USA > New York > Colonial records of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1768-1784 : with historical and biographical sketches > Part 45
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MR. MURRAY died at his country seat on New York Island, then three miles from the City, now that part of it known as "Murray Hill," on the 17th October, 1808, aged 71. There is a fine portrait of him by Trumbull, from which the painting in the Hall of the Chamber of Commerce is a copy. -- Communicated by John R. Murray, Esq., of Cazenovia.
MURRAY ROBERT .- The son of John Murray. He was born at Swataca, Pennsylvania, about the year 1714. He was one of the most im- portant merchants of the last century. It is said of him, that his firm owned more tons of shipping than any other house in America. Together with the Franklins, who were of the same religious belief, both being Quaker families, he despatched, April 21st, 1768, the first whaling sloop which had left the city on a cruise for many years. His place of business was on Murray's Wharf, where he had two stores. In 1771 his younger brother, John, was in business with him ; the house was then styled ROBERT & JOHN MURRAY. At a later period the firm-name was MURRAY, SANSOM & Co. He accumulated a large property. He married Mary Lindley in 1744. His farm-house at Incleberg, now Murray Hill, became historical as the spot where Mrs. Murray entertained Lord Howe and his officers, and by her good cheer and pleasant conversation detained the march long enough to allow of the escape of the division of the American troops under Putnam, which had otherwise been cut off. He was one of the addressers of Lord Howe shortly after this occurrence. Of course, with his Quaker opinions, he was not expected to take an active part with either side. He resided in the city during the War, in Chapel Street. He died in New York on the 22d of July, 1786, at No. 188 Queen Street. His children were John Murray, jr., Lindley Murray the Grammarian, Mrs. Martin Hoffman, and Mrs. Gilbert Willett ; his later descendants, David Colden Murray, Lindley Murray, Robert Lindley Murray, and John Murray, jr .- Chiefly communicated by David Colden Murray, Esq., of New York City.
NEILSON WILLIAM .- One of the largest dry goods importers of the
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last century. His place of business was in Dock Street. He does not appear to have taken any part in public affairs. He died in New York on the 26th of November, 1820, at the age of 83; "the last survivor of the original members of the New York Chamber of Commerce."
NICOLL CHARLES .- He was the posthumous son of William Nicoll, of Islip, Long Island, by his second wife, Ruth Northen, and born 3d January, 1724. He was one of the earliest of the Sons of Liberty, and a member of its most important Committee in 1766. For some time a part- ner of Edward Laight in the importing of European and India goods, he appears alone in the wine business at a later period. He remained in New York during the War, and was one of the Vestry to take charge of the poor in 1778. He died Tuesday, 12th December, 1780, in the City of New York, " in the 59th year of his age." An obituary by the hand of a friend said of him, "that his loyalty endeared him to his country ; his good nature and sincerity to his friends ; his humanity to the indigent ; his benevo- lent and social spirit to his companions, and his candor and integrity to all men."
OOTHOUT JOHN .- He was admitted freeman of the city in 1765. In 1771 he was a candidate for the office of Church Warden. He does not appear to have taken a prominent part in public affairs. He remained in the city during the War. Of the house of OOTHOUT & DUMONT, 13 Smith Street, after the War.
PAGAN WILLIAM .- He was admitted freeman of the city in 1769. He was one of the addressers of Lord Howe in 1776. His name does not appear after the Peace.
PHOENIX DANIEL .- He was the son of Alexander Phoenix and Elizabeth Bockee his wife, and was born in the City of New York in 1742. He died at his residence in this city, 138 Water Street, on the 17th of May, 1812, and was buried in a vault beneath the Wall Street Presbyterian Church. He was the great-grandson of Alexander Phoenix, who is tradi- tionally reported to have been a younger son of Sir John Fenwick, Bart., a representative of the great Northumbrian family of Fenwicks. It is well known to those who have studied the history of surnames, that Phoenix is simply a corrupt form of Fenwick (which is pronounced as if written Fen- nick) ; but whether the tradition referred to rests on any further basis of truth than this, it is now impossible to say. Little is known of Alexander Phonix (or Fennick, as he wrote it), than that he was born in England about 1620-that he embraced non-conformist principles in religion-and that the persecution to which he was subjected in consequence drove him to the New World. He removed to New York, then New Amsterdam, in 1640. His descendants have remained here from that day to this, and during a period of two hundred and twenty years have lived in what is now the first ward of the city.
