the Supreme Being, from a conscientious regard to the dictates of his revealed will and from an habitual piety which without any ostentation always influenced his proceedings in every station.
" An ornament to the Religious Society of which he was a member, he was assiduous in promoting its interest, and indefatigable in his endeavours to extricate it from those embarassments in which the present wanton and unnatural Rebellion had involved it. Nor were his views for this purpose and the general good of his fellow creatures con- fined to the term of his own existence here. By his last will he bequeathed considerable sums for the education and support of orphans in the Charity School of Trinity Church, and for promoting religion. In short, few persons have de- served better of society-few have been more justly and sincerely lamented than MR. DESBROSSES. His remains were interred in the family vault in Trinity Church Yard, at- tended by a large number of respectable citizens, on the Saturday after his decease."
The will of MR. ELIAS DESBROSSES, on file in the Surro- gate's office for New York County, dated - June, 1773, and finally proved in 1784, recounts the names of his family and recites his bequests. By it he bequeathes to his brother, James, all the town-land in Hardenbergh Patent; to his lov- ing sisters, Magdalen and Elizabeth Desbrosses, his lot, dwelling, and store fronting King, Queen, and Dock Streets, bought of the heirs of Cornelius Van Horne; to his niece,
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Mary Ann Desbrosses, the lot and dwelling-house fronting Queen Street, bought of the heirs of Piere G. Depeyster; " One thousand Pounds, lawful money of New York, unto the Rector and inhabitants of the City of New York in communion of the Church of England as by Law estab- lished, in trust, to be placed at interest by the Vestry of that Corporation for the maintenance of a French Clergyman, who shall perform Divine Service in the French language in this City according to the liturgie of the Church of Eng- land as by law established, and should it be any considera- ble time before such establishment is effected, then the interest arising from the said thousand pounds shall become a principal for the same use-and the sum of five hun- dred pounds, lawful money of New York, . for the clothing and educating the poor children of Trinity Church School in this City."
The Mary Ann Desbrosses here named was married to Joseph Waddington, Feb. 6th, 1781. The two sisters of MR. DESBROSSES died single at a great age. On the 12th July, 1781, they made their wills, in which each styled her- self a "single woman," in each other's favor. "The Daily Advertiser," for Friday, December 26th, 1794, has a notice of the death of the survivor: "Died, on Monday last, Mrs. Magdalen Desbrosses, aged 87 years."
The two wills were proved on the 9th January, 1795. That of Magdalen names as her residuary legatees her nephew James Desbrosses, (Jr.,) of New York, Merchant, and his wife Elizabeth, (he had married Elizabeth Butler, in 1762,) and two other sons of James, by name Elias and William, of whom no other mention appears.
Between this period and the 5th May, 1809, there was great mortality in the family. On this day Letters of Ad- ministration were granted to John Hunter and Elizabeth his
3
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wife, and to Henry Overing and Charlotte Magdalene his wife, " cousins of ELIAS DESBROSSES, late of this City, Mer- chant, deceased." All of the legatees and executors are said to have died, and these, his grand-nieces, were next of kin. The whole property of the family, the accumulations of nearly a century, thus passed into the hands of these two ladies. The one had married John Hunter, of Hunter's Island, West- chester County, the other Captain Overing, of the British army.
The name of DESBROSSES thus became extinct in the American line, and is only kept in memory by the Street on the West side of the City which was called in his honor about the beginning of this century.
The life of MR. DESBROSSES presents many pleasing traits, which, derived from his French origin, are re- cognized as characteristic of the Huguenot families of America. Wherever the old French blood has allied itself to the English or Dutch, a fine variety of the human race has been the product; while the traits of the Huguenot are alike marked in the new strain as it appears in Charleston and New York, the chosen resorts of the early Huguenot emigration. Integrity of character, cheerfulness and amiability of temperament, and a religious sentiment showing itself in practical charity, are the well-known marks of this noble stock ; and withal a desire for the quiet social walks rather than the busy and crowded scenes of public life.
