USA > New York > Famous families of New York; historical and biographical sketches of families which in successive generations have been identified with the development of the nation, Vol. I > Part 15
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Edward II. [1833], son of James Gore 1., was graduated from Harvard in 1853, and has been President of the Harvard Club of Edward New York. He is prominent in banking circles, and the Banker served as President of the New York Stock Exchange. He belongs to many of the leading clubs of the metropolis, and is a trustee of the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations. In early life he married Isabella Ramsay Cochrane, and, some years after her death, Elizabeth Fisher.
The Home of Rufus King, Jamaica, Long Island
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In the fifth generation, one member of the family has become well known. This is General Charles King [1844], son of General Rufus King. He was educated at Columbia and West General
Point, being graduated from the latter in 1866. He Charles held numerous military positions, and served many years upon the frontier. At the battle of Sunset Pass, Arizona, he was severely wounded, and was compelled to retire from the service in 1879. In 1889, he became professor of military science at the University of Wisconsin, and about the same time gained atten- tion as an author of military novels. At the breaking out of the war with Spain he promptly offered his services and was ap- pointed a brigadier-general. He married Adelaide L. Yorke. Rufus King III. married Maria Williamson.
On the female side, this generation became connected with many prominent families. Among these were Troup, Fuller, Lennig, Screven, Lorillard, Van Rensselaer, Kennedy, Hecksher, Waddington, Grinnell, Delafield, Crosby, Davis, Lee, Suydam, Brewster, Weekes, Halsey, Vincent, Ward, Clarke, Westervelt, Robinson, Gordon, Paterson, Bond, Edwards, Townsend, Van Buren, Duer, Travers, Mackay, Bronson, Richards, Parke, Edgar, and Williamson. The prestige of the family has been largely increased by the achievements of the collateral branches. These, as already mentioned, have made records for themselves in other States, and of their descendants many have settled in the Empire State, and become more or less identified with its interests.
The characteristics of the family have been energy and ambi- tion. The latter has been directed toward power rather than pelf. Those who have entered business have been successful, but have not attained so high a position comparatively as those who took up statecraft or war. In public affairs, the family has a notable record, both in Congress and in State Legislatures. They have taken part in every war from the early struggles of England and the colonies against France and the Indians, down to the re- cent conflict with Spain. In each they have won promotion and praise. While manifesting a deep love for physical and mental activity, they combine with it a strong affection for study and
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reading. Richard, head of the family in Maine, wrote both prose and verse. One of his essays is supposed to have been written while he was engaged in the expedition against Louisburg, and it is interesting to point out that the latest novel by his great-great- grandson, General Charles King, was written in the leisure hours of his warfare in the Philippines.
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Samuel Kip III.
XIX KIP
HE early part of the seventeenth century in Europe was marked by wars and a general ebullition of the military spirit. Men took to arms just as to- day they take to banking or dry- goods. Of the stalwart pioneers who crossed the ocean to the American continent, probably one-fifth was fa- miliar with the use of weapons, and a tenth had seen service in the field. Among the latter was Hendrick Kip, or De Kype, who, though politically a Hollander, was by birth of the purest French blood. His grand- father, Roeloff de Kype, was a nobleman attached to the house of Guise during the bitter struggle between the Ro- Hendrick the manists and Protestants. He was a brave soldier, and Founder took part in many of the engagements between the League upon the one side and the Prince of Conde and Admiral Coligny on the other. So great was his prowess that he evoked the particular animosity of his opponents. When Conde triumphed in 1562, the château of the De Kype family was burned and its owner compelled to fly from his home at Alançon, and take refuge in the Low Countries.
He was accompanied by his three sons, and for six years they led a precarious life, often passing under assumed names,
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and hiding at times when their enemies were close upon their trail. During much of this period of exile they were compelled to find safety in the cathedrals of Northern France and what is now Belgium. They were received with warm hospitality by the monks, and the sons were educated in the learning of the time. In 1569, Roeloff heard of the appearance in the field of an army led by the Duke of Anjou. He promptly left cover. With his son Henry he joined the Duke's forces and took part in the hotly contested battle on the banks of La Charante, near Jarnac, where the Prince of Conde was killed. On the same day the brave nobleman gave up his life for the cause of his religion.
