USA > New York > Colonial records of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1768-1784 : with historical and biographical sketches > Part 43
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IMLAY WILLIAM .- Of "John & William Imlay," importers of Euro- pean and India Goods (1771). He was a member of the Social Club, which met at Sam. Fraunces' tavern, and included in its number many of the most distinguished men of the day. In a note upon the political views of the members, made by John Moore, a fellow member, and preserved in MSS. in the Historical Society, he is described as having been "loyal at first to the Crown but doubtful after 1777." Sabine says of him that he was in Pennsylvania in 1777, and was sent prisoner to Virginia by the Whig au- thorities.
JAMESON NIEL .- The head of the dry goods house of "Niel Jame- son & Co.," whose place of business was at No. 933 Water Street. After the fashion of the day they added to their stock of broadcloths and serges an assortment of cutlery, window glass, and other incongruous articles.
JAUNCEY JAMES .- He was one of the foremost figures of the time. During the French war he was largely interested in privateering ventures. In 1758 he was appointed one of the Wardens of the Port, and held the post until 1775. In 1765 he was one of the twelve who addressed the General Assembly on the state of the country in behalf of the meeting of twelve hun- dred freemen and freeholders held on the 26th November. In 1768 he was elected to the Assembly after a sharp struggle, and in 1769 re-elected. Du- ring the latter canvass there appeared a song in the Poet's Corner of the New York Journal, to the tune of Hearts of Oak, in which occurs this verse :
" To JAUNCEY my Souls ! let your Praises resound ; With Health and Success may his Goodness be crowned ! May the Cup of his Joy never cease to run o'er, For he gave to us all when he gave to the Poor."
He sat in this Assembly until the breaking out of the War. He was one of the Committee of Correspondence of Fifty-one, raised in May, 1774, to con- cert measures of resistance to the arbitrary measures of Parliament. It does not appear that he ever had much sympathy with the revolutionary move- ment. His son, James, was a member of the King's Council. Both were made prisoners in 1776, and sent to Middletown, Conn., but were released shortly after and returned to the city. The son, who married Eleanor El- liot in 1773, died in New York in 1777. The father was one of the Vestry appointed by General Robertson for the relief of the Poor the same year. For his course during the War his property was confiscated, and he removed to England and resided in Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place, London. He died in London on the 6th February, 1790. "As he was entering the door of Providence Chapel, he dropped down and expired immediately." He seems to have retained his reputation for great benevolence, and it is recorded that he "was well known for his constant practice of relieving the poor at chapel-doors and in the street." Notwithstanding the loss of his large landed estate in New York, he is said to have died worth £100,000.
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JAUNCEY WILLIAM .- A brother of James. His name rarely ap- pears. He was prisoner with James at Middletown in 1776. He was a Governor of the New York Hospital from 1797 to 1802. His residence was at No. 20 Wall Street.
KEMBLE SAMUEL .- He was the eldest son of Peter Kemble and Gertrude, daughter of Samuel Bayard of New York. He was born at New Brunswick, in the Colony of New Jersey, about the year 1732. Although at one time engaged in commercial business as an auctioneer with Walter Spens, under the firm of Kemble & Spens, his profession was that of a sailor. He commanded in turn the General Gage and the Lady Gage, London tra- ders. A portrait of him in the uniform of a Lieutenant is in the possession of his nephew, Mr. Gouverneur Kemble, of Cold Spring.
In October, 1773, he was appointed Naval Officer of New York in the place of Charles Williams. This post he retained until the close of the War, when he retired to England. He never afterwards returned to this country. He established a mercantile house in London, but not succeeding in his new commercial venture, he removed to the East Indies. There he mar- ried a Miss French, by whom he had three children. He died in the island of Sumatra about the year 1796.
His loyalty to the Crown, during the American struggle, was not forgot- ten, and his family continued to receive the protection of the British Govern- ment. Of his three sons, Peter, George, and Gideon, Peter, the eldest, held rank in the navy. He died in England. Gideon, the youngest, died Collector of the Port of Kingston in Jamaica, where he had married. Gid- eon, in turn, left four sons : Frederick, a Captain in the British navy ; Ed- ward and Henry, lawyers in Jamaica ; and William, Secretary of the Colo- nial Parliament .- From memoranda contributed by Gouverneur Kemble, Esq., of Cold Spring.
