History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 139

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 139

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At the circuit for the trial of cases he is a favorite with both lawyers and suitors for his patience and impartiality. He manifests great love for justice and right and deep abhorrence for wrong and oppression.

He is emphatically a man of the people, with whom he has always mingled freely and sympathized fully, and whose interests he has ever been ready to maintain and defend. He listens with willingness to the petitions and complaints of all, and the people love him and place reliance upon him. He is a man of simple habits and modest deportment, but stu- diously observes the qualities of amenity and pro- priety, and treats all with whom he comes in contact with great consideration and politeness.

In many ways he is an illustration of what may be accomplished under our republican institutions, where

1 See history of that town.

" This sketch was prepared and inserted by the editor.

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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

all positions are within the grasp of those who desire to attain them. By energy and perseverance he has risen to a high position without the aid of wealth or influence.

The people have found him a man on whom they could rely, and have accordingly bestowed on him their confidence and raised him to eminence, and it is not too much to say that he has fulfilled all their expec- tations. There never was a stain on his private character nor on his public record, and the breath of suspicion has never assailed him.

In his domestic and private life he has been ex- emplary and fortunate. He was early married to Miss Emily L. Trowbridge, of Peekskill, a descendant of the New Haven family of that name, a most exeel- lent and domestic lady, who aided and encouraged him in all his struggles; and he never hesitated to declare that he owes his success and advancement to her untiring energy and zeal, her wise couusel and her laudable ambition. In many dark days she showed him the silver lining of the cloud and gave him new hope and energy. She still lives to share his honors and his prosperity as she shared his adversity,-a noble example of a faithful wife, a devoted mother and a benevolent Christian woman.

They have two sons, both of whom are lawyers. The elder, William N. Dykman, married Miss Bell Anuau, and is practicing his profession very success- fully in Brooklyn. The youngest, Henry T. Dykman, married Miss Ella B. Clyne, of Dutchess County, and is practicing law in White Plains, where he has accu- mulated a very good practice.

Such is the Honorable Jackson O. Dykman, and his example may well be imitated by the young men of the country.

He is a Demoerat in the broadest sense of the term, but not a partisan, and a consistent member of the Episcopal Church.

The following is a list of the surrogates, as given in the New York eivil list. Most, if not all, are men- tioned biographically in our sketches of the bar, which follow,-

1730. Gilbert Willet.

1815. Henry White.

1754. John Bartow.

1819. Samuel Youngs.

1761. Caleb Fowler.

1821. Ebenezer White, Jr.

1766. David Daton. 1828. Jonathan Ward.

1778. Richard Hatfield.

1840. Alexander Il. Wells.

1787. Philip Pell, Jr.

1844. Frederick J. Coffin.

1800. Samuel Youngs.

1847. Lewis C. Platt.

1802. Edward Thomas.

1855. Robert H. Coles.

1808. Ezra Lockwood.

1862. Silas D. Gifford.

1810. Samuel Youngs.

1862. John W. Mills.

1811. Ezra Lockwood.

1870. Owen T. Coffin.

1813. Samuel Youngs.

Samuel Clowes was the first lawyer, of whom any record ean be obtained, who practiced in Westehester County. He was a Queens County man and filled the office of elerk of that county from April 30, 1701, to July, 1710. Having moved to Westchester County, lie soon rose to prominence, and from 1717 to 1744 he was one of the two leading attorneys of the West-

chester bar, and doubtless the first prosecuting attor- ney of Westehester County. December 9, 1722, oc- eurs the following entry in the court records of White Plains : "The Court of Gen'l Sessions appoints Mr. Samuel Clowes counsel for the King in all cases where he is not already concerned for the subject." After 1744, owing to his advaneed age, he gave up the aetive practice of a profession in which he had risen to eminence, commanding the respect and admiration of his brother lawyers and of the people. Mr. Clowes died, full of years, in Jamaica, Long Island, in 1760. In his will, which bears date of July 24, 1759, but was not offered for probate until August 28, 1760, he put down his age at eighty-five years and five months.1 He was, therefore, over eighty-six years of age at the time of his death, the exact date of which we have failed to discover.

Another lawyer, whose name appears simultane- ously with that of Mr. Clowes, in 1717, in connection with a number of proceedings in the Court of Com- mon Pleas, was - Vernon. His first name is omit- ted in the court records, and little is known of him beyond the fact that he practieed law until 1728.

