THE LIBRARY 
 
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 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
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 A MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK GENEALOGICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. 
 
 KIP'S BAY HOUSE IN 1691. 
 
 I. NEW YORK SOCIETY IN OLDEN TIME. 
 II. TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 G. P. PUTNAM & SONS, 
 
 M DCCC LXXII.
 
 Lowell City Library.
 
 F 
 ni 
 
 TO 
 
 EDWARD FLOYD DE LANCEY, ESQ., 
 
 OF NEW YORK. 
 
 NEARLY thirty years ago the author dedicated to your venerated father the 
 first book he published. There is a propriety, therefore, in inscribing to the son 
 the last he may ever write. 
 
 It harmonizes, too, with the spirit of this work to place on this page the name 
 of one who now represents in this country the loyal and chivalrous De Lancey of 
 " the olden time."
 
 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 OLDEN TIME.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 PROBABLY no article has appeared for years in a New York 
 literary journal which excited the attention of the community 
 to the extent of the first of those reprinted in this volume 
 " New York Society in the Olden Time." It was published in 
 Putnam's Magazine for September, 1870. While the papers 
 generally criticised it, and contended that the present times 
 were best, those, on the contrary, whose associations stretched 
 back into the past, hailed it as a faithful portraiture of life as 
 it was in the Colony and in the generation which succeeded 
 our separation from the Mother Country. A member of one 
 of our oldest Colonial families writes to the author : "I did 
 not know there existed in this modern time any one having 
 the knowledge as well as courage to write so clear and un- 
 biassed a review of the past." 
 
 The author has yielded, therefore, to the request of friends 
 to enlarge the article and give it a more permanent form. It 
 is a picture of a state of things gone never to return, and per- 
 haps for that reason is worthy of preservation. A few years 
 longer and no one will be left who could give these reminis- 
 cences. 
 
 The second article in this volume is different in its style and 
 object, being published in a journal of a widely different char- 
 acter. It appeared in the July, 1871, number of the " New 
 York Genealogical and Biographical Record." This also has 
 been considerably enlarged by notices of other families. 
 
 Perhaps, together, these two articles may save from perish- 
 ing, some recollections of the Old Regime. 
 
 While for the young, who are looking only to the shadowy 
 future, these pages may possess but little interest, perhaps
 
 8 PREFACE. 
 
 there are those with whom the light is fading, who will find 
 here familiar scenes and names which will call up again " the 
 buried past," until the tones sound to them (as one writes 
 the author) "like the voice of their own dear kindred." 
 
 NEW YORK, Jan., 1872.
 
 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 OLDEN TIME. 
 
 To lament the days that are gone, and believe the 
 past better than the present, is a tendency which has 
 been remarked as far back as the days of Solomon. 
 " Say not thou," says the wise king, " What is the 
 cause that the former days were better than these ? for 
 thou dost not inquire wisely concerning this." However 
 this may be, it is a propensity which has always exist- 
 ed, to compare unfavorably the present with the distant 
 past. The Golden Age of which poets sang was in 
 " our fathers' day, and in the old time before them." 
 
 From this feeling the writer realizes that he is not 
 free, and, in many respects, might be inclined to impute 
 his estimate of the present to the waning light in which 
 he sees it. When dealing, however, with facts with 
 which he is well acquainted, he feels that he cannot be 
 prejudiced ; and in this way it is that he contrasts the 
 society of the present with that which once existed , in 
 New York. From his distant home he looks back on 
 the rush and hurry of life as it now exists in his native 
 city ; and, while he realizes its increased glitter and 
 
 2
 
 10 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 splendor, he feels that it has depreciated from the 
 dignity and high tone which once characterized it. 
 
 Of the society of the olden time he can, of course, 
 know but little by actual experience. His knowledge 
 of it began when the old regime was just passing away. 
 In the days of his childhood, the men of the Revolution 
 were fast going down to the grave. Of these he knew 
 some in their old age. His father's contemporaries, 
 however, were somewhat younger, though brought up 
 under the same influences. But when that generation 
 departed, the spirit which had aided in forming their 
 characters had gone also, never again to be felt. To 
 many of these men he looked up as if they were superior 
 beings ; and, indeed, he has felt, in all his passage 
 through life, that he has never seen the equals of those 
 who then stood forward prominently in public affairs. 
 
 The earliest notice we have of colonial society is in 
 Mrs. Grant's delightful " American Lady." She was 
 the daughter of a British officer who came over with 
 troops during the old French war, and her reminis- 
 cences begin about 1760. Her residence was princi- 
 pally in Albany, with the Schuyler family. Still, she 
 was brought in contact with the leading families of the 
 colony, and as she was in the habit of often visiting 
 New York, she learned much of the state of things in 
 that city. She writes thus of the old Dutch and colo- 
 nial families of that day: "They bore about them the 
 tokens of former affluence and respectability, such as 
 family plate, portraits of their ancestors executed in a 
 superior style, and great numbers of original paintings, 
 some of which were much admired by acknowledged 
 judges." In New York, of course, the highest degree 
 of refinement was to be seen, and she says: "An ex- 
 pensive and elegant style of living began already to 
 take place in New York, which was, from the resi-
 
 IN THE OLDEN TIME. I I 
 
 dence of the Governor and Commander-in-Chief, be- 
 come the seat of a little court." 
 
 Society, in that day, was very stationary. About 
 1635 the first Dutch settlers came out, and the country 
 was much of it occupied by their large grants, many of 
 which had attached to them manorial rights. They 
 brought with them some of the social distinctions of the 
 old country. In the cities of Holland, for a long time, 
 there had been " great" and "small" burgher rights. 
 In Amsterdam the "great burghers" monopolized all 
 the offices, and were also exempt from attainder and 
 confiscation of goods. The "small burghers" had the 
 freedom of trade only. In 1657 this "great burgher" 
 right was introduced into New Amsterdam by Gover- 
 nor Stuyvesant. 
 