DANIEL PHOENIX, having received a liberal education, entered at an early age into the business of importing goods from Great Britain, and by his intelligence and uprightness soon acquired the confidence of the com- inunity. Beginning with a moderate capital which he had inherited from his father, he soon amassed what was in those days a large fortune, and was considered throughout his long life one of our wealthiest and most influential citizens.
His interest in religious affairs was manifested at an early age and con-
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tinued unabated to the day of his death. His name is identified with the history of the Presbyterian Church in this city. He was chosen a trustee of the Wall Street (now Dr. Phillips') Church in 1772, and served faithfully and zealously in that capacity until the city fell into the hands of the British troops. On the evacuation of New York and the consequent re-opening of the Church, he was called upon to resume his old seat in the board of trustees-a position which he continued to occupy, with hardly an interval, till his death, in 1812. Such was the confidence of his associates in his integrity, and such their estimate of his ability, that the financial matters of the Church were entrusted almost entirely to him.
In politics he was an uncompromising Whig, and took an active part in all measures calculated to resist the tyranny of the mother country. News of the passage of the Stamp Act having reached New York in April, 1765, he at once joined the association known as the "Sons of Liberty," which had been formed at the stormy time of Zenger's trial, to protect the liberties of the people and resist the aggressions of the Crown. To the patriotic measures of that organization-its Non-Importation Act ; its persistent resistance to Governor Colden in his attempts to enforce the Stamp Act ; its rejoicings over the repeal of that odious measure ; its almost daily con- flicts with the British soldiery quartered here under the command of General Gage ; its loud protests against the disfranchisement of the Pro- vincial Assembly ; its rigorous opposition to the Tea Bill-he lent his active co-operation. It deserves to be remembered that he was one of the last who adhered to the non-importation measures adopted by the colonists in opposition to the Stamp Act, though they fell with particular severity upon himself, and indeed entirely suspended his business for several years.
On the reception of the news of the battle of Lexington, 24th April, 1775, the Arsenal, Custom House, and other public buildings in New York were seized by the people, and at a meeting on the 5th May, a "General Committee of One Hundred " influential citizens was appointed to carry on the government of the city till further action on the part of the Provincial Congress. Of this Committee DANIEL PHOENIX was a prominent member. It continued in power until the capture of the city by the British army under General Howe, on the 15th of September, 1776, when MR. PHOENIX retired with his family to Morristown, New Jersey. Here he resided during the War. On the evacuation of New York, November 25, 1783, he returned to the city, to find his house burned, his business ruined, and much of his property irretrievably lost. His sacrifices in the cause of liberty were not, however, unappreciated by his fellow citizens. He was at once chosen one of a Committee of thirteen (representing the original States), to receive General Washington on his triumphal entry into the city, and at the first municipal election he was elected Alderman of the East Ward-an honor then highly esteemed and eagerly courted by our best citizens. In 1790 he was again returned to the Board of Aldermen, then seven in number, from the Out Ward. Such was the general confidence in his integrity and finan- cial ability, that in 1789 he was appointed by the Mayor and Aldermen to the honorable and responsible office of City Treasurer, or Chamberlain-a position which he continued to hold till the year 1809, when declining health compelled him to resign it. During this long period of twenty-one years there was but one opinion of his eminent fitness for the position and of the uprightness with which the affairs of his department were admin- istered.
DANIEL PHOENIX took an active part in the inception of the many noble charitable and literary institutions which adorn this city, and contributed liberally to their support. He was Governor of the New York Hospital from
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1784 to 1787, and by his untiring efforts aided largely in placing that memo- rable institution in a position to fulfill in 1791 the intentions of its founders. He was elected a Trustee of the Society Library in 1775, and continued to occupy that position till the year 1810, when his feeble health forced him to resign. During most of this time he acted as the Treasurer of the So- ciety. He aided materially in erecting the first Free School ever built in this city. This was a small building, founded and maintained at the expense of a few public-spirited citizens, in Madison near Pearl Street, and was opened on the 7th of May, 1806, with accommodation for only forty scholars ; but as the germ of our present Common School System, its founders deserve an honorable place in the history of the city.
In the commercial world, MR. PHOENIX'S wealth and integrity gave him a high position. He was connected with almost all the mercantile institu- tions of his day. Two years after its formation in 1768, (on the 4th day of December, 1770,) he was elected a member of the Chamber of Commerce (being then only twenty-eight years of age), and he continued an active member of that institution to the day of his death. On the 20th of April, 1784, he was among the petitioners to the Legislature for a confirmation of the Chamber's Charter, which he believed had been forfeited by the disloyal action of some of the members during the British occupation.
