Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city, Part 27

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York, The Historical company
Number of Pages: 650

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Robert Day, of Cambridge, who arrived in America in 1634, was the ancestor of the branch of the family to which attention is now directed. He was born in Ipswich, England, in 1604, and when he came to this country brought with him his wife, Mary. Settling first in Newtown, now Cambridge, he was a freeman of that place in 1635, and in 1639 removed to Hartford, in the company led by the Reverend Thomas Hooker. His second wife, whom he married after settling in Hartford, was Editha Stebbins, sister of Deacon Edward Stebbins, of Hartford. Robert Day died in 1648. In the next five generations the ancestors of Mr. George Lord Day were : John Day, of Hartford, and his wife, Sarah Maynard ; John Day, the second of the name, 1696-1752, of Colchester, Conn., and his wife, Grace Spencer, of Hartford; Abraham Day, 1712-1792, of Colchester, and his wife, Irene Foote; Ezra Day, 1743- 1823, of South Hadley, Mass., and his wife, Hannah Kendall ; and Pliny Day, 1782-1846, of West Springfield, Mass., and his wife, Deborah Butts. Many members of this old New Eng- land family were soldiers of the patriot army during the War of the Revolution.

Henry Day, the father of the subject of this sketch, was one of the most distinguished lawyers of New York in the last generation. He was born in South Hadley, Mass., in 1820, being a son of Pliny Day and Deborah Butts. His brother, the Reverend Pliny Day, was a prominent clergyman of western Massachusetts. Henry Day attended school in Derry, Conn., and then entered Yale College, graduating from that institution in 1845. For some time he was engaged in teaching at Fairfield, Conn., and then attended the law school at Harvard College, coming to New York after his graduation therefrom, and entering upon the practice of law. In 1849, he became a partner in the legal firm of Lord, Day & Lord, of which the distinguished Daniel Lord was the senior member. It was not long before Henry Day became one of the most eminent lawyers in New York and a prominent figure in the social life of the metropolis. Interested in the organization of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, he became attorney and a director of that institution, and was also a director of the Consolidated Gas Company, the Mercantile Trust Company, and the Lawyers' Title & Guarantee Company. The legal affairs of many large estates were entrusted to him, including those of Professor Samuel F. B. Morse, Edward Morgan and the Astors. A member of the Presbyterian Church, he was a director of the Union Theological Seminary, and gave much labor to the cause of philanthropy. He was the author of The Lawyer Abroad, and From the Pyrenees to the Pillars of Hercules. The Hill, in Morristown, N. J., was long his country residence. At the time of his death, in 1893, he was the sole survivor of the original members of Lord, Day & Lord, with which he had been connected for nearly forty-five years. The wife of Henry Day was Phebe Lucretia Lord, daughter of Daniel Lord.

Mr. George Lord Day, son of Henry Day and Phebe Lord, was born in New York City. Educated at Princeton College and graduating with the Latin salutatory address, he studied law and became a member of the law firm with which his father and maternal grandfather had been connected. After a severe accident in the hunting field with the Meadow Brook hounds, in 1894, he retired from active professional life. His wife, whom he married in Eng- land, in 1896, was Adele Mittant. Mr. Day is a member of the Manhattan, Lawyers', University, Racquet, Princeton, Union, New York Athletic, Meadow Brook Hunt, and New York Yacht clubs, the Bar Association and the Downtown Association.

163

GEORGE B. DE FOREST

A MONG the Huguenot refugees who established themselves on the free and hospitable soil of the New Netherland was Isaac De Forest, a native of Northeastern France. He was one of the earliest settlers of the Colony, and, dying in 1674, left ten children, who have perpetuated his name in modern New York, where it has ever been regarded as representative in the highest degree of the founders of our city.