 In Paulding's "Affairs and Men of New Amsterdam 
 in the Time of Governor Peter Stuyvesant," we find a 
 list of the recorded GREAT CITIZENSHIP, in the year 
 1657. As a matter of the olden time, it is here given 
 entire : 
 
 Joh. La Montagnie Jun. Hendrick Kip Jun. 
 
 Jan Gillesen Van Burggh. Capt. Martin Crigier. 
 
 Hendrick Kip. Carel Van Burggh. 
 
 De Heer General Stuyvesant. Jacob Van Couwenhoven. 
 
 Domanie Megapolensis. Laurisen Cornelisen Van Wei. 
 
 Jacob Garritsen Strycker. Johannes Pietersen Van Burggh. 
 
 Van Virge. Cornelis Steenwyck. 
 
 Wife of Cornelis Van Teinhoven. Will. Bogardus. 
 
 Hendrick Van Dyck. Daniel Litschoe. 
 
 Isaac Kip. Pieter Van Couwenhoven. 
 
 " These twenty names," says William L. Stone, 
 writing in 1866, "composed the aristocracy of New 
 York two hundred and nine years ago. . . . We 
 have also before us the names of the ' Small Citizen- 
 ship,' which numbered two hundred and sixteen. In 
 a few short years it was found that the division of the
 
 12 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 citizens into two classes produced great inconvenience, 
 in consequence of the very small number of great 
 burghers who were eligible to office. It now became 
 necessary for the Government to change this unpopu- 
 lar order. In the year 1668 the difference between 
 'great' and 'small' burghers was abolished, when 
 every burgher became legally entitled to all burgher 
 privileges." * 
 
 About fifty years after the arrival of the early Dutch 
 settlers, they were followed by the Huguenots, driven 
 abroad principally by the revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes, and including, in their number, members of 
 some of the best families in France. Thus came the 
 Jays, De Lanceys, Rapaljes, De Peysters, Pintards, 
 &c. In 1664 the English took possession of the col- 
 ony, and, from that time, English settlers increased. 
 The colony became (as Paulding says) " a place in 
 which to provide for younger sons." Still, this often 
 brought out scions of distinguished families and the 
 best blood in England. 
 
 Thus matters stood until the Revolution. The 
 country was parcelled out among great proprietors. 
 We can trace them from the city of " New Amster- 
 dam " to the northern part of the State. In what is 
 now the thickly-populated city were the lands of the 
 Stuyvesants, originally the Bowerie of the old Gover- 
 nor. Next above was the grant to the Kip family, 
 called " Kip's Bay," made in 1638. In the centre of 
 the island were the possessions of the De Lanceys. 
 Opposite, on Long Island, was the grant to the Law- 
 rence family. We cross over Harlaem River and reach 
 " Morrissanea," given to the Morris family. Beyond 
 this, on the East River, was " De Lancey's Farm," 
 another grant to that powerful family ; while on the 
 
 * Stone's " History of New York City," p. 33.
 
 IN THE OLDEN TIME. 13 
 
 Hudson, to the west, was the lower Van Courtlandt 
 manor, and the Phillipse manor. Above, at Peekskill, 
 was the upper manor of the Van Courtlandts. Then 
 came the manor of Livingston, then the Beekmans, 
 then the manor of Kipsburgh, purchased by the Kip 
 family from the Indians, in 1686, and made a royal 
 grant by Governor Dongan, two years afterwards. 
 Still higher up was the Van Rensselaer manor, twenty- 
 four miles by forty-eight; and, above that, the pos- 
 sessions of the Schuylers. Further west, on the Mo- 
 hawk, were the broad lands of Sir William Johnson, 
 created a baronet for his services in the old French 
 and Indian wars, who lived in a rude magnificence at 
 Johnson Hall. All this was sacrificed by his son, Sir 
 John, for the sake of loyalty, when he took up arms 
 for the king and was driven into Canada. The title, 
 however, is still held by his grandson, and stands re- 
 corded in the baronetage of England. 
 
 The very names of places, in some cases, show their 
 history. Such, for instance, is that of Yonkers. The 
 word Junker (pronounced Younker), in the languages 
 of Northern Europe, means the nobly-born the gen- 
 tleman. In West Chester, on the Hudson River, still 
 stands the old manor-house of the Phillipse family. 
 The writer remembers, in his early day, when visiting 
 there, the large rooms and richly-ornamented ceilings, 
 with quaint old formal gardens about the house. 
 When, before the Revolution, Mr. Phillipse lived 
 there, " lord of all he surveyed," he was always spoken 
 of by his tenantry as " the Yonker " the gentleman 
 par excellence. In fact, he was the only person of 
 that social rank in that part of the country. In this 
 way the town, which subsequently grew up about the 
 old manor-house, took the name of Yonkers. 
 
 This was a state of things which existed in no other.
 
 14 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 part of the continent. In New England there were 
 scarcely any large landed proprietors. The country 
 was divided up among small farmers, and, when the 
 Revolution commenced, the people almost unanimously 
 espoused its cause. The aristocratic element, which 
 in New York rallied around the Crown, was here en- 
 tirely wanting. The only exception to this, which we 
 can remember, was the case of the Gardiners, of 
 Maine. Their wide lands were confiscated for their 
 loyalty ; but, on account of some informality, after the 
 Revolution they managed to recover their property, 
 and are still seated at Gardiner. 
 
 At the South, where so much was said about their 
 being "the descendants of the Cavaliers," there were 
 no such feudal relations. The planters had no ten- 
 antry ; they had slaves. Their system, therefore, was 
 similar to that of the serfdom of Russia. With the 
 colonial families of New York it was the English feu- 
 dal system. 
 