KENYON WILLIAM .- An importing merchant, chiefly of provisions. From 1779 to 1783 his store was at 190 Queen Street, opposite to Beek- man's Slip. He remained in the city after the War, and carried on his busi- ness from the same place for many years. In 1792 he was at 39 Beekman Street. He was a Governor of the New York Hospital from 1795 to 1797.
KERR ANDREW .- Of the house of " Moore & Kerr," dealers in gro- ceries in Wall Street. ANDREW KERR was one of the signers of the loyal address to Lord Howe in October, 1776. In June, 1783, he was residing at No. 16 Wall Street. He does not appear to have remained in the city after the War.
KETELTAS PETER .- As early as 1756 MR. PETER KETELTAS ap- pears as occupying a house, and storehouse adjoining, fronting on Queen Street. In 1757 he was a part owner and agent of the privateer Snow Royal Ester, which brought in the French ships Le Leger and Le Debonier. In 1754 he is again found as a petitioner for a commission for the Captain of the Sloop Anne, of 6 guns. When the War broke out with the mother country he sided with the patriots. At its close he returned to the city and carried on his business from No. 10 Princess Street. He died in the city on Monday the 22d August, 1792. An obituary notice of him in the New York Journal says, "that he had been for many years a respectable merchant, and was not only esteemed, as he truly was, an upright and hon- est man, but enjoyed the singular faculty of passing through life unsuspected
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of an unworthy action. In his loss, although at an advanced period, his family laments a tender husband, a fond parent, and a most indulgent mas- ter."
KORTRIGHT LAWRENCE .- He was extensively engaged in priva- teering in the old French war. He was part owner of the Harlequin, of 8 guns, in 1756 ; of the brigantine DeLancey, of 14 guns, commanded by the noted Captain Thomas Randall ; of the Prince Edward, of 8 guns ; owner of the Snow Royal Hester, of 16 guns ; Prince Ferdinand, 14 guns, and Ship Hunter, 18 guns ; in 1758 of the brigantine John, 14 guns. He was largely interested in land in Tryon County, and the township of Kortright was settled on his patent. The War having broken up the settlement, in 1783, in order to encourage the return of the families, he offered to waive any rent until May, 1788.
In 1790 he was in business as a merchant at No. 90 Broadway.
LAIGHT EDWARD .- He was the son of Edward Laight, the first of the name who emigrated to this country from England in the year 1692, and settled in New York Colony. His son EDWARD was born in the City of New York on the 24th August, 1721. He was in partnership with Charles Nicoll, under the firm-name of Edward Laight & Charles Nicoll, in 1764 ; on the 19th of March of which year they advertise for sale from their store in Burling's Slip a variety of West India Goods, Sugars, Molas- ses, Rum, &c.
These two partners were strong friends, both of them belonging to the organization of the Sons of Liberty, revived in 1765 to resist the operation of the Stamp Act. EDWARD LAIGHT was one of the nine Corresponding Members or Committee of this Association. On the repeal of the Act, in March, 1776, the Society was dissolved, but the interest of MR. LAIGHT in the cause of freedom does not appear to have diminished, for on the 10th of October of the same year his name appears second of the Committee which addressed a letter to Nicholas Ray, the Agent in London, in which, while announcing the dissolution of the organization and the inexpediency of forming a Club as suggested by Mr. Ray in his letter of 28th July, 1766, they pledge themselves to use their " utmost endeavours to keep up that glorious spirit of liberty which was rapidly and so generally kindled throughout this extensive continent."
The partnership with Mr. Nicoll was soon dissolved, for on the 26th February, 1767, MR. EDWARD LAIGHT alone advertised a general assort- ment of "Ironmongery," as hardware was then styled, to be sold by him from the house to which he had removed, opposite the Hon. William Walton's, Esquire. This was in St. George's, now Franklin Square. To hardware he added the articles used in the tanning trade.
In 1770 he was associated with Gabriel, Lewis, and Moses Ogden, of Newark, East New Jersey, in the "Vesuvius Air-Furnace " Company, under the name of Ogdens, Laight & Co.
MR. EDWARD LAIGHT had married a Miss Luther, by whom he had a son, William, born in 1749, who also became a merchant in the city.
EDWARD LAIGHT was one of the Committee of Fifty-one appointed at the Exchange in May, 1774, and served with great regularity, being absent only from the last three meetings. He was one of the nine delegates chosen in July of the same year to confer with the Committee of Mechanics for the selection of delegates to represent the City in the first Continental Congress, and was also one of the Committee of Inspection (of Sixty) elected in November of the same year, to carry out the non-importation
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and non-exportation agreements recommended by the first Continental Congress.