Lockwood De Forest, a descendant in the second or third generation of Isaac De Forest, the progenitor of the family, was born in 1775, and became one of the leading merchants of the city in the period succeeding the Revolutionary War. In 1824, he was a member of the committee composed of the most prominent men of New York, appointed to convey to De Witt Clinton the condemnation of the people of the metropolis of his removal from the position of Canal Commissioner by his political opponents. Lockwood De Forest was the father of five sons, among whom were William W. De Forest and George B. De Forest (the elder), both distinguished business men and eminent citizens of New York. William W. De Forest is remembered as one of the South Street merchants engaged in the South American trade.

His brother, George B. De Forest, Sr., 1806-1865, was identified with the West India trade, and possessed remarkable ability and enterprise, as well as a noteworthy degree of public spirit. The merchants of old New York were a distinguished body of men, and in their galaxy no names were higher than those of the present Mr. De Forest's father and uncle.

Mr. George B. De Forest is the son of the late George B. De Forest, Sr., and his wife, Margaret E. De Forest, and was born in this city in 1848. In 1882, Mr. De Forest married Anita, daughter of Louis S. Hargous. The latter played a distinguished part in the war between the United States and Mexico, having been United States Consul at the City of Mexico prior to the outbreak of hostilities. His local knowledge was of great assistance to the leaders of the American forces which invaded and conquered Mexico, and he served throughout the war on the staff of General Worth, becoming after the peace a prominent banker in the City of Mexico. Mr. and Mrs. De Forest have one son, Louis S. H. De Forest, born in 1884, and named after his maternal grandfather.

A leading figure in New York society, Mr. De Forest is connected with the more prominent clubs, including the Metropolitan, Union, Union League, Knickerbocker, Century, Players, Racquet, Grolier, Westchester Country and Fencers. He is also a member of the Seventh Regiment Veterans and of the Sons of the American Revolution; Mrs. De Forest being a member of the Daughters of the Revolution. Though not an active sportsman, Mr. De Forest, as may be noticed from some of his club affiliations, takes a decided interest in such pursuits, and is a member of the New York Yacht Club, while he is a patron of all the fashionable amusements both in this city and Newport.

It is as a judicious patron of art and literature that Mr. De Forest finds his chief pleasure. His collection of rare books, particularly upon art subjects, is famous among American and European bibliophiles. It is particularly rich in the products of the French printers and binders of the period of Louis XV. and the Regency, and also in books with original drawings and water color illustrations. His knowledge and taste in all that relates to these subjects is well known, and his treasures bear the stamp of a discriminating personal selection. To these fascinating pursuits he has devoted not merely a lavish though judicious expenditure, but has made them the object of a lifelong study. In fact, the reputation of Mr. De Forest as a connoisseur of art is so well established that he ranks among the foremost authorities on such subjects in the United States.

The De Forest residence is 14 East Fiftieth Street, but Mr. and Mrs. De Forest usually reside during the greater part of each season at Newport, being numbered among the most conspicuous members of the colony which makes the city in question a social centre.

164

MATURIN LIVINGSTON DELAFIELD

J OHN DELAFIELD, who was born in 1748, and came to this country in 1783, was the eighth of his family to bear the name of John, and was the representative of a landed family in Bucks and Oxfordshire, England. He became one of the most successful merchants of New York, retiring from business in 1798, and was President of the United Insurance Company, and a director of the New York branch of the Bank of the United States. He died in 1824. His residence, on the Long Island shore of the East River, opposite Black- well's Island, was one of the finest mansions around New York. In 1784, he married Ann Hallett, who survived till 1839. She was the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Hazard) Hallett, and a granddaughter of Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Drummond) Hazard. Her father was one of the first Sons of Liberty in New York, a member of the Committee of Safety, and of the three first New York Provincial Congresses.