 Hereditary landed property was, in that day, invest- 
 ed with the same dignity in New York which it has 
 now in Europe; and, for more than a century, these 
 families retained their possessions, and directed the 
 infant colony. They formed a coterie of their own, 
 and, generation after generation, married among them- 
 selves. Turn to the early records of New York, and 
 you find all places of official dignity filled by a certain 
 set of familiar names, many of which, since the Revo- 
 lution, have entirely disappeared. As we have re- 
 marked, they occupied a position similar to that of the 
 English country gentleman, with his many tenants, and 
 were everywhere looked up to with the same kind of 
 respect which is now accorded to them. Their position 
 was an acknowledged one, for social distinctions then 
 were marked and undisputed. They were the persons
 
 IN THE OLDEN TIME. 15 
 
 who were placed in office in the Provincial Council 
 and Legislature, and no one pretended to think it 
 strange. "They," says a writer on that day, "were 
 the gentry of the country, to whom the country, with- 
 out a rebellious thought, took off its hat." 
 
 Holmes, in his poem of " Agnes," thus describes the 
 effect produced upon country people by the sight of a 
 gentleman's equipage : 
 
 " And all the midland counties through, 
 
 The ploughman stopped to gaze, 
 Where'er his chariot swept in view 
 
 Behind the shining bays, 
 With mute obeisance, grave and slow, 
 
 Repaid by bow polite 
 For such the way with high and low 
 
 Till after Concord's fight.''' 
 
 In that age the very dress plainly marked the dis- 
 tinctions in society. No one who saw a gentleman 
 could mistake his social position. Those people of a 
 century ago now look down upon us from their por- 
 traits, in costumes which, in our day, we see nowhere 
 but on the stage. Velvet coats with gold lace, large 
 sleeves and ruffles at the hands, wigs and embroidered 
 vests, with the accompanying rapier, are significant of 
 a class removed from the rush and bustle of life the 
 " nati consumere fruges "- whose occupation was not 
 to toil. No one, in that day, below their degree, 
 assumed their dress ; nor was the lady surpassed in 
 costliness of attire by her servant. In fact, at that 
 time, there were gentlemen and ladies, and there were 
 servants. 
 
 The manner in which these great landed estates 
 were arranged fostered a feudal feeling. They were 
 granted by Government to the proprietors, on condi- 
 tion that, in a certain number of years, they settled so
 
 1 6 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 many tenants upon them. These settlers were gener- 
 ally Germans of the lower class, who had been brought 
 over free. Not being able to pay their passage-money, 
 the captain took them without charge, and then they 
 were sold by him to the landed proprietors for a cer- 
 tain number of years, in accordance with the size of the 
 family. The sum received remunerated him for the 
 passage-money. They were called, in that day, Re- 
 demptioners and, by the time their term of service- 
 sometimes extending to seven years had expired, 
 they were acquainted with the ways of the country and 
 its manner of farming, had acquired some knowledge 
 of the language, and were prepared to set up for them- 
 selves. Thus both parties were benefited. The landed 
 proprietor fulfilled his contract with the Government, 
 and the Redemptioners were trained for becoming in- 
 dependent settlers. 
 
 From these Redemptioners many of the wealthy 
 farming families, now living in the Hudson River coun- 
 ties, are descended. In an early day they purchased 
 lands which enriched their children. The writer's fa- 
 ther once told him of an incident which occurred in his 
 grandfather's family. One of his German tenants, 
 having served out his time of several years' duration, 
 brought to his late owner a bag of gold which had come 
 with him from the old country, and was sufficient to 
 purchase a farm. " But," said his master, in surprise, 
 " how comes it, Hans, with all this money, that you did 
 not pay your passage, instead of serving as a Redemp- 
 tioner so long?" "Oh," said the cautious emigrant 
 from the Rhine, " I did not know English, and I should 
 have been cheated. Now I know all about the coun- 
 try, and I can set up for myself." 
 
 These tenants, however, looked up with unbounded 
 reverence to the landed proprietor who owned them,
 
 IX THE OLDEN TIME. lj 
 
 and it took much more than one generation to enable 
 them to shake off this feeling, or begin to think of a 
 social equality. 
 
 There was, in succeeding times, one curious result 
 of this system in the confusion of family names. These 
 German Redemptioners often had but one name. For 
 instance, a man named Paulus was settled as a tenant 
 on an estate. As his children grew up, they needed 
 something to distinguish them. They were Paulus' 
 Jan and Paulus' Hendrick. This naturally changed to 
 Jan Paulus and Hendrick Paulus, and thus Paulus be- 
 came the family name. 
 
 This was well enough. But they frequently took 
 the name of their proprietor. He was known as Mor- 
 ris' Paulus, and this, in the next generation, naturally 
 changed to Paulus Morris, and his children assumed 
 that as their family name. In this way there are many 
 families in the State of New York bearing the names 
 of the old landed proprietors, which have been thus 
 derived. 
 
 Some years ago, a literary gentleman, who was com- 
 piling facts with regard to the early history of the State, 
 came to the writer, very much puzzled. " Who," said 
 he, " are these people ? I find their names in Dutchess 
 County, and yet, looking at Holgate's pedigree of that 
 family, I see they cannot belong to it. Where did they 
 come from, and where do they belong?" The above 
 account was a satisfactory solution of the mystery. 
 
 But to return to this system. It was carried out to 
 an extent of which, in this day, most persons are igno- 
 rant. On the Van Rensselaer manor there were, at 
 one time, several thousand tenants, and their gathering 
 was like that of the Scottish clans. When a member 
 of the family died, they came down to Albany to do 
 honor at the funeral, and many were the hogsheads of 
 3
 
 1 8 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 good ale which were broached for them. They looked 
 up to the " Patroon " with a reverence which was still 
 lingering in the writer's early day, notwithstanding the 
 inroads of democracy. And, before the Revolution, 
 this feeling was shared by the whole country. When 
 it was announced in New York, a century ago, that the 
 Patroon was coming down from Albany by land, the 
 day he was expected to reach the city crowds turned 
 out to see him enter in his coach-and-four. 
 