He was Secretary of the New York Insurance Company from 1795 to 1799 (being succeeded in that position by his son Sidney), and Director of the Manhattan Company (chartered in 1799 with a capital of two millions and a half to supply the city with water, but afterwards merged into a banking company) from 1803 to 1810. He was one of the original subscri- bers to the celebrated Tontine Association, which was composed of the most eminent merchants of the day, taking his share in the name of his daughter Rebecca, who was born on the 17th of January, 1781, and died on the 3d of February, 1818.
He died, as has been said, on the 17th day of May, 1812, leaving behind him an enviable reputation as an honorable and successful merchant, a pub- lic-spirited and patriotic citizen, a courteous, urbane gentleman, and an earnest Christian.
DANIEL PHOENIX was twice married ; to Hannah Tredwell, on the 8th of February, 1770, and to Elizabeth Platt, on the 3d of November, 1772. It is mentioned as a curious fact by our city chroniclers, that at the funeral of the latter, in 1784, " the pall-bearers were ladies."
His children were : I. Gerard, born Ioth of July, 1774; died in infancy. 2. Alexander, born 28th of February, 1777 ; graduated at Columbia Col- lege, 1794; admitted to the bar in 1798, but afterwards studied for the ministry ; pastor of the Congregational Church at Chicopee, Mass., 1824-35 ; died at Harlem, New York, 31st of August, 1863 ; (an appreciative memoir of this excellent man was recently published by the Pastor of the Congre- gational Church at Harlem.) 3. Elizabeth, born 23d of April, 1776; died Ist of October, 1844 ; married Nathaniel Gibbs Ingraham, by whom he had three children, one of whom, Daniel P. Ingraham, is a Judge of the Su- preme Court of New York. 4. Rebecca, born 17th of January, 1781 (Ton- tine Life) ; died 3d of February, 1818; married Eliphalet Williams, of Northampton, Mass. 5. Amelia, born 30th of March, 1784; died in infancy. 6. Jennet, married Richard Riker, the well-known District Attor- ney and Recorder of the city. 7. Sidney, born in 1779 ; died in 1800, un- married.
The male line of the descendants of DANIEL PHOENIX was continued only in the children of his second son, Alexander .- Contributed by S. Whitney Phoenix, Esq., of New York.
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PINTARD LEWIS .- In 1762 he appears as the owner of the schooner Catherine, of 6 guns. A prominent merchant in the time of the Stamp Act, he was called upon by the Sons of Liberty in reference to a bond and Mediterranean pass, which the Committee at Philadelphia informed the New York Committee he had sent on stamped paper. He disavowed any intention of using the stamp. He was one of the Committee of Correspond- ence of Fifty-one of 1774, and of the Committee of One Hundred of 1775. He was connected with the Commission for the relief of American prisoners in this city during the War. His wife Susannah died March 11th, 1772. He died March 16th, 1818, at the age of 86, "one of the three last sur- vivors of the original members of the Chamber of Commerce."
PLATT JEREMIAH .- There was a firm of WATSON & PLATT in 1762, who were engaged in the domestic trade, selling " Long Island Pork and Gammons, and Connecticut Cheese, at Burling's Slip." In August, 1769, he married Mary Ann Vanderspiegle. It is presumed he was of the Fairfield County (Conn.) family. He was on the Committee of One Hun- dred in 1775.
PONSONBY JOHN .- Nothing occurs concerning this person. He no doubt went out with the British troops.
RAMADGE SMITH .- A dry goods importer, at No. 10 Water Street. He married Mary Jones on New Year's Day, 1777. He was ar- rested in 1776 and committed to gaol for refusing to take the oath to the Continental Congress. On the 9th of April, 1781, he announced that he "intends embarking for Europe with the first convoy, and calls in his out- standing debts." He also offered for sale his store in Water Street, and his dwelling-house, No. 35 Hanover Square.
RAMSAY JOHN .- The son of James Ramsay, of Perthshire, Scot- land, was born in Perthshire, in the year 1731.
The family of Ramsay has been established in the old County of Perth for many generations, and claims descent from Adam de Ramsay, of Banff, one of the Scottish barons who is recorded as having submitted to Edward I. of England.
JOHN RAMSAY, after receiving a liberal education in the professions of law and physic, left his home in Scotland, and, in companionship with his young friend, Mercer, went up to London, where they entered a counting- house together. There was probably some family tie between these two young men ; in fact, Burke, in an account of the family in the landed gentry, states that George Ramsay, of Banff, Perthshire, married Elizabeth, daughter of Mercer, of Aldie. When MR. RAMSAY reached twenty-one years of age the two friends emigrated to New York, and, forming a partner- ship, entered into the business of importing.