Of the thirteen children of John and Ann (Hallett) Delafield, seven sons and four daughters survived. The eldest son, John Delafield, 1786-1853, was president of the Phenix Bank, and of the New York State Agricultural Society. He married, first, his cousin Mary, only child of John Roberts, of Whitchurch, Bucks, England, and second, Harriet Wadsworth, daughter of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, and had issue by both marriages. Henry and William, twin sons of John and Ann (Hallett) Delafield, were born in 1792. William died unmarried in 1853. Henry married Mary, daughter of Judge Monson, and died in 1875. He had one child, a daughter, who died young. Doctor Edward Delafield, 1794-1875, was a president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He married, first, Elinor E., daughter of Thomas Elwyn Langdon, and granddaughter of Governor Langdon, President of Congress; and second, Julia, daughter of Colonel Nicoll Floyd, and granddaughter of General William Floyd, of Mastic, Long Island, and left issue by this marriage. General Richard Delafield, 1798-1873, became a Brigadier-General and Chief of Engineers, United States Army. He married, first, Helen, daughter of Andrew Summers, and, second, Harriet Baldwin, daughter of General E. M. Covington, by whom he left children. Rufus King Delafield, 1802-1874, was a merchant, and married Eliza, daughter of William Bard, by whom he had children. The only daughter of John Delafield who married, was Susan Maria, 1805-1861, the wife of Henry Parish, and had no children.

Major Joseph Delafield, 1790-1875, the second son of John Delafield, was born in New York, graduated from Yale in 1808, and was admitted to the bar in 1811. In 1812, he entered the United States Army as Captain, and became Major of the Forty-sixth Infantry. After the War, he resigned, and in 1821-28 was agent for the Government in fixing the northern boundary of the United States under the Treaty of Ghent. He was president of the New York Lyceum of Natural History from 1827 to 1866. In 1833, Major Delafield married Julia Livingston, 1801- 1882, daughter of Judge Maturin Livingston, of Staatsburgh, and his wife, Margaret Lewis, daughter of General Morgan Lewis, and granddaughter of Francis Lewis, signer of the Declara- tion of Independence.

Mr. Maturin Livingston Delafield, the second son of Major Delafield, was born in New York in 1836. He graduated from Columbia College in 1856, and received his degree of A. M. in 1860. In 1868, he married Mary Coleman Livingston, daughter of Eugene Augustus and Harriet (Coleman) Livingston, their children being five sons and three daughters. The family residence is in Fifth Avenue, and Mr. Delafield has a country-seat, Fieldston, Riverdale-on-Hudson. He is a member of the Metropolitan and Union clubs and the American Museum of Natural History, and is a Fellow of the American Geographical Society.

Lewis Livingston Delafield, 1834-1883, Major Delafield's eldest son, graduated from Columbia in 1855, and was a member of the bar. He married Emily Prime, daughter of Frederick Prime and his wife, Lydia, daughter of Dr. Robert Hare, of Philadelphia, and had three sons and a daughter. The only sister of Mr. Delafield is Julia Livingston Delafield.

165

RICHARD DELAFIELD

T HE Counts De la Feld, whose castle still stands near Colmar, Alsace, were the ancestors of the Delafield family in England and America. Hubertus De la Feld accompanied William the Conqueror to England in 1066, received grants of land and had descendants who were numbered among the landed nobles in the reign of subsequent British sovereigns. John Delafield, who lived in the time of Henry Ill., married Elizabeth Fitzwarine, daughter of the Lord Warden of the North, and from him in direct line descended Sir Thomas Delafield (tempore Henry VI.), of Ailesbury, in England, and the Baronies of Fieldstone and Culdnuffe in Ireland. Ninth in descent from Sir Thomas Delafield, as set forth in Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary, was John Delafield, who was born in 1647 and entered the service of the Emperor of Germany. He fought against the Turks under the famous Prince Eugene of Savoy, and in 1697 was created a Count of the Holy Roman Empire for his distinguished gallantry at the victory of Zenta. This dignity is inherited by all his male descendants, and there is no American family of prominence possessing more distinct rights to a title of nobility than that of Delafield. The arms of the family are a black shield with a gold cross-patonce on the breast of the Imperial eagle of Germany. Their crest is a dove, proper, holding an olive branch in its beak. Mottoes, Insignæ Fortuna Paria and Fest, signifying steadfastness and loyalty.