 The reference to the funerals at the Rensselaer 
 manor-house reminds us of a description of the burial 
 of Philip Livingston, one of the proprietors of Livings- 
 ton manor, in February, 1749, taken from a paper of 
 that day. It will show something of the customs of 
 the times. The services were performed both at his 
 town-house in New York, and at the manor. " In the 
 city, the lower rooms of most of the houses in Broad- 
 street, where he resided, were thrown open to receive 
 visitors. A pipe of wine was spiced for the occasion, 
 and to each of the eight bearers, with a pair of gloves, 
 mourning ring, scarf and handkerchief, a monkey-spoon 
 was given." (This was so called from the figure of an 
 ape or monkey, which was carved in solido at the ex- 
 tremity of the handle. It differed from a common 
 spoon in having a circular and very shallow bowl.) 
 " At the manor these ceremonies were all repeated, 
 another pipe of wine was spiced, and, besides the same 
 presents to the bearers, a pair of black gloves and a 
 handkerchief were given to each of the tenants. The 
 whole expense was said to amount to ^500." 
 
 These manors were not mere names, but substantial 
 evidences of an authority which, in the present day, 
 exists only in a few of the most despotic monarchial 
 governments of Europe. We will give Holgate's ac- 
 count of these manorial rights, as he was very much
 
 IN THE OLDEN TIME. 19 
 
 disgusted with the whole system, and sums up his ob- 
 jections with the declaration "Thepatroonship of New 
 Netherlands may justly be regarded as nothing less 
 than an odious form of feudal aristocracy transferred to 
 another soil." He says : " The territory was made a 
 manor with feudal appendages. The individual thus 
 undertaking colonization was designated, in the charter, 
 as a PATROON, and endowed with baronial honors. He 
 had, for example, the prerogatives of sovereignty over 
 the dominion which he thus acquired ; administered the 
 laws personally or by functionaries of his own appoint- 
 ment ; appointed his own civil and military, as well as 
 judicial officers ; and had magazines, fortifications, and 
 all the equipments of a feudal chieftain. His tenants 
 owed him fealty and military service, as vassals. All 
 adjudications in his court were final, with the exception 
 of civil suits amounting to fifty guilders and upwards, 
 when an appeal lay from the judgment of the Patroon 
 to the Director-General and Council. And it is pro- 
 bable, that a similar remedy was also afforded in all 
 criminal offences affecting ' life and limb,' this being one 
 of the modifications already engrafted upon the feudal 
 sovereignties of Europe. 
 
 "The privileges of the Patroon in his manor were 
 similar to those of a Baron of England. Game and 
 fish within his own territorial limits were under his own 
 supervision. Milling privileges, minerals, and pearl 
 fisheries, if discovered, were his personal emoluments ; 
 which last provision was one of those numerous extrav- 
 agancies that for a long period allured the mercantile 
 adventurers of Europe, particularly exemplified in the 
 El Dorado of Spanish adventurers." * 
 
 Now, all this was a state of things and a manner of 
 social life totally unknown in New England. We have 
 
 * " Holgate's Genealogies," p. 28.
 
 2O NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 already mentioned that most of its inhabitants were 
 small farmers, wringing their subsistence from the earth 
 by hard labor. Here were literally no servants, but a 
 perfect social equality existed in the rural districts. 
 Their "helps" were the sons and daughters of neigh- 
 boring farmers, poorer than themselves, who for a time 
 took these situations, but considered themselves as 
 good as their employers. The comparatively wealthy 
 men were in their cities. 
 
 No two races of men could be more different than 
 the New Yorkers of that day and the people of New 
 England. There was a perfect contrast in all their 
 habits of social life and ways of thinking. The Dutch 
 disliked the Yankees, as they called them, most thor- 
 oughly. This feeling is shown, in a ludicrous way, 
 through the whole of Irving's " Knickerbocker." " The 
 Dutch and the Yankees," he says, " never got together 
 without fighting." 
 
 There is a curious development of this prejudice in 
 the following clause, which was inserted in the will of 
 a member of a distinguished colonial family of New 
 
 York, dated 1760. " It is my desire that my son, 
 
 , may have the best education that is to be had 
 
 in England or America ; but my express will and di- 
 rections are, that he never be sent, for that purpose, 
 to the Connecticut colonies, lest he should imbibe, in 
 his youth, that low craft and cunning so incidental to 
 the people of that country, which is so interwoven in 
 their constitutions that all their acts cannot disguise it 
 from the world, though many of them, under the sanc- 
 tified garb of religion, have endeavored to impose 
 themselves on the world as honest men." 
 
 Once in a year, generally, the gentry of New York 
 went to the city to transact their business and make 
 their purchases. There they mingled, for a time, in its
 
 IN THE OLDEN TIME. 21 
 
 gayeties, and were entertained at the court of the Go- 
 vernor. These dignitaries were generally men of high 
 families in England. One of them, for instance Lord 
 Cornbury was a blood relative of the royal family. 
 They copied the customs and imitated the etiquette 
 enforced " at home," and the rejoicings and sorrowings, 
 the thanksgivings and fasts, which were ordered at 
 Whitehall, were repeated again on the banks of the 
 Hudson. Some years ago the writer was looking over 
 the records of the old Dutch Church in New York, 
 when he found, carefully filed away, some of the proc- 
 lamations for these services. One of them, giving no- 
 tice of a thanksgiving-day, in the reign of William and 
 Mary, for some victory in the Low Countries, puts the 
 celebration off a fortnight, to give time for the news to 
 reach Albany. 
 