In 1763 MR. RAMSAY was married to Mrs. Elizabeth Marshall, of Charleston, South Carolina. He is said to have continued in partnership with his friend until the breaking out of the Revolutionary War ; perhaps such was the case, and the business was at first carried on under the sole name of one partner, who advertises in Hugh Gaine's Mercury of January 21, 1768, "MR. JOHN RAMSAY, merchant in New York, near the Fly Market." At a later period the name of the house was MERCER & RAM- SAY. He seems to have been in high consideration among his countrymen, for on February 13th, 1769, he summoned together the Sons of St. Andrew, as the Secretary of the Society.
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On the 5th March, 1771, he was elected a member of the Chamber of Commerce.
The course of MR. RAMSAY on the approach of the struggle was a firm and consistent one. A member of the Dutch Reformed Church, it was natural that he should ally himself with the party which favored a larger liberty than the views of either Church or King promised in that day. On these questions it was to be expected that every Scotchman would have clearly defined opinions. Differing in views from his partner, their connec- tion was now dissolved, and Mr. Mercer, whose sentiments were strongly with the Crown, returned to Great Britain, where soon after, on the death of an elder brother, he became Lord Keith.
After the retirement of Mr. Mercer, MR. RAMSAY continued the busi- ness alone. Through his many influential connections abroad, he received many brilliant offers from the British Government, but he always refused to take part against the land of his adoption or the cause of human rights. Although he does not seem to have taken an active part in the contest, and his name does not appear in any of the numerous committees of the period, yet when the British army took possession of the city, he removed to New Jersey, where he remained until the close of the War.
He returned to New York for a short period, and while here was, on the Ist June, 1784, re-elected to the Chamber of Commerce. He does not seem to have been contented with the position of affairs in New York, and removing to Philadelphia, he established himself there, but in a few years, in consequence of the failing state of his wife's health, he returned to New York and renewed his old business at his store in Pearl Street-his resi- dence being in Greenwich Street. A few years later he withdrew from act- ive life, and retired to his farm in Westchester County, where he died on the Ist day of December, 1816, at the full age of 85. There remains, unfortunately, no likeness of this worthy man, except a small silhouette.
MR. RAMSAY, by his marriage mentioned, had six children, of whom one was a son, Charles ; of the daughters, Martha married Mr. John Cruger, of Belmont, Hudson River, a seat between Sing Sing and Fishkill. It is this Mr. Cruger whose portrait is No. 43 of the St. Memin series. Another, and the only surviving child, is Mrs. Isabella Bloomfield, of Philadelphia .- From MSS. memoranda contributed by Mrs. Isabella Bloomfield, of Phila- delphia.
RANDALL THOMAS, CAPTAIN .- He was one of the noted Captains of the day, and took a prominent part in public affairs. In 1748 he com- manded the privateer brigantine The Fox, which brought in the French ship L'Amazone. In 1757 he took out the brigantine DeLancey, of 14 guns. The next year he seems to have withdrawn from active service, and to have sent out privateers under the command of others. In 1758 he was joint owner of the snow General Abercrombie, 16 guns, and the ship Mary, Io guns. In 1760 the DeLancey in her turn was captured by the Dutch off Curacoa, and her commander and crew imprisoned. In 1762 he appears as the owner of the Charming Sally, of 6 guns. On the breaking out of the War of the Revolution he took active part with the patriots. He was a member of the Committee of Fifty-one, and took part with the radical members on the division caused by the meeting called in the Fields by McDougall. He was also on the Committee of One Hundred. When the British entered the city he withdrew to Elizabethtown, and appears to have aided the Provincial Congress in the care of the Privateers commissioned by it. His house in New York, on the west side of Broadway, was one of those spared by the destructive fire of 1776. On the return of the exiles
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to New York, a meeting was held at Cape's tavern, 18th November, 1783, which appointed a Committee to prepare an address to General Washing- ton. The name of CAPTAIN RANDALL leads the signatures to this paper. He was also one of the Committee of thirteen to conduct the procession to meet Governor Clinton on his entrance into the city, 26th November. He was one of the gentlemen who presented Washington with the " President's Barge," used by him during his stay in New York. On the President's return to Virginia, in 1789, he returned the barge to the donors, with a warm letter to CAPTAIN RANDALL.
The residence of CAPTAIN RANDALL was at No. 8 Whitehall. He died Friday, October 27, 1797, aged 74 years. His remains were interred in the family vault in Trinity Church Yard.