The great-great-grandson of John, Count Delafield, also named John Delafield, came to the United States and married Anne, daughter of Joseph Hallett, of Hallett's Point, N. Y. He died in 1824, having been one of the most eminent citizens of New York in the early part of the present century. One of his seven sons was Rufus King Delafield, who married Eliza Bard, a daughter of William Bard and his wife, Katherine Cruger, a member of the old and distinguished New York family of that name. A prominent representative of the Bard family was Dr. Bard, the noted physician of the latter part of the last century, who attended President Washington in a professional capacity when the seat of the Federal Government was in New York. Mr. Richard Delafield is the son of this marriage, and was born in 1853, at the country residence of his father, at New Brighton, Staten Island, his mother's family being also residents and large land owners on Staten Island. In 1880, Mr. Delafield married Clara (Foster) Carey, of New York, whose great-uncle was the celebrated Philip Hone, Mayor of New York in 1826, and a leader in the city's society at that time, his name being coupled prominently with the leading institutions of the city of that period. Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the famous Arctic explorer, was also a connection of Mrs. Delafield's family.

Educated at the famous school of Dr. Charles Anthon, in New York, Mr. Delafield evinced from the outset remarkable talent as a man of affairs, and at an early age became an active and successful merchant. He is now the senior partner of the firm of Delafield & Co., of New York, Chicago and San Francisco, which house he founded. He is vice-president of the National Park Bank, a vestryman of Trinity Church and ex-president of the New York Mercantile Exchange. He has avoided political life, but has been active in forwarding the interests of the city, serving as president of the New York Commission for the World's Columbian Exposition, representing in that body the First District of New York, and as a member of the Committee of One Hundred which had charge of the New York Columbian Quadro-Centennial.

Mr. Delafield has traveled extensively, both in Europe and this country. He is decidedly musical in his tastes, and has taken a prominent part in leading organizations to further that art, his connection with such bodies having included the presidency of the Staten Island Philharmonic Society, and the secretaryship of the New York Symphony Society. He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution and of the Merchants', Union League and New York Athletic clubs. Among the charitable organizations to which he has devoted his time and energy, are the Sea Side Home of Long Island, of which he is president, and the Varick Street Hospital, being a member of the executive committee of that institution.

166

EDWARD FLOYD DE LANCEY

T has been well said that "no American had greater influence in the Colonies than James de Lancey." He came from an ancient family of France, springing from Guy de Lancey Ecuyer, Vicomte De Laval et de Nouvion, who, in 1432, held of the Prince-Bishop of the Duchy of Laon the fiefs of Laval and of Nouvion. The Seigneur Jacques (James) de Lancey, second son of Charles, the fifth Vicomte de Laval, became a Huguenot, and his grandson, Etienne (Stephen) de Lancey, was forced to flee from persecution after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Escaping to London, he became an English subject, and then came to New York. He amassed a fortune as a merchant, and became influential in Colonial affairs, serving as a representative in the Provincial Assembly for twenty-six years, 1702-08, 1710-15 and 1725-37. He married, in 1700, Anne Van Cortlandt, second daughter of Stephanus Van Cortlandt, of the Manor of Cortlandt.

James de Lancey, the eldest son of Etienne (Stephen), was born in 1703, educated in New York and in the University of Cambridge, England, and studied law in the Inner Temple, London. He was a councilor of the Province in 1729 and Judge of the Supreme Court in 1731. In 1730, he was the head of the commission which framed the charter of the City of New York. In 1733, he was commissioned Chief Justice of New York, and filled the office until his death, in 1760. In 1747, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor, and served during the rest of his life. On the tragic death of Sir Danvers Osborne, in 1753, he succeeded as Governor-in-Chief, serving until Sir Charles Hardy arrived, in 1755. On Governor Hardy's resignation, June 3d, 1757, he again succeeded as Governor-in-Chief, and remained such until his death, a little over three years later. The wife of Governor de Lancey was Anne Heathcote, eldest daughter of Colonel Caleb Heathcote, of West- chester County, Lord of the Manor of Scarsdale, Judge of its Court of Common Pleas, and Mayor of New York.