 During the rest of the year these landlords resided 
 among their tenantry, on their estates ; and about many 
 of their old country-houses were associations gathered, 
 often coming down from the first settlement of the 
 country, giving them an interest which can never invest 
 the new residences of those whom later times elevated 
 through wealth. Such was the Van Courtlandt manor- 
 house, with its wainscoted rooms and its ghost-cham- 
 ber ; the Rensselaer manor-house, where of old had 
 been entertained Talleyrand and the exiled princes 
 from Europe ; the Schuyler house, so near the Sara- 
 toga battle-field, and marked by memories of that glo- 
 rious event in the life, of its owner (alas, that it should 
 have passed away from its founder's family !), and the 
 residence of the Livingstons, on the banks of the Hud- 
 son, of which Louis Philippe expressed such grateful 
 recollection when, after his elevation to the throne, he 
 met, in Paris, the son of his former host. 
 
 Probably the extent to which hospitality was carried
 
 22 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 out at the Livingston manor-house had no equal in this 
 country. At the beginning of this century, no distin- 
 guished foreigner who visited this country but could 
 look back, like Louis Philippe, to a visit to that house. 
 Thither came Lafayette and his son. Thither came 
 the last of the Penns, whose family had intermarried 
 with the Livingstons. Thither came Joseph Buona- 
 parte, the ex-king of Spain, who remained several days 
 with a suite of forty persons. At the moment of his 
 departure, when all the equipages were drawn up at 
 the grand entrance, and Mrs. Livingston was making 
 her adieux on the marble piazza, the princess, his daugh- 
 ter, called for her drawing materials. It was supposed 
 that she wished to sketch the view, which extends for 
 sixty miles around. But those who looked over her 
 page discovered that, it was the chatelaine she was 
 sketching. 
 
 How vivid was Joseph Buonaparte's recollection of 
 this visit may be drawn from the fact that when, years 
 afterwards, he was dying in Florence, hearing that a 
 lady of this family was in the city, he sent for her to 
 his bedside. He talked to her about her mother, and 
 ended with the remark: "Your mother should have 
 been a queen ! " 
 
 There was one more of these old places of which we 
 would write, to preserve some memories which are now 
 fast fading away, because it was within the bounds of 
 our city, and was invested with so many historical asso- 
 ciations connected with the Revolution. It is the house 
 at Kip's Bay. Though many years have passed since 
 it was swept away by the encroachments of the city, 
 yet it exists among the recollections of the writer's 
 earliest days, when it was still occupied by the family 
 of its founder, and regarded as their first home on this 
 continent. It was erected in 1655, by Jacobus Kip,
 
 IN THE OLDEN TIME. 23 
 
 Secretary of the Council, who received a grant of that 
 part of the island. There is, in the possession of the 
 family, a picture of it as it appeared in the time of the 
 Revolution, when still surrounded by venerable oaks. 
 It was a large double house, with three windows on 
 one side of the door, and two on the other, with one 
 large wing. On the right hand of the hall was the 
 dining-room, running from front to rear, with two win- 
 dows looking out over the bay, and two over the 
 country on the other side. This was the room which 
 was afterwards invested with interest from its connec- 
 tion with Major Andre. In the rear of the house was 
 a pear tree, planted by the ladies of the family in 1 700, 
 which bore fruit until its destruction in 1851. In this 
 house five generations of the family were born. 
 
 Then came the Revolution, arid Sargent, in his 
 " Life of Andre," thus gives its history in those stirring 
 times: "Where now, in New York, is the unalluring 
 and crowded neighborhood of the Second avenue and 
 Thirty-fifth street, stood, in 1780, the ancient Bowerie 
 or country-seat of Jacobus Kip. Built in 1655, of 
 bricks brought from Holland, encompassed by pleas- 
 ant trees, and in easy view of the sparkling waters of 
 Kip's Bay, on the East River, the mansion remained, 
 even to our own times, in possession of one of its 
 founder's line. Here " (continues Sargent, incorporat- 
 ing the humorous recollections of Irving's " Knicker- 
 bocker") "spread the same smiling meadows, whose 
 appearance had so expanded the heart of Oloffe the 
 Dreamer, in the fabulous ages of the colony ; here still 
 nodded the groves that had echoed back the thunder 
 of Henry Kip's musketoon, when that mighty warrior 
 left his name to the surrounding waves. When Wash- 
 ington was in the neighborhood, Kip's house had been 
 his quarters ; when Howe crossed from Long Island
 
 24 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 on Sunday, September 15, 1776, he debarked at the 
 rocky point hard by, and his skirmishers drove our 
 people from their position behind the dwelling. Since 
 then it had known many guests. Howe, Clinton, 
 Kniphausen, Percy, were sheltered by its roof. The 
 aged owner, with his wife and daughter, remained ; 
 but they had always an officer of distinction quartered 
 with them ; and, if a part of the family were in arms for 
 Congress, as is alleged, it is certain that others were 
 active for the Crown. Samuel Kip, of Kipsburgh, led 
 a cavalry troop of his own tenantry with great gallantry 
 in De Lancey's regiment ; and, despite severe wounds, 
 survived long after the war, a heavy pecuniary sufferer 
 by the cause which, with most of the landed gentry of 
 New York, he had espoused." 
 
 In 1780 it was held by Colonel Williams, of the 8oth 
 Royal Regiment ; and here, on the evening of the igth of 
 September, he gave a dinner to Sir Henry Clinton and 
 his staff, as a parting compliment to Andre. The aged 
 owner of the house was present ; and, when the Revo- 
 lution was over, he described the scene and the inci- 
 dents of that dinner. At the table Sir Henry Clinton 
 announced the departure of Andre, next morning, on a 
 secret and most important expedition, and added (what 
 we have never seen mentioned in any other account, 
 and showing what was to have been Andre's re- 
 ward), " Plain John Andre will come back Sir John 
 Andre." 
 
 Andre it was said by Mr. Kip was evidently de- 
 pressed, and took but little part in the merriment about 
 him ; and when, in his turn, it became necessary for him 
 to sing, he gave the favorite military chanson attributed 
 to Wolfe, who sang it on the eve of the battle of Que- 
 bec, in which he died : 
 
 * " Life of Andr6," p. 267.
 