Mr. Murray and Mr. Jamison are next mentioned --- first name omitted-as practicing, from 1719 to 1736- 37, in Westchester County. The former was, no doubt, Joseph Murray, of New York, member of the Colo- nial Council of New York from 1744-58.2 He died in 1758. There can be also little doubt that " Mr. Jam- ison " was David Jamison, one of the pateutees of Harrison's Purchase (the town of Harrison), at one time ellief justice of New Jersey and attorney-gen- eral of New York.3

Mr. Wileman (doubtless Henry Wileman) practiced occasionally in the Westchester County Courts from 1720 to 1725. 4

John Chambers, of New York, practiced in the Westchester courts from 1724 to 1751. He was an able and successful lawyer, he and Mr. Clowes doing al- most all the legal business until Mr. Clowes retired, in 1744, when Chambers retained the lion's share.

Other lawyers, hailing principally from New York City or from Queens County, appeared infrequently in the County Courts in those early years. They were Whitehead, 1721; Costifin, 1728; Price, 1728; T. Smith (possibly Thomas Smith, of New York, inem- ber of the Committee of One Hundred in 1775), whose name is frequently mentioned, 1727-69; Ed- ward Blagge, 1728-32; Seymour, 1729; Lodge, 1731-56; Kelley, 1732-51; Warrol, 1732; White, 1740-41 ; Crannel, 1744; Green, 1744-47.

John Bartow, of Westehester town, was a lawyer of some repute from 1742 until 1772. He at one time (1760-64) held the office of eounty elerk. He died in 1802, at eighty-seven years old. Mr. Bartow, we

1 Record of Wills, N. Y. City, vol. xxii, p. 232.

2 N. Y. Civil List.

3 Bolton, pp. 367-368, foot note, and N. Y. Civil List. + N. Y. Civil List.

---

535

THE BENCH AND BAR.

believe, was the first attorney resident iu Westchester County.

John Alsop, of New York, practiced law in West- chester County, with remarkable success, between 1744 and 1759, inclusive.

Benjamin Nicoll, lawyer of New York, was clerk of Westchester County in 1745. He dicd about 1759-60, as there is an entry in the record of the pro- ccedings of the Court of Common Pleas, May, 1760, of an order appointing Thomas Joncs attorney, in a certain causc, " in the room of Benjamin Nicolls, de- ceased." Mr. Nicoll was a lawyer of great ability.

Timothy Wetmore, referred to above, was one of the leading attorneys at this bar previous to thic Revolu- tion. Hc was the son of Rev. James Wetmore, of Rye, and a man of influence in the community. He was graduated from King's College in 1758, and was admitted to practice April 26, 1760. He was a pro- nounced Tory, and signed the protest at White Plains, April 11, 1775, against Congress and com- mittecs, and pledged his life and property to support the King. Hc afterwards removed to the province of New Brunswick where he practiced his profession umany years and held situations of honor and trust. In 1800 he returned to New York, where he died March, 1820, aged eighty-three or eighty-five years.1

The court records furnish us with the names of a number of lawyers who praetised for one or more years in the county. Having failed to obtain such information concerning them as could be embodied into a biographical notice, we give here mercly the names and dates at which they appear on the records, between 1745 and 1776,-Samuel Clowes, Jr., 1745-55; Parker, 1747-49; McEvers, 1748, 1749 and 1756; Bennett, 1748-53; John Cortlandt, 1750-56; Scott, 1752-53; Moore, 1752-65 ; Augustiue Van Cortlandt, 1753-67; Woods, 1762-76; Ludlow, 1761-71; Kent, 1762-72; Ryker, 1765-68 ; Helmc, 1765-73; Vincent, Matthews, 1770-71; Benson, 1771; Antill, 1771; Townsend, 1770-76 (probably Micah Townsend, Esq., of White Plains) ; John McKcsson, 1771; Wickham, 1763-72; De Pcyster, 1773; Murray, 1774; and Bogart, 1776.

Hon. Richard Morris (of the Morrises, of Morrisa- nia, and whose biography is given in another chapter) practiced in Westchester County (1752-76) ; He, with Thomas Hicks (1752-64), Benjamin Kissam (1756-75) and Timothy Wetmore, afterwards attorney- general of the province of New Brunswick, became the leading lawyers after Alsop and Nicolls had ceased to figure. Thomas Jones (1760-71) and Samuel Jones (1764-76) did also a good deal of legal business.

