USA > New York > Colonial records of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1768-1784 : with historical and biographical sketches > Part 36
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In 1741 his slave Jupiter was indicted for his partici- pation in the Negro Plot.
On Monday, the 25th May, 1747, " The New York Gazette, revived in The Weekly Post Boy," contained a notice of his death. "Saturday last, departed this life, Capt. William Walton, a very eminent merchant in this city." His wife survived him many years. Hugh Gaine's New York Mercury for Monday, 12th September, 1768, among the deaths, announces, " The 3d instant, Madam Walton, of this city in the goth year of her age."
William Walton, by his wife Mary Santford, left two sons, Jacob and William, the latter of whom rose quickly to posts of great distinction in the colony, and added largely to the family wealth.
William Walton, the younger of the sons, appears also as sailing his father's vessels. He thus acquired the title of captain, by which he is sometimes called.
In the New York Weekly Post Boy of June 11th,
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1744, among the Inward Entries is the report of the ship Mermaid, William Walton (master), from North Carolina, and among the Clearances on the 6th February, 1745-6, that of the ship William and Mary, William Walton (master), for Curaçoa. Whether this was the father or the son is not certain; but it is hardly probable that the father, whose affairs were entirely easy, would have exposed himself in sea-voyages at his advanced age.
After the father's death, the two brothers formed a part- nership : on the 26th May, 1747, Jacob and William Walton appear as merchants and owners of the ship Mary Magda- len. They continued the profitable business established by their enterprising father, and enjoyed the "preferences " which had been granted to him, by the Spaniards of South America and Cuba. The brothers still further united their interests by matrimonial alliances with the same family. As appears by the records of the Dutch Church, Jacob Wal- ton married May 14th, 1726, Maria, daughter of Gerard Beekman and Magdalen Abeel, and William Walton, January 27th, 1731, Cornelia, daughter of Dr. William Beekman and Catharine Peters de la Noy. Cornelia was the niece of the lady who had married the elder brother.
The partnership of the two brothers was soon ended by the death of Jacob, the elder, on the 17th October, 1749. He was then in his 47th year, and left behind him, to the care of William, a large family. Happily for them, their uncle had no children of his own.
The surviving brother continued to carry on the business of the family, uniting some of his nephews with him, under the firm of William Walton & Company. On the 24th December, 1753, under this name they joined the lead- ing merchants of the city in an agreement not to receive, after that day, " copper Half-pence otherwise than fourteen
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for a shilling;" their declared object being to check the growing debasement of this coin. This curious document may be seen in Hugh Gaine's New York Mercury of that date.
On the 17th December, 1757, Mr. Walton applies for a commission for the Captain of the ship William and Mary, 10 guns; and on the 24th March, 1762, the firm make the same request for Capt. Jonathan Lawrence, of the sloop Live Oak, 10 guns. While thus adding to their fleet of vessels, they kept up the old and lucrative trade with the southern ports of the Continent, the Spanish West India Islands, and the Spanish Main. Their old friends in Florida still gave them the sole preference of their trade. On the 3d June, 1757, Lt. Governor De Lancey informed the Lords of Trade that Sir Charles Hardy (the Governor) had desired him to transmit to their Lordships " copies of the Memorial of Mr. Walton to him, of the 29th of January, praying leave to continue supplies to the Spanish Garrison at St. Augustine, according to his Contract with the Govern- ment and Royal Officers."
Growing in wealth and power, Mr. Walton was now looked upon as fitted for political honors. On the election in June, 1751, "for a member to serve in the General As- sembly, for the City and County of New York, in the room of David Clarkson, Esq., deceased, Captain William Wal- ton was unanimously chosen." A new summons being is- sued, the next season, he was again re-elected, February 24th, 1752, together with Captain Paul Richard, Henry Cruger, and Major Cornelius Von Hoorn, and continued to serve until 1759.