When the final appeal to arms came, MR. LAIGHT appears to have with- drawn from public affairs. It seems that he was one of those who were unwilling to support the revolutionary movement. There were many who were willing to make every effort "consistent with loyalty" to obtain their liberties, but who would not draw the sword against the mother country.
MR. LAIGHT remained in New York during the British occupation. In April, 1778, he took his son into partnership with him. They carried on the hardware trade until the close of the War. He was one of the Over- seers of the Poor appointed by General Robertson in 1778. Gaine's New York Gazette of June 7, 1783, contains a notice of the death of his youngest son, Benjamin, at the age of nineteen, who is described as "a youth of most amiable manners and promising genius, beloved by his friends and esteemed by the whole circle of his acquaintance." His remains were interred in the yard of Trinity Church, of which his father was a vestryman from 1762 to 1784.
MR. EDWARD LAIGHT was the owner of a country residence near Corlear's Hook. He died on the 18th December, 1794, and was buried in Trinity Church yard. A likeness of him remains in the possession of his descendants. His family and the name of Laight were continued in the line of his son William, who has been named as a merchant of New York .- Partly from memoranda contributed by Edward Laight, Esq., of New York.
LAIGHT WILLIAM .- The son of Edward Laight and - Luther. He was born in New York, 19th February, 1749. He was graduated from King's (now Columbia) College, on Tuesday, 19th May, 1767. The Com- mencement was held at St. Paul's Church, and "His Excellency the Gov- ernor, the members of his Majesty's Council, the Clergy of the City and neighbouring Governments, and a very numerous and splendid Audience, honoured the Day with their presence. The salutatory oration was deliv- ered by MR. LAIGHT, whose graceful action and correct manner of expres- sion were justly admired by every Gentleman of Learning present." After some other performances by Messrs. Jay and Harrison, "MR. LAIGHT fa- vored the assembly with a discourse in Praise of a City Life, which, for gen- teel delivery, argument and Propriety of Language, gave much Satisfaction to the polite audience."
In November, 1772, he married Frances Sackett. On the breaking out of War he was chosen one of the General Committee of One Hundred which assumed the charge of the City. His sympathies were with the royal party, and in May, 1777, he carried despatches from Governor Tryon to Lord George Germaine, certifying him to be "a good and faithful subject, which testimony he desired."
The next year he was engaged in the hardware business with his father, at 190 Queen Street, and this connection continued throughout the War. After the peace he formed a partnership with William Backhouse, and car- ried on a trade with China. This connection was dissolved in 1792 by the death of Mr. Backhouse. In 1787 MR. LAIGHT was elected Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce, and as such took part in the grand Federal pro- cession in July, 1788. John Broome, President of the Chamber, and Wil- liam Maxwell, headed the Merchants and Traders in a chariot. WILLIAM LAIGHT followed " on horseback, having a standard representing, in an oval field, surrounded by thirteen stars, Mercury, supporting the arms of the
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City, surrounded by emblems of Commerce, and the motto, 'non nobis nati solum.'" This was the device of the Chamber.
MR. LAIGHT died in New York on the 2d April, 1802, at the age of 54 years, and was buried in Trinity Church yard.
MR. LAIGHT was called to many important offices of trust. He was Director in the United Insurance Company, the Mutual Assurance Com- pany, the United States Branch Bank, a Trustee of the Society Library, and a Governor of the New York Hospital from 1787 till his death-a period of sixteen years. His residence was at 112 Greenwich Street. By his wife, Frances Sackett, he had ten children, and numerous of his descendants are now living. A miniature portrait of him remains in the possession of the family .- Partly communicated by Edward Laight, Esq.
LECKIE ALEXANDER .- A large dry goods importer, chiefly of English and Scotch goods. His store was at No. 22 Hanover Square. As his name disappears after the War, it is probable that he retired with the British troops on the evacuation of the City.