Of the three sons thus thrown suddenly upon their own resources, Jean Baptiste, who was a priest, became attached to a church in Paris; Henri, a soldier, entered the army of an Italian prince, where he rose to high rank; Roeloff II. [1544], tired of war and of religious controversy, migrated to Holland, where he be- came a Protestant and a citizen of that sturdy commonwealth. He settled in Amsterdam, then a rich metropolis, established himself as a merchant, and amassed a fortune. He died in 1596, leaving his wealth to his son Hendrick.
Hendrick (1590?) married Margaret de Marveil and continued the business founded by his father. In middle life he was a prominent merchant of Amsterdam. He probably was a share- holder in the Dutch West India Company, as that corporation had raised its vast capital from the great merchants of the period. At the beginning the enterprise had proved a success, and had brought wealth to the country and dividends to the shareholders. Holland was full of strange tales respecting the fertility of its new possessions in the West, of rich deposits of ores, and an inex- haustible supply of rich skins and pelts. Under these influences the strong-willed trader determined to start a new life in the province of the New Netherlands. He embarked with his wife and three children and came to New Amsterdam in 1635. Here he bought property, but he could not become accustomed to the ways of the New World. He yearned for the luxuries of
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Henry Kip Son of Samuel Kip of Kip's Bay
Christina Kip Wife of Henry Kip
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Amsterdam, and after a few years he went back to the old country with his wife, where they ended their days.
In the second generation there were three sons, who became burghers in New Amsterdam - Hendrick II., Isaac, and Jacob. Hendrick married Anna de Sille, the beautiful daugh- Hendrick II. ter of the Hon. Nicasius de Sille, Councillor of the the Council- man province, who was the belle of her time; Isaac married
Catalina de Suyers, and, upon her death, Mrs. Maria Vermilyea; and Jacob married Marie de la Montagne, daughter of Dr. de la Montagne. All three sons purchased real estate, and took a lively part in the politics of the day. Hendrick appears to have been the strongest character of the trio. When Governor Kieft ordered the ambush and massacre of one hundred and ten de- fenceless Indians, men, women, and children, at Corlear's Hook and Pavonia, Hendrick was one of the few to protest against the act as wanton murder, and to agitate for the deposal of the Governor and his forced deportation to Holland. When the latter brought all the influence of his office to bear and secured the silence, if not the acquiescence, of the burghers, Hendrick was the only man who refused to connive at the wrong.
The Governor summoned the inhabitants to assemble in the fort at the Battery to entertain proposals for a treaty of peace to be concluded with the Indians. The meeting assembled, and the court messenger, Philip de Trury, after the town bell had rung and the citizens had come to order, reported that all the burghers on the Manhattans, from highest to lowest, had attended, as they all had answered kindly, excepting one, Hendrick Kip; and, while the entire community was willing to show respect, that burgher had expressed only contempt for the Governor. This fearless ac- tion won the admiration of the people, who, from this time on, looked up to him as a leader. When Governor Stuyvesant suc- ceeded Kieft, he reorganized the local government by creating a popular Assembly, consisting of nine delegates known as the "Nine Men," who were to co-operate with him and his Privy Council in the administration. Hendrick was one of the first members of this body.
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Governor Stuyvesant's motive in ordering this change was to win the good will of the people by making a concession to their love of freedom. The issue was the old question of political liberty and home rule. What the Governor conceded increased the desire on the part of the burghers for larger civil rights. The result was a constant struggle between the executive and the "Nine Men," the one endeavoring to extend his authority, and the other oppos- ing him in every way possible. This opposition, being public and official, was, of course, talked about, not only in New Amster- dam, but in all the other settlements of the New Netherlands. It developed into a condition bordering upon anarchy, and probably would have resulted in revolution but for the English conquest, which put an end to the rule of the West India Company. In this struggle Hendrick was one of the leaders of the popular party, and seems to have been as much feared by Stuyvesant as by Kieft, although the former was a superb soldier and an excellent statesman of the old Dutch type.
Isaac, Hendrick's brother, was essentially a man of affairs. Buying a stout sloop, he started a freighting business on the Hud- Isaac the son River, with main offices at New Amsterdam, Eso-
Corporal pus, and Fort Orange. The profits he invested wisely in real estate, and among his holdings was a farm which included the present City Hall Park. The road to it from the city wall was partly through his land, and was known as Kip's Road, and after- wards Kip Street. This, during British rule, was changed to the present name of Nassau Street. He had a spacious home at New Harlem in 1675, where he was the First Corporal of the Night Watch. As he was upon the river most of the time, his duties were probably less onerous, and certainly less profitable, than those of the modern inspector of police.