In the Assembly he attached himself to the party of the Lieut. Governor, James Delancey, then the ruling spirit in the province, and Mr. Smith relates that he also secured for
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the Delancey interest the support of " his cousin," also a Wil- liam Walton, who sat for Richmond County. This connec- tion with the Lieut. Governor led to promotion. On 3d December, 1756, Governor Hardy recommended to the Board of Trade, "John Watts, William Walton, and Rob- ert R. Livingston, to supply vacancies which may happen in the Council; these gentlemen are possessed of consider- able estate in the Province and . . . fully qualified for the trust." In the summer of 1757, the favorite nephew, name- sake, and heir of Mr. Walton, married the daughter of Lieut. Governor Delancey. The next year Mr. Walton received his appointment. He first, took his seat at the Council Board on the 14th November, 1758, and was a con- stant attendant at its sessions until the 22d March, 1768, a few months before his death. The benefit of his political position to his business has been illustrated in the interfer- ence of Delancey with the Home Government. Another instance is recorded. On the 20th April, 1765, William Walton & Co. applied to Lieut. Governor Colden " for a letter to the Governor of Havana, desiring his countenance and aid in collecting divers sums of money due them from officers, soldiers, and inhabitants of St. Augustine." From this it seems that they supplied the whole settlement. Two days later they receive a passport for their sloop Live Oak to proceed to Pensacola, touching at Havana.
About the time of his first entrance into political life Mr. William Walton, who had been living in the heart of the city, resolved to change his residence. In the year 1752 he erected the mansion-house which now bears his name, on one of the lots which he had inherited from his father near the shipyards. The first notice of this house appears in the New York Gazette or the Weekly Post Boy for May 14th, 1753, in an advertisement of a house for sale
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"in the upper end of Queen Street, next door but one to Captain Walton's new House, near Peck's Slip." This house is still standing, although in a dilapidated state, in Franklin Square, and is known as No. 326 Pearl Street. In 1752, Pearl was called Queen Street. An inscription (The Old Walton House), coarsely painted in dingy white on its muddy red walls, arrests the eye of the passing stranger.
The WALTON HOUSE is indeed a most interesting relic of "the good old colony time." Now that the Hancock House, once the abode of the great New England merchant and patriot, has been destroyed by the march ,of improve- ment, the New York building remains sole witness to the power and state of the merchant of the last century. An account of the Walton House, written by John Pintard, to whose antiquarian taste and graphic pen New York is in- debted for many of its most pleasing reminiscences, was published in the New York Mirror of Saturday, March 17th, 1832, with a picture of the building as it then appeared. " This family dwelling-house was in its day-indeed, still is-a noble specimen of English architecture a century ago. It is a brick edifice, fifty feet in front, and three stories high, built with Holland bricks relieved by brown stone water- tables, lentils and jams, with walls as substantial as many modern churches, standing along the south side of Pearl-street, formerly called Queen Street. The superb staircase in its ample hall, with mahogany handrails and bannisters, by age as dark as ebony, would not disgrace a nobleman's palace. It is the only relic of the kind, that probably at this period remains in the city, the appearance of which affords an air of grandeur not to be seen in the lighter staircases of mod- ern buildings.
" This venerable mansion is one of the very few remain-
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ing in uninterrupted succession in the family of the original proprietor. It was erected in 1754(2) by William Walton, Esq., and bequeathed by him to his nephew, the late (honor- able) WILLIAM WALTON, whose son, advanced in years, now occupies the premises . . . Mr. Walton was a merchant, and resided in Hanover Square. He acquired an ample fortune by an advantageous contract with some Spaniards at St. Augustine, which enabled him to build by far the most expensive, capacious, elegant house at that period in New York.
" Mr. Walton was very hospitable, and gave, as he could well afford, the most sumptuous entertainments of any person in those plain but bountiful days. At the termination of the old and last French War with this country in 1759 (which was crowned by the conquest of Canada, whereby the British Colonies in America, and especially the Province of New York, were relieved from the incursions and aggression of the French, and the dreadful terrors and sufferings by the tomahawk and scalping-knife of their savage allies, the In- dians), every demonstration of joy was evinced by the good citizens of Albany and New York. The British army, on its return from Canada, was hailed and treated with the most profuse prodigality. Among others, Mr. Walton entertained the chief officers in a magnificent manner. His table was spread with the choicest viands, and a forest of decanters, sparkling with the most delicious wines. The sideboard groaned with the weight of brilliant massive silver. . . .
" After the peace of 1763, the English Parliament mani- fested its intention of taxing the Colonies for the purpose of refunding the debt incurred by the recent war." The Colo- nists objected their poverty and exhaustion consequent on the struggle. "The plea was rebutted in Parliament by an appeal to the elegant entertainments given by the citizens of
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New York to the officers of the British army, and the daz- zling display of silver plate at their dinners, equal if not superior to any nobleman's, which hospitality and exhibi- tions were adduced as proofs of the wealth and prosperity of the Colonies."
When this sketch was written the memory of the scene was still green. The father of John Pintard was a con- temporary of the old merchant, and had often sat at his hos- pitable board, and tasted of his choice wines.