LEWIS FRANCIS .- He was the son of the Rev. William Lewis, a clergyman of the Church of England, and his wife, the daughter of Rev. Dr. Pettingall, residing in South Wales, and was born at Landaff, South Wales, in 1713. He received his education at Westminster. Having turned his patrimony into merchandise, he sailed in 1735 for New York, where he formed a connection with Mr. Richard Annely, which continued until the death of the latter in 1743, when he appears to have continued the importation of dry goods for his own account. MR. LEWIS married Miss Annely, a sister of his partner. On the 18th May, 1747, he advertises a choice assortment, after the manner of the time, in Parker's Post Boy. He was established near the " Fly Market." During his mercantile career MR. LEWIS visited the differ- ent countries of Europe, and even Russia. He was twice shipwrecked on the coast of Ireland. In the French war he was much in Government em- ploy. An agent for the supply of the British troops at Fort Oswego, he was taken prisoner when it surrendered to Montcalm, after Colonel Mercer had been killed at his side. He was taken to Montreal, and afterwards to France. During the Stamp Act period he was one of the most active of the Sons of Liberty. In 1774 he was unanimously added to the Committee of Fifty. He was one of the representatives of New York in the First Conti- nental Congress which sat in Philadelphia the same year. In 1775 he was chosen on the Committee of One Hundred, and again re-elected to the Sec- ond Continental Congress. He signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. He was employed by Congress in the importation of stores and on se- cret service. In the summer of 1776 he took his family to Flushing, where his house and library were destroyed in the fall by British troops. His wife was taken prisoner and cruelly treated. MR. LEWIS received a vote of thanks from the Colony for his services. The last 20 years of his life he spent at Flushing in retirement and comparative poverty. He died Decem- ber 30, 1803, in his 90th year. The Hon. Morgan Lewis, Governor of the State of New York, was his son.
LISPENARD LEONARD, JR .- The family of Lispenard, now extinct in the male line in this country, was descended from Anthony Lispenard, a Huguenot refugee from La Rochelle, by the way of Holland, who arrived in New Amsterdam about the middle of the seventeenth century. His will, on record in the registry office, under date of 1696, shows the name of his only son to have been Anthony.
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Anthony Lispenard 2d married Elizabeth Huygens de Kleyn, daughter of Barent de Kleyn and grand-daughter of Barentsen Huygens. Leonard Lispenard, Senior, was a child of this marriage.
Leonard Lispenard, Senior, whose parentage is thus mentioned, was born in the City of New York, in the year 1716. In 1741 he was married to Alice, daughter of Anthony Rutgers. Mr. Rutgers was the owner of land- grants from the Crown by two patents to him from King George the Second, the first dated September 28, 1732, the second December 31, 1733-embra- cing with other ground that known in the early part of this century as "Lis- penard Hill" and "Lispenard Meadows." On the death of Anthony Rut- gers in 1746, Leonard Lispenard, Senior, inherited through his wife one third of these grants, and purchased, September 24, 1748, from the co-heir- esses, Mary, wife of Reverend Dr. Barclay, Rector of Trinity Church, and Aletta, wife of Dirk Lefferts, the other two thirds ; thus becoming proprietor of the whole. This was the origin of what is since known as the Lispenard Estate. Leonard Lispenard, Senior, besides his large property, was a promi- nent citizen in many ways. He was admitted a freeman of the city, under the appellation of Merchant, in 1750. He was the Assistant Alderman of the North Ward from 1750 to 1755, and Alderman from 1756 to 1762. He was also a delegate from New York to the First Colonial Congress, familiarly known as the Stamp Act Congress, which met at New York in October, 1765, and opened the scenes, which closed with American Independence, by a Declaration of Rights and Grievances. He was one of the Committee of Fifty-one chosen by the citizens on the 16th May, 1774, "to correspond with the neighboring colonies " on the impending crisis. He was early identified with the Sons of Liberty, and was no doubt a member of that organization. He was one of the nine members who withdrew from the Committee of Fifty-one on the 7th July, 1774, because of its disavowal of the action of McDougall-a member also-in calling a public meeting in the Fields and presiding over it. The more radical members were dissatisfied with the course pursued by the majority, and, after leaving the rooms of the Commit- tee, published an address to the public in justification of their conduct, to which Mr. Lispenard also signed his name. Unlike the majority of the discontents, Mr. Lispenard returned to the Committee in November, and took part in the final resolves which redeemed it from the reproaches of the time and concluded its patriotic effort to unite the Colonies in a general Congress. He was delegate to the General Assembly of the Province from 1765 to 1767. He was also one of the Committee of One Hundred chosen by the citizens to take control of public affairs on the 5th May, 1775. A month later, on the 25th June, 1775 (as the incident is recorded in Rivington's Gazette of the 29th), "General Washington, attended by Generals Lee and Schuyler and the light horse of Philadelphia, on the way for the American camp at Cambridge, landed at COLONEL LISPENARD'S seat, about a mile above New York, from whence they were conducted to the City by nine companies of foot, in their uniforms, and a greater number of the principal inhabitants of the City than ever appeared on any occasion before." After the breaking out of hostilities he seems to have remained in the city, his age (he was then sixty years), no doubt protecting him from personal interference. Mr. Lispenard was a generous patron of the infant public institutions of New York City. He was one of the original mem- bers of the Society of the New York Hospital and one of its first Gov- ernors from 1770 to 1777. He was also Treasurer of King's College as early as 1772, and for a long period of years subsequently. He died Feb- ruary 20th, 1790, at his residence on Lispenard Hill, a mansion which was situated at its highest elevation, and overlooked what is now known as St.