Jacobus, the third son, was farmer, merchant, and politician. His name appears more frequently in the old records than that of any other member of his family. He held the important office of schepen no less than six times between 1659 and 1675.
He received a grant from the Dutch West India Company, about 1655, of the property known as the Kip's Bay Farm, the
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whole or part of which was held in the family for two hundred years, and built thereon what is known as the Kip's Bay Mansion, which was taken down in 1851 to make way for East Thirty- fifth Street. The house was said by Benson J. Lossing, a his- torian, to be the oldest house then in the State, and in its time one of the most splendid, the coat of arms of the family being cut in the lintel over the front stoop. He was the founder of that branch known to this day as the Kip's Bay Kips.
In the third generation the family was more numerous and powerful than in the second. The Hendrick or Henry branch left New York at this time and settled in western New Jersey, where they established the New Jersey and Pennsylvania branches of the family. This was headed by Nicholas [1666], who, when he mi- grated, took with him his parents and the other members of his household.
The sons of Isaac, Hendrick [1654], Abraham [1659], Isaac [1662], and Jacob [1666], were able and enterprising citizens. They were prosperous during their father's life, and upon his death inherited extensive estates. They managed these with sin- gular skill, and became prominent land-owners. Hendrick and Jacob (either his brother or uncle, but more probably the former) bought the large tract known as Kipsburgh, which they settled and converted into a profitable estate, and which thereafter was duly patented into a manor with the manorial rights of the period. The four sons married well, their wives being as follows: of Hen- drick, Magdalena Van Vleeck; Abraham, Catalina de la Noy; Isaac, Sarah de Mille; and Jacob or Jacobus, Rachel Swarthout.
The children of Jacob were Isaac, Jacob, and John (?). They took a much livelier interest in public affairs than their cousins. John or Johannes was a member of the Council in 1684, Alderman and was an Alderman in 1686-1687, 1691-1692, 1696- 1697. Jacob was an Alderman from 1709 to 1728, continuously. They displayed the love of freedom and the strong Alderman Jacob courage which marked their race, and left untarnished records to their descendants.
John
In the fourth generation the two prominent characters were
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two sons of Jacob-Isaac [1696] and Roeloff [1698 ?]. Isaac was merchant and landed proprietor, who managed his property with wisdom. He married Cornelia Lewis, by whom he had several children.
The early part of the eighteenth century was uneventful in New York, being a period of quiet and peaceful growth. There was a steady influx of people from Europe, especially of the Pala- tines. Lands and produce rose in value; business developed, and the lords of the manors grew wealthy and powerful, without any endeavor on their part. The Kips enjoyed this prosperity with their colleagues.
In the fifth generation, two sons of Isaac deserve mention. One was Leonard [1725], who married Elizabeth Marschalk, and Leonard the the other Dr. Isaac [1732], who married Rachel Kip of Churchman Kipsburgh, his cousin. The former, Leonard, was a distinguished Churchman, and the latter a generous and public- spirited physician. They were notable for their hospitality and were popular in colonial society. During the Revolution, Leonard was a Royalist, and was punished thereafter by the confiscation of his estate. The other members, or most of them, were Revolu- tionists.
Of the twelve children of Jacobus I., Samuel I. [1682] be- came the owner of the estate and was succeeded by Jacobus II. [1706], who was an old man when the Revolution occurred and too feeble to take up arms for the cause of freedom. Too ill to be moved, he remained in his house, which stood overlooking the East River, near where is now the Thirty-fourth Street ferry. In spite of the danger, he stayed manfully at his post, and was in the house the day the British fleet opened fire upon the American earthworks, situated upon the bluff near his home. During the bombardment, he and his family took refuge in the cellar, and so escaped injury. Promptly after landing, the British troops occu- pied the mansion, but their commander set aside a portion, in- cluding three large rooms, for the head of the house and his two beautiful daughters. The shock, however, was too much for Jacobus, who died before the close of the war.
Samuel Kip Owner of Kip's Bay From a miniature on ivory
Ann Kip Wife of Samuel Kip From a miniature on ivory
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It was in this mansion that the farewell dinner was given to Major André, Sir Henry Clinton, and his staff, partly as a compli- ment to André, then on the eve of departure to consummate negotiations with Benedict Arnold. His health was drunk by the assembled guests, and when the toastmaster referred to the young Major's prospect of being ennobled for his gallantry, the sentiment was cheered to the echo. Ten days afterward he had been cap- tured, tried, and executed.