John Peter de Lancey, a younger son of Governor de Lancey, born in 1753, was educated in England, and was a Captain in the regular British Army. After the Revolution, he returned to America and settled upon the Heathcote estate, which he inherited from his mother. In 1785, he married Elizabeth Floyd, daughter of Colonel Richard Floyd, of Long Island. William Heathcote de Lancey, 1797-1865, who became the first Bishop of Western New York, was their youngest and only surviving child. Graduated from Yale College in 1817, Bishop de Lancey was connected with Trinity Church and Grace Church of New York and St. Peter's Church, Philadelphia; was provost of the University of Pennsylvania, 1828-33, and Bishop of Western New York, 1839-65.

Mr. Edward Floyd de Lancey, born October 23d, 1821, at Mamaroneck, N. Y., the present representative of this historic family, is the eldest son of Bishop de Lancey. His mother was Frances Munro, second daughter of Peter Jay Munro. Her paternal grandfather was the Reverend Dr. Henry Munro, the last English rector of St. Peter's Church in Albany, and her paternal grandmother was a daughter of Peter Jay, a descendant of the Van Cortlandts of Yonkers, and the only sister of Chief Justice John Jay, while her maternal grandmother was Eve Van Cortlandt White also a Van Cortlandt of Yonkers. Mr. de Lancey was educated at Geneva, now Hobart, College and the Harvard Law School. He is a lawyer, and belongs to the Bar Association, the St. Nicholas Church and other clubs, and is a member of the American Geographical Society and chairman of the executive committee of the New York Historical Society. He is the owner of the old Heathcote estate, Heathcote Hill, Mamaroneck. His wife was Josephine Matilda, eldest daughter of William S. de Zeng, of Geneva, N. Y., son of Baron Frederick A. de Zeng, Captain in a Saxon regiment in the British service, who married and remained in New York after the Revolution. He has one son living, Edward Etienne de Lancey, one of the engineers on the Croton Aqueduct. The arms of the de Lancey family are: Azure, a tilting lance, proper, point upward with a pennon argent, bearing a cross gules, fringed and floating to the right, debruised of a fess, or. Crest, a sinister arm in armor embowed, the hand grasping a tilting lance, pennon floating, both proper. Motto: Certum voto pete finem.

167

HENRY CHAMPION DEMING

J I OHN DEMING, one of the first settlers of Wethersfield, Conn., who often represented that town in the General Court between 1649 and 1661, was the first American ancestor of this family. His son was David Deming, and his grandson was the Reverend David Deming, who graduated from Harvard College in 1700, was minister of Medway, Mass., and Middletown, Conn., and married Martha Brigham, of Boston. His son, David Deming, 1709- 1781, lived in Lyme, Conn., and married in 1740, Mehitable Champion, 1720-1817, of East Haddam, Conn. Jonathan Deming, their son, entered the Continental Army in 1777, served throughout the war and died in 1788. In 1767, he married, in Colchester, Conn., Alice Skinner, 1747-1824, daughter of the Reverend Thomas and Mary (Thompson) Skinner. Their son, David Deming, 1781-1827, the fourth of that name, was engaged in business in Colchester and represented his town in the Connecticut Assembly from 1811 to 1823. In 1819, he was Brigadier-General of the State Artillery. He married his cousin, Abigail Champion, 1787-1835.