A diligent search has not discovered any portrait or sketch of ELIAS DESBROSSES from which a picture could be made to fill his place upon the walls of the Chamber of Commerce, or to keep in memory the features of one whose character and life offer so much to imitate and revere.
Henry Mille
Enga by F Halpin from the picture in possession of the Chamber of Commerce .
HENRY WHITE.
FOURTH PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
1772-1773.
UT little is known of HENRY WHITE before his arrival in the New York Province,. beyond the fact that he was of Welsh birth and origin. He first appears upon the busy scene of Colonial trade in a Petition, dated May 8, 1756, for leave to ship bread to South Carolina for the use of the Navy, and is called their agent by Samuel Bowman, Jr., and Jo. Yates, of Charleston, in their request to Governor Hardy, the same summer, for a similar authority.
His first mercantile advertisement may be seen in the New York Mercury of December 12, 1757, which sets forth that " HENRY WHITE has just imported from London and Bristol a neat assortment of goods fit for the season, which he will sell for ready money or short credit, at his store in King Street."
On the 13th May, 1761, according to the Record of New York Marriages, MR. WHITE formed an alliance with Eva Van Cortland, daughter of Frederick, and grand- daughter of Jacobus Van Cortland. In her veins ran also the blood of the Philipse, another of the wealthiest and most important families of the Colony. This connection secured the fortune of MR. WHITE.
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In 1762 he appears as the owner of the sloop Moro, 10 guns. All the vessels sent out from New York at this time were armed. The war with France, ended on land, still raged on the seas.
The following year, as appears from a notice in Wey- man's Gazette of March 21, 1763, he made a voyage to England. A trip across the Atlantic was at this period an important matter. He announces himself as " intending for England about the end of April next," and invites those to whom he is indebted to call for their money.
While regularly pursuing his business with Great Britain, and at times making ventures to the neighboring colonies, he seems to have looked to political preferment.
In 1769, on the refusal of Mr. Delancey to take a seat at the Council Board, MR. WHITE made urgent application to the Governor for the vacant place. Governor Moore so informs the Earl of Hillsborough in his letter of 21 January, and seems to have supported the request, for on the 8th March following MR. WHITE received the Commission, and was sworn of the Council -- a post which he retained during the remaining period of English rule in America.
Hitherto he had carried on his trade at his store on Cruger's Wharf, but now, his rising fortunes and new honors requiring more state, he changes his residence. Hugh Gaine's New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury of May 1, 1769, contains the advertisement that "HENRY WHITE has removed to the house of the late Treasurer, between the Fly market and the Coffee-House, where he has to sell the following articles, viz. : Nails of all sizes, Bohea and Congo Teas, 6 by 8, 7 by 9, and 8 by 10 Window Glass, English Sail Cloth, from No. 1 to 7, Russia do., writing paper, English cordage, Bristol Beer, blue duffils, spotted rugs, Newkirk and Dutch Ozenbrigs, Madeira Wine." The
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late Treasurer here alluded to was Abraham De Peyster, one of the wealthiest of the City magnates, who died in 1767.
HENRY WHITE was one of the consignees of the tea the shipment of which caused great excitement on the American seaboard in the winter of 1773 to 1774. The East India Company, yielding to the urgent demands of Lord North, who had promised the King "to try the ques- tion with America," in the fall of 1773 despatched their consignments of the forbidden merchandise to all the chief coast cities from the Massachusetts Bay to the Carolinas. The ship for South Carolina had arrived at Charleston on the 2d December, 1773, and the consignees declining to receive the cargo, the duties were not paid, and the tea was left to rot in the cellar where it was stored. The three ships for Boston were boarded in the night of the 26th De- cember, and their cargoes were emptied into the sea; the ship for Pennsylvania arrived at Chester on the 27th De- cember, when the Philadelphians gathered in town meeting, and the captain was made to promise to return to London with ship and cargo the very next day.
Early advised by the Company of the shipment to New York, HENRY WHITE, with two of the other consignees, Abraham Lott and Benjamin Booth, addressed a memorial, Dec. 1st, 1773, to Governor Tryon for the protection of the tea.