Gouverneur Morris, son of Hon. Lewis Morris, fourth proprictor and second lord of the Manor of

Morrisania, practiced law in Westchester County about the year 1772. He had graduated at King's College (now Columbia), in 1768. Entering upon the practice of law, lic soon gained a high reputation. In 1775 he was a delegate to the Provincial Congress in New York. The same year he was appointed a meni- ber of the Committee for Public Safety for Westchester County. In 1776 he was one of the committee for draughting a Constitution for the State of New York. He went to Franee in 1787 and remained in Paris until 1795, as Amcricau minister, witnessing thus the terrible scenes of the French Revolution from its in- cipiency to its consummation.

He exhibited as great ability in his public capaci- ties as lie had displayed oratorical talents and legal learning at the bar. He was a member of the con- vention which framed the Constitution of the United States ; " was chosen Senator of New York in 1800, and in 1808 appointed one of their commissioners to lay out the city of New York into streets and avenues. north of Bleecker Street. In the summer of 1810 he examincd the route for the Erie Canal, and took an active part in originating and promoting that noble work." 2

He died in 1816, aged sixty-four. His wife was Ann Carey Randolph, daughter of Thomas Randolph, of Roanoke, and a descendant of the celebrated Pocahon- tas. He left a son, Gouverneur Morris, Esq., of Mor- risania. Barber, already quoted, says of him-"The activity of his mind, the richness of his fancy and the copiousness of his eloquent conversation were the admiration of all his acquaintances, and he was uni- versally admitted as one of the most accomplished and prominent men of our country."

The illustrious John Jay, LL.D., first chief justice of the United States under the Constitution of 1789, practiced in the Westchester County Courts from 1769 to 1776. Judge Jay was the eighth child of Peter Jay, Esq., merchant, by his wife, Mary Van Cortlandt. He was born on the 12th of December, 1745. He re- ceived a collegiate education at King's College and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1764. Already he had decided upon the law as his profession, aud in 1768 he was admitted to the bar. A mere outline of the life of this great citizen would fill more space than we can devote to the bench and bar of Westchester County. From the day when he was appointed to the First American Congress, in 1774, to the year 1801, when he retired from public life to enjoy well- earned rest at Bedford, in this county, his career was of usefulness and patriotic devotion. Chief justice of New York from 1777 to 1779, President of Con- gress, minister plenipotentiary to Spain in 1779, a signer of the definitive treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, chief justice of the United States in 1789 and minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain in 1794, hic rendered the most eminent scrviecs to the

I Communicated by Josiah Mitchell, Esq., Authorities N. Y. Revo- lutionary Papers, p. 159; Sabin's " Loyalist," p. 415; "Wetmore Memorial, " Munsell & Rowland, Albany, 1861.

2 Barber, Hist. Coll. of N. Y.

536

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

government he had helped to form. He elosed his publie eareer as Governor of the State of New York, from 1795 to 1801. He died full of years and houor, May 17, 1829. The following entry appears iu the record of the Court of Common Pleas of West- chester County, under date of May 25, 1829: "The court and members of this bar, entertaining the high- est respect for the pure and exalted character of the late venerable Johu Jay, do resolve that we will wear crape upon the left arm for thirty days in tokeu of our respect." Ability, firmness, patriotism and in- tegrity-all that go to make man great,-he possessed in an eurinent degree ; and, better still, he was, as the last lines of his epitaph recite, "in his life and in his death, an example of the virtues, the faith and the hopes of a Christian."

John Jay,1 son of William Jay, distinguished as an author and jurist, and grandson of the illustrious chief justice whose name and works are emblazoned · on the scroll of American fame, was born in New York, June 23, 1817. His early life was passed in the home of his grandfather, at the family seat in Bedford, where he remained till the death of the latter in 1829. His early education began under the most favorable circumstances, and was finished at Columbia College, where he graduated with high honors in 1836. He began the study of law in the office of Daniel Lord, Jr., having as a fellow-student Hon. William M. Evarts. During his eollege days the Anti-Slavery movement began to be the all-absorbing topie of the hour, but there are few of the rising generation who can appreciate the difficulties which a young man of talent and ancestral name would eneounter in allying himself to the then unpopular party, and identifying himself with the avowed opponents of the system which was supported by the wealth and power of the country, and the authority of the Church, and de- clared to be in full accord alike with the teachings of the Bible and the Constitution, established by the founders of the republie, which controlled the actions of every department of the government, and inoulded the views and commanded the support of every officer, from the President to the postmaster of the humblest village. To those who ean understand the power and influence of this institution in the day when Mr. Jay began his life-work, the destruction of slavery must appear as the miracle of modern times.