RAPALJE GARRET .- The son of John Rapalje and Diana, daughter of Garret Middah, was born in Brooklyn, May 31, 1730. In 1768, together with William Faulkner and Rem Rapalje, he opened a Brew-House at the Brookland Ferry. He had been for some time engaged in the importation of ironmongery and dry goods at his store opposite the Fly Market. He was the owner of the Wallabout. He married Helen Denys, of New Utrecht, and moved to New Orleans.
READE JOHN .- He was a general importer. He was in business under his own name, first in Wall Street and later in King Street. He married Catharine, daughter of Robert Gilbert Livingston.
REMSEN HENRY, JUNIOR .- He was the son of Henry Remsen and Catalina, daughter of Joris Remsen, and was born 5th April, 1736. On the 28th December, 1761, he married Cornelia Dickenson. He entered into the dry goods business, and soon became one of the largest importers of the day. The style of the firm was HENRY REMSEN & COMPANY, and their store was in Hanover Square, the centre of business. Some years later, MR. REMSEN united with him David Seabury, and they continued the same business until the first of April, 1774, when the firm was dissolved, MR. REMSEN retiring.
In politics MR. REMSEN was a strong Whig. He was one of the Com- mittee of Correspondence of Fifty-one, and also of the Committee of Asso- ciation of One Hundred, of which he was Deputy Chairman. As such he signed the address of the General Committee to Lieut. Governor Col- den, on the 18th May, 1775. In 1776 he was active in aid of the Provincial Congress, importing stores and supplies for the troops. He had then re- tired to Morristown, New Jersey, with his wife and family. He returned to the city after the Peace, and resumed his business at No. 8 Hanover Square. He died 13th March, 1792. Of nine of his children, Henry was the only one who married; his wife was Catharine, daughter of Captain DePeyster.
REMSEN PETER .- The son of Rem Remsen and Dorothy his wife, was born in 1722. He was in partnership in New York with his brother Henry, in the dry goods business. The firm was PETER & HENRY REMSEN. They dissolved in May, 1762, and PETER REMSEN continued the business in his own name, at his store on the corner of King Street, until his death, in 1771.
RHINELANDER FREDERICK .- A large importer of china, glass, and earthen ware. His store was at the corner of Burling's Slip. He
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remained in the city during the War, and was, with his brother Philip, an addresser of Lord and General Howe, in October, 1776. He appears, in July, 1778, as one of the Vestry of the city, charged with the care of the poor. On the 28th July, 1783, he was summoned by Lewis Duboys, Sheriff of Dutchess County, to show cause why his estates should not be forfeited for "adhering to the enemies of the people of the State of New York."
On the Ioth December, 1783, FREDERICK & PHILIP RHINELANDER announced their intention to " dissolve business." Their advertisement was dated from Rhinelander's store, " 168 Water Street, corner of Burling's Slip."
After the War they continued their business from the corner of Barclay and Greenwich Streets, North River.
ROOSEVELT ISAAC .- His business was that of sugar-refining, his store originally in Wall Street. He afterwards removed to St. George's Square. On the 25th April, 1772, he issued the following advertisement : "ISAAC ROOSEVELT is removed from his House in Wall Street to the House of his late Brother, Jacobus Roosevelt, Jun'r, deceased, near the Sugar House, and opposite to Mr. William Walton's, being on the North West side of Queen Street, where his customers may be supplied as usual, with double, middling, and single refined loaf sugars, clarified, muscovado, and other molasses, &c." He was one of the most noted Whigs of the time. He was one of the General Committee of Association of One Hun- dred, chosen in May, 1775, to take control of the Government. On the entry of the British he withdrew from the city. His sacrifices were re- warded by the confidence of his countrymen. He represented the City of New York in the Convention which met at Kingston, Ulster County, April 20, 1777, to form a Constitution for this State, and of the New York Con- vention which assembled at Poughkeepsie, June 17, 1788, to deliberate on the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. After the Peace he was Senator of the State. On the death of General McDougall, in 1786, MR. ROOSEVELT succeeded him in the Presidency of the Bank of New York, which had been organized two years before in the Walton House, opposite to the residence of MR. ROOSEVELT, which was then known as 159 Queen Street. He had resumed his business of sugar-refin- ing, in partnership with his son, under the firm of ISAAC ROOSEVELT & SON. MR. ROOSEVELT continued in the Presidency of the Bank until May, 1791, when he retired, and was succeeded by Mr. Gulian Verplanck. He was the Fourth President of the Society of the New York Hospital, from 1790 to 1794. He died in October, 1794, at the age of sixty-eight years, beloved and honored as a tried, true, and consistent patriot.
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