Samuel II. [1731], eldest son of Jacobus II., was a stanch Whig during the Revolution, and after the battle of Long Island was driven, with a reward of five hundred pounds offered for his arrest, from the old mansion at Kip's Bay where but a few days before he had been the host of Washington. He returned with his family and slaves to Kip's Bay after the Revolution and died there in 1804, when the property was partitioned among his nine children.
Of these, Henry III. [1785], the youngest, now left his birth- place with his young wife, an English lady of the Dakin family,- the first intermarriage of this branch of the Kips with any but Dutch stock, - and migrated to Utica, N. Y. The house where he lived near Utica, with the slaves' quarters attached, is still stand- ing. Later he returned to New York, where he died in 1849. His life was that of a modest, quiet country gentleman.
He had eight children, among whom Henry IV. [1817] showed his Dutch energy and thrift by becoming one of the founders of the great express transportation business, and until his death (1883) was one of its ablest leaders. By his wife, Charlotte M. Wells, of Southold, he had three sons, of whom William F. [1855] is the chief representative.
The latter was educated at Harvard (A.B., 1876) and Columbia (LL.B., 1879), and for ten years was secretary and chief executive of the Civil Service Reform Association of Buffalo; in 1892, was secretary to ex-President Cleveland, and for many years has been librarian of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.
George Goelet Kip, now of Morristown, N. J., a retired lawyer,
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formerly a member of the law firm of Dewitt, Lockwood, & Kip, famous as the guardians of rich old Dutch estates, is another descendant in this ninth generation of the Kip's Bay branch.
In the sixth generation Isaac Lewis [1767] and Leonard [1774] were prominent. Leonard studied law, became a partner of Judge Brockholst Livingston, and afterwards was appointed to an office in the Court of Chancery. He married Maria, daughter of Duncan Ingraham, by whom he had four children.
Isaac Lewis, the elder son, married Sarah Smith. He was interested in commerce, but devoted himself chiefly to his many real-estate holdings. He had three sons.
In the seventh generation, the Kip family produced many notable members. Of Leonard's children, Elizabeth married the Rev. Dr. Storrs of St. John's Church, Yonkers ; Sophia, the Right Rev. George Burgess, D.D., Bishop of Maine, and Mary, the Hon. John Innes Kane.
The Right Rev. William Ingraham [1811] married Maria Elizabeth, daughter of Isaac Lawrence of New York. He was Bishop Will- a graduate of Yale (1831), studied law, and afterwards iam Ingraham divinity. He was graduated from the General Theo- logical Seminary, and was ordained in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1835. He received the honorary degrees of A.M. from Yale and Trinity, of D.D. from Columbia, and LL.D. from Yale. He was a distinguished contributor to the religious press, and was the author of nine valuable works.
Leonard [1826] married Harriet L., the daughter of the Hon. John Van Rensselaer of Albany. He was graduated from Trinity (1846), and received the degrees of L.H.D. and LL.D. Dr. Leonard
from Hobart in 1893. He studied law, was admitted to the bar, and settled in Albany. Here he followed law and litera- ture, and in 1885 became President of the Albany Institute. He has written many articles for the magazines, and published many books, including sketches, fiction, historical studies, and short stories.
Of the children of Isaac Lewis, three held prominent places in the public eye-Brockholst Livingston, Leonard William [1796],
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and the Rev. Francis M. [1807]. Leonard William was educated at Columbia (1815), where he also took the degree of A.M. in 1820. He practised law in New York City, and he took high Leonard rank as an authority upon real estate and titles. He William was a member of the Board of Council of the University of New York, and was influential in developing that institution of learning. He married Anne Corbet Wilson. Rev. Francis Maerschalk [1807] was graduated from Columbia (1826) and Rutgers (1829). He received the degree of S.T.D. in 1857. He married Mary R. Bayard.