In 1834 he beeame a manager of the New York Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society. On the 4th of | be an important chapter in the legal history of the

July of that year, a day saered to freedom, an anti- slavery meeting in New York was dispersed by a mnob, and the eity was the scene of riot and outrage, against which the authorities afforded no protection. Among the residences marked out for attaek was that of Dr. Abraham R. Cox, with whom Mr. Jay was then living, but the determined action of a few young men, who, with himself, prepared for an armed resistance, in-

dueed the mob to pass on to places that were not pro- teeted by equally brave defenders. From that time until the day when slavery eame to an ignominious eud he was in full aeeord with the leaders of emanci- pation, and in 1839 lie took an active part in prepar- ing the way by which the Abolitionists beeamne a dis- tinct political party, with platforms and candidates of their own. In that year he presented to the Whig National Convention an elaborate report as to the powers and duty of Congress under the Constitution to exclude slavery from the Territories, and in a speech on the "Dignity of the Abolition Cause," he urged politieal action aud the use of the ballot, eall- ing upon the friends of the eause to no longer coufine themselves to appeals to the eonseienee and under- standing. During the same year he was brought still more prominently iuto notiee through a controversy with some of the higher officials of the Episcopal Church, arising from the exelusion from the Theo- logical Seminary of a eolored candidate for priestly orders. In 1842 he delivered an address on the " Progress and Results of Emaneipation in the West Indies," and to his far-seeing mind the time seemed not distant when a similar result would be accom- plished in our own land. In 1844, when the question of Texan annexation was attraeting the attention of the country, he was the organizer of a demonstration against the projeet, and was supported by many of the most distinguished inen of the day, the presiding officer of the meeting being the venerable Albert Gallatin, the last survivor of the Cabinet of Jefferson. Although in the Presidential contest which succeeded, a strong effort was made to induee the Abolitionists to east their votes for Henry Clay, yet, through the influence of Mr. Jay, and the leaders whose views were identical with his own, sixty thousand votes were given by the new party for the Hon. John P. Hale, who was thus the first Anti-Slavery candidate presented for the suffrages of the country.

In the practice of his profession Mr. Jay was fre- quently called upon to defend in the courts persons arrested as fugitive slaves. In the peculiar state of feeling which then existed, the defense of these cases eould not fail to attract publie attention iu all see- tions of the country, and the reported eases, among which may be mentioned " In re Kirk," " In re Da Costa " and the famous " Lemon Case," which were eonducted by him with matchless ability, must ever times.

In 1848 Mr. Jay, aecompanied by his wife, made a visit to Europe, and during his travels formed many acquaintances among the most prominent men of the day. While in Frauee he did not fail to visit what was to him a spot endeared by ancestral tradition, the "City of the Huguenots." Upon his return he re- sumed his labors for the eause of freedom, and when the country was agitated by the proposal to repeal the Missouri Compromise, he was among the first to gird for

1 This sketch was prepared and inserted by the editor.

537

THE BENCH AND BAR.

the coming struggle, and a eall prepared by himself, and headed by the significant words, " No violation of plighted faith," "No repeal of the Missouri Com- promise," filled the Broadway Tabernacle, on the even- ing of January 30, 1834, with the best citizens of New York. The resolutions drawn by him werc adopted by aeelamation, and the opinions thus expressed found a ready response in every free State throughout the Union. A sueeession of meetings organized by him for the same objeet served to intensify this fcel- ing, and resulted in the establishment of the Repub- lican party, of which Mr. Jay was justly considered one of the most prominent founders. In the Presi- dential campaign of 1856 he could not fail to take a conspieuous part, and a speech delivered by him at Bedford on the 8th of October, " America Free or America Slave," was one of the most efficient political documents of the time. During this time he was un- eeasing in his labors to gain the influence of the church in behalf of the cause of freedom,-labors which unfortunately met with bitter opposition, which only served to show him in his true eharaeter as a fearless champion of the right.