Another antiquarian has left the report of an eye-witness to the splendor of its festivities. Watson, in his Annals of old New York, written in 1830, says, " it was deemed the nonpareil of the city in 1766, when seen by my mother greatly illuminated in celebration of the Stamp Act repealed. It has even now an air of ancient stately grandeur. It has five windows in front, constructed of yellow Holland brick ; has a double-pitched roof, covered with tiles, and a double course of balustrades thereon. Formerly its garden extended down to the river."
When these notices were written the mansion was still " a noble wreck in ruinous perfection," and its approaches suited to its dignity and grandeur. Fluted columns, sur- mounted with armorial bearings, richly carved and orna- mented, upheld its broad portico; and the heads of lions, cut from the freestone, looked down from between the win- dows upon the passers. To-day the house is but a ruin. Its pitched tilings have given place to a flat roof; its balus- trades are seen no more ; its portico and columns, its carvings and hatchments, even its doorways, are gone. The broad halls and spacious chambers where the courtly aristocracy of the Province was wont to meet in gay and joyous throng, have been broken into small rooms which now serve as petty shops for tailors and cobblers, or the humble abode of sea-
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men. The fluted pillars in the hall are fast rotting away, yet in their decay convey, to an eye not unused to mas- sive structures, a sense of stately grandeur; while without, only the dull and stony stare of the dilapidated old lion, who still wearily looks down as he did a hundred years ago upon the everlasting movements of the seething life below, serves to mark this once princely mansion from its vulgar and upstart neighbors.
Here, in the full enjoyment of wealth and honor, the first merchant of his time, the honored councillor of his Sovereign, beloved of his friends, and his life only clouded by the thought that he was childless and his estates must descend to another, no son of his succeeding, passed from the structure of his raising to a " mansion not made with hands."
Gaine's New York Gazette and Weekly Mercury for Monday, 18th July, 1768, announces that there "Died on Monday last (July 11th), at his house in this city the Hon- orable William Walton, Esquire, in the 63d Year of his age. He was one of his Majesty's Council for this Province, and for many Years an Eminent Merchant of this City. His remains were interred in the Family Vault of this City on the Wednesday following."
His wife survived him many years. When the British took possession of the city, this scion of a patriotic stock abandoned her honors and station, and took refuge in a neighboring colony. An obituary notice in the New York Packet of Monday, May 15th, 1786, alludes to this fact. " On Monday evening last, the 10th instant, departed this life, in the 78th year of her age, Mrs. Cornelia Walton, relict of the late Hon. William Walton, Esq., and eldest daughter of Dr. William Beekman, deceased. Though childless her- self, many there are who will in her death experience the loss of a mother, and during her residence in the Jersies
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through the late contest, her benevolence and acts of charity will endear her memory to all those who have tasted of her liberality. ... Thus, as she lived beloved, she died justly lamented; and, on the Friday evening following, her remains, attended by a Concourse of the most respectable inhabitants, were interred in Trinity Church Yard, in the family vault where her husband lay, agreeable to her own request, where she now rests from all her labors, and her works will follow her.".
The will of Hon. William Walton, dated 8th June, 1768, and proved on the 14th July, 1768, is still on file in the Surrogate's Office (liber 26, folio 318). After leaving to his wife Cornelia, during her life, the house in which they lived (the Walton House) and £800, the amount received "with her on our marriage as a marriage portion; " to his nephew Jacob Walton, Lot on Water Street, No. 3, and Lot No. 4, bounded by or belonging to estate of "my brother Jacob Walton, deceased, which were of the estate of my (his) late father William Walton, deceased," and to the other children of his brother Jacob handsome legacies ; he devises to his nephew WILLIAM WALTON, son of his brother Jacob Walton, the rest of his large property, with remainder to his grand-nephew William, son of his nephew WILLIAM WAL- TON, and William, son of his nephew Jacob Walton. He thus took every means possible to keep his name in memory.
WILLIAM WALTON, son of Jacob Walton and Maria Beekman, was born in the city of New York in the year 1731. Connected, at an early age, in business with his uncle and patron, the name of the young merchant is rarely found alone. An instance appears, however, in the deposi- tion of WILLIAM WALTON, Junior, of New York, merchant, as to a declaration of one Christopher, Lieut. of the ship Peggy, dated November 3d, 1758. It is not probable that
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he ever sailed the vessels of the house in person, like the elder Walton. The Captain William Walton who appears in command of the ship Prince of Wales, July 23d, 1753, was probably some other person, perhaps of the Richmond County family.