It was not until the 18th of April, 1774, that the Nancy reached the offing. Contrary winds had blown her off the coast, and she had put into Antigua. She was boarded by a Committee of Vigilance at Sandy Hook. Captain Lock- yer, her master, was permitted to bring the ship to the city, but his men were not allowed to land.
According to the account given in Hugh Gaine's New
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York Gazette of April 25th, 1774, "The Committee, early next morning, conducted Captain Lockyer to the house of the HON. HENRY WHITE, EsQ., one of the Consignees, and there informed Captain Lockyer that it was the sense of the Citizens that he should not presume to go near the Custom House, &c.". .. To this he answered, "That as the Con- signees would not receive his cargo, he would not go to the Custom House, and would make all the dispatch he could to leave the city."
MR. WHITE was unyielding in his opinions, and at no period showed any sympathy with those who resisted the King's authority. In the summer of 1775, he was in correspondence with Governor Martin, of North Carolina. A letter from the Governor to his address, asking for the shipment of a marquee "with the royal standard," pre- viously asked for, was intercepted and laid before the Committee of Safety. MR. WHITE does not appear to have fallen into the hands of the revolutionists. He prob- ably left the city before stringent measures were adopted. In the summer of 1776, he is spoken of by Governor Tryon, in his account of the breaking up of the Council, as in England. He returned to his post when the British re- sumed control in the fall of the same year, probably with the army, as he was one of the signers of the loyal address to Lord Howe in October following. In 1777 he was ap- pointed first of the committee of four to receive donations for equipment of provincial regiments for the King's ser- vice, and resided here during the war, acting as the agent of the Home Government in various ways-chiefly in the sale of captured vessels and cargoes, and the distribution of prize-money among the British vessels of war. One of many of his advertisements of this kind may be seen in Rivington's Royal Gazette of the 23d April, 1783, in
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which he gives notice of a division of the "nett proceeds of the ship Tyger and cargo, condemned at Bermuda, and of the schooner Neptune and ship Vestal."
On the 9th October, 1780, he is said by Sabine to have appeared before the surrogate to prove the will of the un- fortunate André, when he declared that he was "well ac- quainted with the testator's handwriting, and believed the instrument to be genuine."
He left the city and returned to England with the Brit- ish on the evacuation in the fall of 1783.
His estates were among the earliest confiscated in 1779. An advertisement of sale by the Commissioners of For- feitures, in Kollock's New York Gazette of May 23d, 1786, is curious as descriptive of a mansion of those days. This house was then in the occupation of George Clinton, the first Governor of the State of New York. "On Mon- day the 19th June, at the Merchants' Coffee House-That large and commodious House and Lot of Ground situated on the South Easterly side of Queen Street, in the East ward of the said City, now occupied by his Excellency the Governor ; the house is three large stories high, and contains four large rooms with fire places on each floor, besides a convenient kitchen in the rear of and adjoining thereto : in the Yard is a large brick building calculated for a store- house and coach-house with stables, also a well and cistern; the lot extends nearly through to Water Street, and has a spacious gangway for a carriage in the said street; its situa- tion and conveniences are as well calculated for a merchant in extensive business as any in this city. The above prem- ises were forfeited and vested in the People of this State by the attainder of HENRY WHITE, Eso., late one of the Members of the Council of the late Colony of New York."
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MR. WHITE did not long survive the war. He died in Golden Square, London, on the 23d day of December, 1786. His wife, Eva Van Cortland, the daughter of Frederick Van Cortland, survived him nearly half a century. She died at her residence, No. 11 Broadway, on the 19th August, 1836, in the ninety-ninth year of her age. By her MR. WHITE had thirteen children, seven of whom reached years of ma- turity. Of these, 1. Henry White married Ann Van Cort- land, and lived and died in the United States. 2. John Chambers White entered the British navy, rose to the rank of Vice Admiral of the White, and was knighted. He married, first, Cordelia Fanshawe; second, Miss Dalrymple. 3. Frederick Van Cortland White entered the British army in 1781, as an Ensign, and became General. He married, first, Sophia Coore ; second, Miss Davidson. 4. William Tryon White lived and died, unmarried, in the United States. Of the daughters, 1. Ann married Dr. (afterwards Sir) John McNamara Hayes, of Golden Square, London, in 1787, and lived and died in England. 2. Margaret married Peter Jay Munro, and lived and died in the United States. 3. Frances married Dr. Archibald Bruce, and also lived and died in the United States.