The Honorable Henry Champion Deming, son of General David and Abigail (Champion) Deming, was the father of Mr. Henry Champion Deming, of New York. He was born in Col- chester in 1815, and died in Hartford in 1872. He was graduated from Yale College in the class of 1836, studied law in the Harvard Law School, graduating in 1839, and came to New York to practice. Literature, however, engaged his attention, and in association with Park Benjamin he started The New World. Removing to Hartford in 1847, he practiced law and took an active interest in politics. In 1849 and in 1859, he was a member of the Connecticut Assembly, and a State Senator in 1851. He was Mayor of Hartford from 1854 to 1858, and again in 1860. In the Civil War, he became Colonel of the Twelfth Connecticut Volun- teers and accompanied the expedition to New Orleans. Upon the surrender of that city, he was appointed Provisional Mayor. In 1863, he resigned from the army and, returning to Hartford, was three times elected a Member of Congress, for three successive terms. In 1868, he wrote a life of General Grant, and many of his addresses were published. He married Sarah Clerc, daughter of Laurent and Eliza C. (Boardman) Clerc. Laurent Clerc was the founder of deaf mute instruction in America. In 1816, he was invited and came from Paris to be the head of the first institution for the instruction of the deaf and dumb in this country.

On the female side, Mr. Henry C. Deming is descended in two lines from Henry Champion, who settled at Saybrook as early as 1647, and was one of the first proprietors of the town of Lyme. His grandson, Lieutenant Henry Champion, born in 1695, married Mehitable Rowley. One of their daughters was Mehitable Champion, who in 1740 married David Deming, of Lyme. Colonel Henry Champion, son of Lieutenant Henry Champion, born in 1723, was a distinguished soldier of the Revolutionary War and Commissary-General of the Eastern Department of the Continental Army. His son, General Henry Champion, born in 1751, in Westchester, Conn., also had a brilliant military career. He was in the Continental service from the battle of Lexington until the close of the war. He fought at Bunker Hill, was Adjutant of the Twenty-Second Connecticut Regiment at Long Island, and Adjutant-Major of the First Battalion of the Light Brigade. In civil life, he was frequently a deputy to the General Court of Connecticut, and otherwise prominent in public affairs. His daughter, Abigail Champion, married General David Deming, grandfather of the present Mr. Deming.

Mr. Henry C. Deming was born in Hartford, Conn., in 1850, and was graduated from Yale College in 1872. For several years he was secretary and is now vice-president of the Mercantile Trust Company. He lives in East Twenty-seventh Street and is a member of the University, Union, Lawyers', Manhattan and Players clubs. His brother, Charles Clerc Deming, is a lawyer and a member of the Union, University and Racquet clubs. Another brother, Laurent Clerc Deming, graduated from Yale College in 1883, is secretary of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railway Company and a member of the University and other clubs.

168

CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW

B ORN in Peekskill, N. Y., April 23d, 1834, on an estate which his paternal ancestor purchased from the Indians over two hundred years ago, this eminent citizen of New York is of Huguenot descent. The family name, which occurs in the form of both Depew and De Puy, has been identified with the Province and State of New York since its first representatives settled in the town of New Rochelle, Westchester County. Isaac Depew, father of the Honorable Chauncey Mitchell Depew, was a respected citizen of Peekskill, and married Martha Mitchell, daughter of Chauncey R. Mitchell, a distinguished and eloquent lawyer. Her mother, Ann Johnston, was a daughter of Judge Robert Johnston, who was Senator and Judge of Putnam County, N. Y., for many years, and a large land owner. On the maternal side, Mr. Depew also descends from one of the most prominent New England Revolutionary families, his mother having been a granddaughter of the Reverend Josiah Sherman, brother of Roger Sherman, the signer of the Declaration of Independence. The Reverend Josiah Sherman was Chaplain of the Seventh Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Line, and three of his brothers were also in the Patriot Army.

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Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city, Part 27

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: New York, The Historical company Number of Pages: 650

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York, The Historical company
Number of Pages: 650