 IX THE 01. DEN TIME. 25 
 
 Why, soldiers, why 
 
 Should we be melancholy, boys ? 
 
 Why, soldiers, why, 
 
 Whose business 'tis to die ! 
 
 For should next campaign 
 
 Send us to Him who made us, boys, 
 
 We're free from pain ; 
 
 But should we remain, 
 
 A bottle and kind landlady 
 
 Makes all well again. 
 
 His biographer, after copying this account, adds : 
 " How brilliant soever the company, how cheerful the 
 repast, its memory must ever have been fraught with 
 sadness to both host and .guests. It was the last occa- 
 sion of Andre's meeting his comrades in life. Four 
 short days gone, the hands then clasped by friendship 
 were fettered by hostile bonds ; yet nine days more, 
 and the darling of the army, the youthful hero of the 
 hour, had dangled from a gibbet." * 
 
 After the Revolution the place remained in its own- 
 er's possession, for his age had fortunately prevented 
 him from taking any active part in the contest. And 
 when Washington, in the hour of his triumph, returned 
 to New York, he went out to visit again those who, in 
 1776, had been his involuntary hosts. Dr. Francis 
 relates an interesting little incident which occurred at 
 the visit : " On the old road towards Kingsbridge, on 
 the eastern side of the island, was the well-known 
 Kip's Farm, pre-eminently distinguished for its grateful 
 fruits the plum, the peach, the pear, and the apple 
 and for its choice culture of the rosacece. Here the elite 
 often repaired, and here our Washington, now invested 
 with Presidential honors, made an excursion, and was 
 presented with the rosa gallica, an exotic first intro- 
 duced into this country in this garden fit emblem 
 
 * " Life of Andre," p. 268.
 
 26 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 of that memorable union of France and the American 
 colonies in the cause of republican freedom." * 
 
 In 1851 this old place was demolished. It had then 
 stood two hundred and twelve years, and was the 
 oldest house on the island. It was swallowed up by 
 the growth of the mighty metropolis, and Thirty-fifth 
 street runs over the spot where once stood the old 
 mansion. A short time after it was deserted, the writer 
 made his last visit to it, while most of it was still stand- 
 ing, and the stone coat-of-arms over the hall-door was 
 projecting from the half-demolished wall. As he stood 
 in the old dining-room, there came back to him visions 
 of the many noble and chivalrous men who, in the last 
 two centuries, had feasted within its walls. But all 
 these, like the place itself, now live only in the records 
 of the past. 
 
 Such was life in those early days among the colonial 
 families in the country and the city. It was simple and 
 unostentatious, yet marked by an affluence of every- 
 thing which could minister to comfort, and also a de- 
 gree of elegance in the surroundings which created a 
 feeling of true refinement. Society was easy and 
 natural, without the struggle for precedence which 
 now is so universal; for then every one's antecedents 
 were known, and their positions were fixed. The in- 
 termarriages, which for more than a century were tak- 
 ing place between the landed families, bound them 
 together and promoted a harmony of feeling now not 
 often seen. There were, in that day, such things as 
 old associations, and men lived in the past, instead of, 
 as in these times, looking only to the future. 
 
 The system of slavery, too, which prevailed, added 
 to the ease of domestic life. Negro slaves, at an early 
 
 * "Old New York" Anniversary Discourse before the New York Historical 
 Society, Nov. 17, 1857, by John W. Francis, M.D., LL.D.
 
 IX THE OLDEX TIME. 2 7 
 
 day, had been introduced into the colony, and every 
 family of standing possessed some. They were em- 
 ployed but little as field-laborers, but every household 
 had a few who were domestic servants. Like Abra- 
 ham's servants, they were all " born in the house." 
 They shared the same religious instruction with the 
 children of the family, and felt, in every respect, as if 
 they were members of it. This mild form of slavery 
 was like the system which existed under the tents of 
 the patriarchs on the plains of Mamre, and there cer- 
 tainly never were happier people than those " men- 
 servants and maid -servants." They were seldom 
 separated from their families, or sold. The latter was re- 
 served as an extreme case for the incorrigible, and a pun- 
 ishment to which it was hardly ever necessary to resort. 
 The clansmen of Scotland could not take more pride 
 in the prosperity of their chief's family than did these 
 'sable retainers in New Amsterdam. In domestic af- 
 fairs they assumed a great freedom of speech, and, in 
 fact, family affairs were discussed and settled as fully 
 in the kitchen as in the parlor. The older servants, 
 indeed, exercised as full control over the children of 
 the family as did their parents. As each black child 
 attained the age of six or seven years, it was formally 
 presented to a son or daughter of the family, and was 
 his or her particular attendant. This union continued 
 often through life, and of stronger instances of fidelity 
 we have never heard than were exhibited in some of 
 these cases. Fidelity and affection, indeed, formed the 
 bond between master and slave, to a degree which can 
 never exist in this day with hired servants.* 
 
 * " Almost every family in the colony owned one or more negro servants ; and, 
 among the richer classes, their number was considered a certain evidence of their 
 master's easy circumstances. About the year 1703 a period of prosperity in wealth 
 and social refinement with the Dutch of New Amsterdam the Widow Van Court- 
 landt held five male slaves, two female, and two children ; Colonel De Peyster had
 
 28 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 This state of things continued far down into the 
 present century. In the writer's early day his father 
 owned slaves for domestic servants, and he well re- 
 members, when visiting the place of a relative on the 
 Hudson River, seeing the number of slaves about the 
 house. At that time, however, the system was just 
 going out; it had lost its interesting features, and the 
 slaves, still remaining at these old places, had become 
 a source of care and anxiety to their owners. 
 