In the eighth generation, the most distinguished member was Colonel Lawrence [1836], son of Bishop William Ingraham. He was appointed a cadet at West Point (1853). Upon his Colonel graduation in 1857 he became Second Lieutenant in the Lawrence Third Artillery, and at once went into active service. He was a member of the expedition which General Wright led against the Northern Indians, and distinguished himself at the battle of Four Lakes and Spokane Plains. His experiences during this campaign were written and published afterwards in a delightful book, Army Life on the Pacific. At the opening of the Civil War in 1861, he went upon General Sumner's staff as senior aide-de-camp, with rank of major. He was with the Army of the Potomac in the battles of Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Seven Pines, Allen's Farms, Savage's Station, Glendale, Malvern Hill, Antietam, Fredericks- burg, Mine Run, and the seven-days' fight in front of Richmond, and received many testimonials for gallantry. He was an aide-de- camp on Major-General Sheridan's staff, and took part in every battle and skirmish under that commander until the surrender of Lee. He was made lieutenant-colonel by brevet in 1865, and his kinsmen can point with pride to a testimonial in the archives of the War Department, written by Sheridan, in which he is stated to be " a most brave and gallant officer, possessed of fine intelli- gence and gentlemanly demeanor." He married Eva Lorillard, by whom he had two children, Eva Kip McCreery and Leonard, who died in 1896.
William Ingraham II. [1840], another son of the Bishop, was 15
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a citizen of prominence, who served satisfactorily as Secretary of the United States Legation at Tokio in 1861 and 1862. He mar- William ried Elizabeth C. Kinney, by whom he had two sons,
Ingraham II. William Ingraham III. [1867] and Lawrence [1869].
Dr. Isaac Lewis, son of Leonard W., was graduated from the New York University, in the medical department, of which he afterwards took the degree of M.D. He married Cor- Dr. Isaac W. nelia, daughter of the Hon. William V. Brady, Mayor of New York, by whom he had two children, Adelaide, who mar- ried Philip Rhinelander, and William V. B.
The Rev. Leonard William, Jr., was graduated from Columbia in 1856, where he afterwards took the degree of A.M., and received Rev. Leonard the degree of S.T.D. from Rutgers in 1880. He was W., Evangelist intensely devout, and, upon being ordained, he volun- teered his services to the American Board of Foreign Missions and was detailed to Amoy, China, where he has been a leader in the Christian world ever since.
The family is marked by great intellectual vigor and by a deep love of liberty and culture. It has enjoyed the advantages of wealth and social position during its nine generations in the New World, and long before its founder crossed the sea. It has always taken a deep interest in public affairs and has held many public positions of honor and responsibility. One list shows more than forty who have been selected to represent their fellow-citizens. For six generations they have adorned the learned professions, the pulpit, the bar, and medicine. Through them runs a strong mili- tary instinct, which comes to the surface in every war. In com- mercial life they are active, enterprising, and successful. They may be regarded as an admirable type of the American citizen.
Lawrence
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SONSTWEJ .A MEstridA storgotoslą o stor7
Abraham R. Lawrence From a photograph
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LAWRENCE
NEW YORK family notable for its num- bers, activity, influence, and achieve- ment is that of Lawrence, which has written its name upon the annals of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, . Rhode Island, and Massachusetts. It has a long and distinguished pedigree, the first of the race, so far as geneal- ogy is concerned, having been Robert, a daring and doughty crusader, who accompanied Richard the Lion-hearted to the Holy Land. Here, by his des- perate courage at the beleaguerment of St. John D'Acre in 1191, where he was the first to plant the banner of the cross on the bat- tlements of the city, he won the love of his reckless monarch, who made him Sir Robert Lawrence of Ash- Sir Robert ton Hall, Lancashire, England. From his time down the family records are quite complete. A
In the thirteenth century, there was at least one union be- tween the Lawrence and Washington families, when Sir James Lawrence wedded Matilda Washington, sister of the Lawrence and direct ancestor of the first President of the Republic. Washington From this time on the name of Lawrence appears constantly in the Washington pedigree, the last one of distinction to bear it being the half-brother of the General, from whom the latter inherited the estate of Mount Vernon.
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The original coat-of-arms granted to Sir Robert was pre- served and used by his descendants even after they crossed the Henry the sea. It was employed on the seal of William in New Councillor York City (1680) and of Richard (1711). In the early part of the seventeenth century the Lawrences, though of gentle blood, sided with the Commons against the Crown, and one of them, Henry, a Cambridge graduate, was Lord President of Oliver Cromwell's Council, served in Parliament, and held many high offices. This Henry was one of the patentees of a great estate on the Connecticut River, and with his colleagues commissioned John Winthrop the younger to govern the colony. He was also one of the committee of gentlemen who engaged Lyon Gardi- ner of Gardiner's Island to go out to the Connecticut River and there erect forts for the protection of their estates against the Indians.
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