Throughout the struggle which eulminated in the triumph of the Republican party and the election of Abraham Lincoln, Mr. Jay was a conspicuous actor. Informed at an early hour of the Confederate design to seize the national eapital, he ealled the attention of the nation to the danger, and prompt means were taken to avert it. In April, 1861, he was one of the organizers of the great meeting in Union Square New York, from which procecded a flood of patriot- ism that swept the Northern States. During the war he was one of the most efficient members of the Loyal League of New York, and afterwards of the Union League Club, in the councils of which he has ever held an important place. When under the auspices of the Union League, and by the authority of Secretary Stanton, colored regiments were raised, he made an eloquent address to the second of these commands previous to its departure for the seat of war. His son, Colonel William Jay, who served from the beginning to the end of the war on the staffs of some of the most prominent generals, fre- quently received visits from his father, who was a witness of the destruction of several national vessels by the ironelad "Merrimac," and her subsequent de- fcat by the " Monitor," and accompanied President Lincoln, Mr. Stanton and Mr. Chase on their return to Washington from Fortress Monroc, a few days af- ter the famous fight.

Iu the fall of 1865 he again visited Europe, and presided at the Thanksgiving dinner at the Grand Hotel, in Paris, on the 7th of December, where, at his suggestion, Southern gentlemen who acquiesced in the result of the war, were invited to take part in the festival.

During his absence Mr. Jay was cleeted president of the Union League Club, and when a disposition

was manifested on the part of some of its members to dissolve the organization, on the ground that its work was finished, his influence was given in behalf of the majority, who believed that the club had an impor- tant duty to perform in the future. In 1867 he was appointed by Governor Fenton a commissioner to represent the State at the establishment of the Na- tional Cemetery on the battle-field of Antietam, and true to his nature, he was prompt to sustain the view that liberality and magnanimity alike required that the Confederate dead should also receive honorable burial. In April, 1869, he was nominated by Presi- dent Grant to the important position of minister to Austria, a nomination which was unanimously eon- firmed by the Senate ; and at a meeting of the Union League, an address was delivered to their retiring president by Dr. Joseph P. Thompson, in response to which Mr. Jay expressed the belief that the honor was intended as a compliment to the elub, and as a recognition of the efficient aid it had furnished to the government in its struggle for existenee. While minister at Vienna he was empowered to negotiate a treaty which should determine the status of Aus- trian subjects who had become naturalized as Aincri- can citizens, and it was finally ratified by the Austro- Hungarian government, after much opposition from successive war ministers, who naturally regarded it as an effort to aid Austrian subjects to evade the mili- tary service of the Empire. Another convention was concluded by Mr. Jay in 1871, with Count Andrassy, affording to each country a mutual protection in trade marks, a matter of great importance to our manufac- turers, and this treaty is remarkable as being the highest recognition that the Kingdom of Hungary had received in four hundred years.

The Vienna Exposition of 1873 led many Ameri- can citizens to visit the Austrian capital, and in- ereased the social duties of the Legation. The tem- porary suspension by the President of the American Commission, on the ground of irregularities in the management, and the official duties which devolved upon Mr. Jay in consequence, aroused much personal feeling against him, and gave rise to much abuse and misrepresentation in both the European and Ameri- can press. Charges made against him were, after full examination, found to be groundless, and his character as a wise and able representative of this nation was fully sustained.

In 1874 he resigned his diplomotic position and re- turned to Ameriea during the following year. In 1876 he delivered before the New York Historical Society the Centennial Oration in commemoration of the battle of Harlem Plains, and, at the request of the same society, prepared a tribute to the memory of John Lothrop Motley, his predecessor at Vienna, a paper which exeited considerable controversy. In 1877 he was appointed by the Secretary of the Treas- ury chairman of a committee to investigate the af- fairs of the New York Custom House ;- and his re-

538

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

port led to many changes and reforms in that branch of the national service. During the same year he was again elected president of the Union League, and upon his declining a re-nomination, in 1878, he was succeeded by George Cabot Ward.

In January and February, 1878, he took an active part in opposing the ill-advised attempt of the city officials to erect an armory for the National Guard in Washington Square, and, in company with many of the best citizens, decmed it of importance that the few breathing-places in the crowded portions of the city should not be diminished.

With a deep interest in the welfare of that portion of Westchester County which had been the home of his ancestors, as well as his own, he was prominent in the formation of a society for village improvement, known as the Katonah Association, which has been of great and lasting benefit in elevating the taste of the community.

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 139

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354