 The charm of life in that day was its stability. 
 There was no chance then for parvemiism no stocks 
 in which to dabble, no sudden fortunes made. There 
 was but little commerce between the colony and the 
 mother-country, and men who embarked in this busi- 
 ness were contented to spend their lives in acquiring a 
 competence. They never aspired to rival the landed 
 families. With the latter, life flowed on from one gen- 
 eration to another in the same even way. They lived 
 on their broad lands, and, when they died, the eldest 
 son inherited the family residence, while the others 
 were portioned off with farms belonging to the estate, 
 but which it could well spare. On their carriages and 
 their silver were their arms, which they had brought 
 with them from Europe, by which every one knew 
 them, which were used as matters of course, and were 
 distinctions no one ventured to assume unless entitled 
 to them. Sometimes these were carved in stone and 
 placed over their doors. This was the case with the 
 Walton House, which we believe is still standing in 
 Franklin Square (Pearl street) ; and, as we have al- 
 ready mentioned, with the Kip's Bay House. The 
 windows of the first Dutch church built in New York 
 
 the same number ; William Beekman, two ; Rip Van Dam, six ; Mrs. Stuyvesant, 
 five; Mrs. Kip, seven; David Provoost, three, &c." Stone's "History of New 
 York," p. 90.
 
 IN THE OLDEN TIME. 2Q 
 
 were filled with the arms of the families at whose 
 expense it was erected. 
 
 In 1774, John Adams, on his way to attend the first 
 Congress, stopped in New York. The honest Bos- 
 tonian was very much struck with "the opulence and 
 splendor of the city," and "the elegance of their mode 
 of living," and, in his Journal, freely records his admi- 
 ration. He speaks of " the elegant c'ountry-seats on 
 the island ; " " the Broad Way, a fine street, very wide, 
 and in a right line from 'one end to the other of the 
 city;" "the magnificent new church then building, 
 which was to cost ,20,000 ; " the Bowling Green, 
 which he describes as "the beautiful ellipse of land, 
 railed in with solid iron, in the centre of which is a 
 statue of His Majesty on horseback, very large, of 
 solid lead, gilded with gold, on a pedestal of marble, 
 very high." He records that "the streets of the town 
 are vastly more regular and elegant than those of Bos- 
 ton, and the houses are more grand, as well as neat." 
 
 The most amusing display is when he is invited to 
 one of these country-seats, "near Hudson's River." 
 He writes: "A more elegant breakfast I never saw; 
 rich plate, a very large silver coffee-pot, a very large 
 silver tea-pot, napkins of the very finest materials, 
 toast and bread and butter in great perfection. After 
 breakfast a plate of beautiful peaches, another of pears, 
 and a muskmelon, were placed on the table." 
 
 It is evident, however, from his Journal, that he saw 
 little of the best families. He was not in a situation to 
 be feted by them, for they had no sympathy with the 
 object of his journey. His principal entertainers were 
 two lawyers Scott and Smith who had grown 
 wealthy by their profession. Among all he mentions 
 as extending civilities to him, the only persons belong- 
 ing to the aristocracy of the city were some members
 
 3O NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 of the Livingston family, who, even then, were putting 
 themselves forward as leaders in the coming move- 
 ment. 
 
 The Revolution broke up and swept away this social 
 system. It ruined and drove off half the gentry of the 
 province. The social history, indeed, of that event 
 has never been written, and never will be. The con- 
 querors wrote the story, and they were mostly " new 
 men," who had as much love for those they dispos- 
 sessed as the Puritans had for the Cavaliers of Eng- 
 land, whom, for a time, they displaced. In a passage 
 we have quoted from Sargent's "Life of Andre," the 
 author says : " Most of the landed gentry of New York 
 espoused the royal cause." And it was natural that it 
 should be so, for most of them had for generations 
 held office under the Crown. Their habits of life, too, 
 had trained them to tastes which had no sympathy 
 with the levelling doctrines inaugurated by the new 
 movement. They accordingly rallied around the king's 
 standard; and, when it went down, they went down 
 with it, and, in many cases, their names were blotted 
 out of the land. 
 
 We once read, in an old number of Blackwood's 
 Magazine, some discussion about the impolitic course 
 pursued by England towards her colonies. The re- 
 marks about the manner in which she lost her Ameri- 
 can colonies were peculiarly judicious. The writer 
 says the Government should have formed an aristo- 
 cracy in America, by giving titles, and thus gathering 
 the great landed proprietors about the throne by new 
 ties. These extensive landholders, previous to the 
 Revolution, were as able to keep up the dignity of a 
 title as were the English nobility of that day ; and the 
 effect which would have been produced, in the strength- 
 ening of their loyalty, is obvious. Had the head of
 
 IN THE OLDEN TIME. 31 
 
 the Livingston family been created Earl of Clermont, 
 and that of the Lawrences been made Lord Newtown, 
 would they have taken the side of the Revolutionists ? 
 We trow not. Instead of this, these powerful landed 
 families were neglected, until some of them became 
 embittered against the Government. No title, as a 
 mark of royal favor, was given to a single American, 
 except a baronetcy to Sir William Johnson. 
 
 Of a few landed families who took the popular side, 
 perhaps the Livingstons and Schuylers occupied the 
 leading position. The former had not been in favor 
 with the Government, but were the political antagonists 
 of the De Lanceys, by whom they were excluded from 
 office. They therefore welcomed the new order of 
 things. 
 
 Religion, in those days, had a good deal to do with 
 the state of parties. As far back as 1 745, the De Lan- 
 ceys were the leaders of the Church of England party, 
 and the Livingstons of the Dissenters. Religious bit- 
 terness was added, therefore, to that which was politi- 
 cal. " In 1769" (says Stone, in his " Life of Sir Wil- 
 liam Johnson"), " the contest was between the Church 
 party and the Dissenters, the former being led by the 
 De Lanceys and the latter by the Livingstons. The 
 Church, having the support of the mercantile and ma- 
 sonic interests, was triumphant ; and John Cruger, 
 James De Lancey, Jacob Walton, and James Jauncey, 
 were elected by the city." During the election a song 
 was published in the German language, which became 
 very popular with the Germans, the chorus of which 
 was : 
 
 " Maester Cruger, De Lancey, 
 Maester Walton and Jauncey." 
 