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John's Square. The centre of this hill was the junction of Hudson and Desbrosses Streets in the present maps of the city. He was buried in the family vault in the rear of Trinity Church.
By his wife, Alice Rutgers, he had three children, LEONARD LISPENARD, JUNIOR, Anthony Lispenard, and Cornelia, who married Thomas Marston, of New York.
LEONARD LISPENARD, JUNIOR, the son of Leonard Lispenard and Alice Rutgers, was born in the City of New York in the year 1743. His name is mentioned in the New York Mercury of June 14, 1762, as one of nine young gentlemen who received from the President of King's College, at St. George's Chapel, the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In 1768 he was admitted freeman of the city under the title of Gentleman, but as early as 1769 he seems to have engaged in some commercial business to have qualified him to receive an election to the Chamber of Commerce on the 4th July, 1769.
He was an active member of this body and a constant attendant at its meetings until the divisions which occurred among the members, owing to their different political views, in 1774. He is last recorded as in his seat on the 4th October of that year, but he had not dissolved his connection with it on the 3d May, 1775, on which day he was named as one of the monthly Committee to "hear and determine disputes " left to the Chamber. This was the last Committee appointed until the month of June, 1779, when a few of the members who remained in the city during the British occupation met together for the first time in four years.
In the MSS. notes of Mr. John Moore as to the political sentiments of the different members of the Social Club, which after many joyous gather- ings finally dispersed in December, 1775, mention is made of LEONARD LISPENARD and his brother Anthony, as of "doubtful loyalty to the crown, but as remaining quiet at New York" during the British occupation. There can be little doubt that he partook of his father's sentiments, but family considerations may have governed his actions during those troublous times.
He was one of the founders of the Masonic Society of New York, and appears first on the list of its members January 8, 1770. He is here styled " Captain." It is of well-known family tradition that he travelled extensively in Europe and acquired wealth independent of his father. He was a man of fine education, and of marked intelligence and energy of character. He was the proprietor of the property known as "Davenport's Neck," near New Rochelle, Westchester County, where he had a summer residence. He was never married, and died comparatively young. He was buried in the family vault in Trinity Church yard.
Anthony Lispenard, the second son of Leonard Lispenard, Senior, and only brother of LEONARD LISPENARD, JUNIOR, married Sarah Barclay, daugh- ter of Andrew Barclay, merchant, and niece of the Reverend Dr. Barclay, of Trinity Church. The record of the license of this marriage is of the Ioth December, 1764. They were cousins. He was the proprietor of the extensive breweries on the Greenwich road, near the foot of Canal Street. His attention to this business no doubt sprung from the large interest of his maternal grandfather with this profitable manufacture. Anthony Rut- gers had been the owner of large breweries and mills located on the North River not far from the foot of the present Cortlandt Street. These with his dwelling-house, " on the Broadway, opposite Maiden Lane," passed on his death in 1746 by will to his grandson, Anthony A. Rutgers, only son of his only son Anthony, then deceased. Anthony Lispenard, by his wife, Sarah Barclay, had three sons and three daughters: Leonard Lispenard, 3d, who continued the name in the next generation, Anthony, and Thomas,
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who died unmarried. Leonard, Anthony (now Worth), and Thomas Streets were respectively named by the father after the three brothers, and Lispe- nard Street was so named by the Corporation of the City in honor of the family. Of the three daughters, Helena Roosevelt Lispenard married Paul Bache, son of Theophylact Bache and brother of the wife of Leonard Lis- penard, 3d; Sarah married Alexander Stewart, father of Lispenard Stewart, of this City; Alice Lispenard died unmarried. Bache Street, now incorrectly spelled Beach, which was opened through the Lispenard farm, was so called after Paul Bache.
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