There is a fine portrait of HENRY WHITE, senior, by John Singleton Copley, in the possession of a great-grandson, Augustus Van Cortland, who occupies the Cortlandt House, erected at Yonkers by Frederick Van Cortlandt in 1748. A picture, also by Copley, belongs to his descendants in the line of Munro. The portrait which hangs in the hall of the Chamber of Commerce was painted from the Van Cort- land picture. The engraving which prefaces this sketch is after the same picture.
Theophylact Bache
Eng& by G. F. Hall, from the Picture in Possession of the Chamber of Commerce, N.Y.
THEOPHYLACT BACHE.
FIFTH PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
1773-1774.
F the family of BACHE, in England, but little is known in America. The name is, without doubt, Norman. In English records it is printed De la Bèche and De la Bache. William Bache, the father of THEOPHYLACT and RICHARD BACHE, from whom all of the name in this country are descended, was a Collector of Excise at the town of Settle, in the West Riding of York- shire, England. His wife was Mary Blyckenden. They were the parents of a large family, Richard Bache being the eighteenth child.
THEOPHYLACT BACHE was born at Settle on the 17th January, 1734-5, old style ; and, as appears in a memoran- dum in his own hand-writing, he "arrived at New York September 17th, 1751." He came out at this early age to the care of Paul Richard, whose wife, Elizabeth Garland, of London, was a relation. Paul Richard was a man of dis- tinction in the Colony. He was a successful merchant, and had at one period held the office of Mayor of the City.
Young BACHE was no doubt the assistant of Mr. Richard in his business. He was certainly regarded by him with attachment. A codicil to his will, dated 19 Sept., 1756,
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shortly before his death, leaves to MR. BACHE £300 currency, and names him an Executor of his Estate.
The first mercantile notice of MR. BACHE appears in the "New York Mercury," of April 11th, 1757 : "To be Sold, by THEOPHYLACT BACHE, at the house of the late Paul Rich- ard, Esq., a choice parcel of Madeira Wine, Cheshire Cheese, Sperma-ceti Candles, with sundry sorts of European Goods, and will be disposed of reasonably to close the accounts."
In August, 1757, his name is recorded with that of Leonard Lispenard as a merchant and owner of the Ship Grace-eight guns. MR. BACHE now steadily increased his business, and his advertisements appear at intervals in the journals-sometimes of cargoes received by him, at others, of goods on hand. It is worthy of notice that many of the goods were of a kind extremely costly at that period. The "New York Mercury," for Monday, March 6th, 1758, an- nounces that there had been "Imported on the last vessels from London, and to be sold by THEOPHYLACT BACHE, at his store in Hanover Square, a great variety of Velvets, Thick- sets, Fustians, Jeans, Pillows, and printed Cottons suitable for the approaching season; with a fresh assortment of European Goods."
The next year he seems to have changed his location. In Gaine's "New York Mercury," for January 15th, 1759, he announces as "Just imported from Liverpool, by the snow Betsey, Nathaniel Remmer, Master, a large Assort- ment of European Goods proper for the present and ap- proaching season, to be sold on reasonable Terms by THEO- PHYLACT BACHE, at his Store on Hunter's Quay, next door to Mr. Walters. N. B .- He has also fine Blown Salt to dis- pose of by the 100 Baskets."
Again, in the same year, July 9th, 1759, in Weyman's "New York Gazette," appears the announcement that
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" THEOPHYLACT BACHE has imported in the last vessels from Europe a general Assortment of Goods proper for the sea- son, and has also to dispose of a Parcel of Choice Madeira Wine, Flour, Salt, and Cordage." This from his store on the Quay; meanwhile he had been making arrangements for increased accommodations for his growing business.
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