WILLIAM WALTON, with his great advantages, fine per- son, and prospective wealth, was one of the most distin- guished young men of his day, and it is natural to find him forming an alliance with one of the highest and proudest of the landed aristocracy of the New York Colony. On the 3d October, 1757, the Record of New York Marriages gives the date of the Bond. WILLIAM WALTON, Junr., married Mary, daughter of Lieut. Governor James Delancey. The De- lanceys were of French Huguenot descent, had early inter- married with the Van Cortlandts, and were at this period, under the lead of their great chief, the Lieut. Governor, the most powerful family in the province. The estates of the Delanceys were at Mamaroneck, Westchester County.
Upon the death of the uncle, in 1768, WILLIAM WAL- TON associated himself with his brother, and carried on the business of the family under the style of " WILLIAM and JACOB WALTON & Co." Jacob was also a man of mark. He had married a daughter of Henry Cruger, a wealthy and distinguished merchant, and was a representative of New York in General Assembly. About this period, (April 8, 1772,) they are found among the owners of large tracts of land granted at Socialborough, in the northern part of the State. They appear too to have been engaged in manu- facturing of some kind, as on the 3d June, 1773, they adver- tise in the N. Y. Mercury, for sale "the well-known and convenient mills of WILLIAM & JACOB WALTON & Co. at Pembroke, thirty miles from New York." These were prob- ably flour mills.
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MR. WILLIAM WALTON took the part which became his wealth and station in the public affairs of the time. He was one of the founders of the Chamber of Commerce in 1768, was its Treasurer in 1771, Vice-President in 1772, and President from 1774 to 1775.
He was one of the first petitioners for the Marine Society, incorporated in 1770, " for the purpose of improving Mari- time Knowledge, and for relieving indigent and distressed (and the Wives and Children of deceased) Masters of Ves- sels."
He was warm in support of the measures adopted by the merchants to resist the Stamp Act, and the subsequent at- tempts of the British ministry to restrict the liberties of the Colonies. He was one of the Committee of Correspondence of Fifty-One, chosen in May, 1774, when the citizens learned of the closing of the Port of Boston. The minutes of the Com- mittee show him to have been one of its most regular attend- ants. From the recommendations of this Committee sprung the First Continental Congress of 1774, whose only act of resistance to the Home Government was the adoption of a non-importation and non-exportation ordinance. MR. WIL- LIAM WALTON was one of the Committee of Sixty chosen to carry out this order in New York. He was also one of the Committee of Safety of One Hundred, chosen in May, 1775
So far MR. WALTON appears to have been willing to go with the more patriotic party. His sympathies appear to have been on the side of the popular cause, but his family connections were divided. The Delanceys had nearly all taken the side of the Crown, while the WALTONS were inclined to be neutral in the contest. When the hour finally came for a decision, MR. WALTON withdrew from the city to his country residence in New Jersey. But he was too marked a man to be left in peace, and he was finally forced
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to return to the city when the British authority was re- stored. His Jersey estates were in consequence confiscated. He remained in New York during the war, and devoted his time and large means to relieve the distress the war brought upon so many. He was one of the Vestry named by Governor Robertson, December 29, 1779, to look to the poor and suffering of the city. It is gratefully remem- bered of him that he was unceasing in his efforts to soften the terrors of the confinement to which the American pris- oners were subjected.
He was one of those merchants who resumed the meetings of the Chamber of Commerce 21st June, 1779, and he ap- pears quite regularly in his seat until the close of the war. In fact, he was again chosen Vice-President in 1783.
During this period MR. WALTON did not engage in act- ive business, though he continued to reside in the city. His death is recorded in "Greenleaf's New York Journal and Patriotic Register," under date of Tuesday, 23d Aug., 1796 : "Died, on the 18th instant, sixty-fifth year of his age, MR. WILLIAM WALTON, a native and respectable inhabitant of this city." He had been long a widower. Holt's " New York Journal," of Thursday, 21st May, 1767, contains the notice of his wife's death : "DIED, Saturday last (16th) de- parted this Life in the 31st Year of her Age Mrs. Mary Walton of this Place (and Daughter of the late Hon. James De Lancey, Esqr.) a Lady whose Death is much regretted." By his wife Mary De Lancey, Mr. William Walton left three sons, who in turn inherited his estates: William ; James De Lancey ; Jacob, who entered the British Navy, and rose to the rank of Rear Admiral. Ann, a daughter, was the wife of Daniel Crommelin Verplanck.
The old name is now continued by the Rev. William Walton, a son of the Admiral.
ISAAC LOW.
SEVENTH PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
1775-1783.
ROM the earliest period of English settlement in the New York Colony, the name of Low appears upon its annals. The first of the family native to this country was Cornelius, whose birth is recorded as having taken place at Kingston, in the year 1670. His son Corne- lius was born in the City of New York, on the 31st day of March, 1700. Cornelius Low married, in 1729, Johanna, daughter of Isaac Gouverneur (a gentleman of Huguenot extraction), and Mary, daughter of Jacob Leisler, and widow of Jacob Milbourne-names which recall one of the darkest pages in the history of New York. They were tried, con- victed, and executed in 1691 for political offences, and have been aptly termed "the first victims to arbitrary power in the Colony."
Of the fruits of this marriage two sons, ISAAC and Nich- olas, became leading men in the province. Nicholas, the younger, was a warm and active patriot during the War of the Revolution, and an honored and trusted Whig. He was one of the New York Convention for deliberating on the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, as- sembled at Poughkeepsie, June 17, 1788. Two daughters were married to the brothers Hugh and Alexander Wallace,
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gentlemen of Irish birth, both of whom were merchants in New York, and strong loyalists.
ISAAC Low, son of Cornelius Low and Johanna Gou- verneur, was born in April, 1731, at Raritan landing, near New Brunswick, in New Jersey.
He married a younger daughter of Cornelius Cuyler, for many years Mayor of Albany. The Cuylers were a family of distinction, and were connected in marriage with the Schuylers, the Van Cortlandts, and other notables of the Colony.
Soon after his majority MR. Low appears as a merchant. He had formed a partnership with Mr. Abraham Lott, one of a family long and well known in the City. Precisely at what date the partnership of LOTT & Low was formed is uncertain. The Lott of this firm was Abraham Lott, after- wards Treasurer of the Province. The name of the subse- quent partner of MR. Low, then Abraham Lott, Jr., appears as that of one of " a number of the principal merchants " who signed an Agreement on the 24th December, 1753 (N. Y. Mercury, No. 72), not to receive coppers "otherwise than fourteen for a shilling," in order to check the growing de- basement of this coin. Had the connection with MR. Low existed at this time, the joint name of the house would have been signed, as in other cases. Abraham Lott, Senior, then member of the Assembly, died July 29, 1754.
The first notice of the young firm (MR. Low was then in his 24th year) appeared in the New York Mercury, May 13, 1754. "LOTT AND Low have just im- ported in the Brig Maria, Capt. Thomas Miller, from London, a neat assortment of European and India Goods proper for the Season, and are to be disposed of on the cheapest terms, at their Store, in the house wherein Mr. Henry Clopper, Sadler, lately lived, opposite to Mr. Joseph
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Reade's, and facing the Meal Market." The " Meal Mar- ket," stood, as Mr. Devoe states in his admirable History of the Markets of New York, at "the South end of Clark's Slip, at the East end of Wall Street." It was sometimes called the " Wall Street Market." It was erected in 1709, but became such a nuisance that, on the petition of the neighbors, the Common Council, in 1762, ordered it to be removed.
In the New York Mercury for Monday, June 17, 1755, it is announced that " LOTT AND Low have removed to the house in Hanover Square, wherein Mr. Lewis Morris lately lived, next door to Mrs. Walton's, where they offer for sale their late importations from Bristol and London, chiefly of European and India goods." Their business must have been large to have warranted this step. Mr. Morris, whose house they entered, was one of the wealthiest men of the day; he was one of the proprietors of New Jersey, as well as heir to the Morrisania Estates. Hanover Square was the centre of trade. Here were the counting-houses of Walton, Des- brosses, Bache, and other great Merchants of the City. MR. Low was then in his twenty-fifth year. They remained here in active trade, as their repeated advertisements show, until the fall of 1765. Among the many changes which were made in the circle of trade at this time, was the breaking up of their house. On the 26th December, 1765, LOTT & Low gave notice in Holt's New York Gazette or Weekly Post Boy that their partnership, which was probably to end on the 1st of the new year, was "renewed until the first of May next" (1766), to allow of the gathering in of the debts due to them. A closing notice followed in the same journal, April 10, 1766 : "The Co-Partnership of LOTT AND Low expiring on the First Day of May next : They beg leave to introduce themselves to their Friends under the separate stiles of
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