 " The De Lancey interest," wrote Hugh Wallace, a
 
 32 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 member of the Council, to Sir William Johnson, "pre- 
 vails in the House greatly, and they have given the 
 Livingstons' interest proof of it, by dismissing P. Liv- 
 ingston the House, as a non-resident." It was an old 
 feud, therefore, which, at the Revolution, induced them 
 to take different sides. 
 
 To the popular side, also, went the Jays, the Law- 
 rences, a portion of the Van Courtlandts, who were 
 divided, a part of the Morris family, which was also 
 divided (while Lewis Morris was one of the signers of 
 the Declaration of Independence, his brother, Staats 
 Morris, was a General in the British army, and married 
 the Dowager Duchess of Gordon), the Beekmans, and 
 some few others. The " Patroon "- Mr. Van Rensse- 
 laer was fortunately a minor, and therefore, not being 
 obliged to take either side, saved his manor. Many 
 of the prominent leaders were from new families, made 
 by the Revolution. An upturning of this kind is the 
 time for new men. Peculiar circumstances brought 
 some forward who otherwise would have had no avenue 
 for action opened before them. Alexander Hamilton, 
 for example, had just arrived in New York, a young 
 man from the West Indies, when the popular outbreak 
 gave him, at a public meeting, an opportunity of exhib- 
 iting his peculiar talents. 
 
 The history of a single family will show the course 
 of events. Probably the most powerful family in the 
 State, before the Revolution, was that of the De Lan- 
 ceys. Descended from the ancienne noblesse of France, 
 and holding large possessions, they had exerted a 
 greater influence in the colony than any other family. 
 James De Lancey administered the government of the 
 colony for many years, till his death in 1760. Most of 
 the younger members of the family were in the British 
 army, previous to the Revolution. When that convul-
 
 IN THE OLDEX TIME. 33 
 
 sion took place, they, of course, remained loyal, and 
 became leaders on that side. Oliver De Lancey was 
 a Brigadier-General, and organized the celebrated 
 corps styled " De Lancey's Battalion." His fine man- 
 sion at Bloomingdale was burned, in consequence of 
 his adherence to the royal cause. They forfeited their 
 broad lands, and their names appeared no more in the 
 future history of the State. Some fled to England, 
 where they held high offices, and their tombs are now 
 to be seen in the choir of Beverley Minster. Sir 
 William De Lancey died at Waterloo, on the staff of 
 the Duke of Wellington.* Just two months previous, 
 he had been married to a daughter of Sir Benjamin 
 Hall ; and his friend Sir Walter Scott, thus alludes to 
 him in his ode, "The Field of Waterloo": 
 
 De Lancey changed Love's bridal wreath 
 For laurels from the hand of death. 
 
 The son of General De Lancey, Oliver De Lancey, 
 Jr., who succeeded Andre as Adjutant-General of the 
 British army in America, rose through the grade of 
 Lieutenant-General to that of General, and died, at the 
 
 * The Duke of Wellington, in conversation, gave this account of De Lancey's 
 death : 
 
 " De Lancey was with me and speaking to me when he was struck. We were 
 on a point of land that overlooked the plain, and I had just been warned off by 
 some soldiers (but as I saw well from it, and as two divisions were engaging below, 
 I had said, ' Never mind,'), when a ball came leaping along en ricochet, as it is call- 
 ed, and striking him on the back, sent him many yards over the head of his horse. 
 He fell on his face, and bounded upward and fell again. All the staff dismounted 
 and ran to him ; and when I came up, he said, ' Pray tell them to leave me and let 
 me die in peace.' I had him conveyed to the rear, and two days afterwards, when, 
 on my return from Brussels, I saw him in a barn, he spoke with such strength, that 
 I said (for 1' had reported him among the killed), ' Why, De Lancey, you will have 
 the advantage of Sir Concly in Castle Rockrent ; you will know what your friends 
 said of you after death.' 'I hope I shall,' he replied. Poor fellow! We had 
 known each other ever since we were boys. But I had no time to be sorry; I went 
 on with the army and never saw him again." " Recollections," by Samuel Rogers. 
 London, 1859. 
 
 5
 
 34 NEW YORK SOCIKTY 
 
 beginning of this century, nearly at the head of the 
 English army-list. 
 
 In 1847 the late Bishop of Western New York 
 (William Heathcote De Lancey) told the writer a curi- 
 ous story of his recovery of some of their old family 
 papers. In the spring of that year, being in New 
 York, a package was handed to the servant at the 
 door by an old gentleman, on opening which the Bishop 
 found an anonymous letter directed to him. The writer 
 stated that, being in England between thirty and forty 
 years before, he found some papers relating to the De 
 Lancey family among some waste paper in the house 
 where he was staying ; that he had preserved them, 
 and, seeing by the newspapers that the Bishop was in 
 the city, he now enclosed them to him. These the 
 Bishop found to be : ist, the commission of James De 
 Lancey as Lieutenant-Governor of the colony ; 2d, his 
 commission as Chief-Justice of the colony ; ^d, the free- 
 dom of the city of New York, voted to one of the fami- 
 ly in 1730; 4th, a map of the lands owned by them in 
 Westchester county and on New York Island, pre- 
 pared by the Bishop's grandfather. He advertised in 
 the New York papers, requesting an interview with his 
 unknown correspondent, but there was no response, 
 and he heard no more from him. 
 
 Some branches of this family remained in New York, 
 and we cannot point to a more striking evidence of the 
 change wrought by the Revolution than the fact that, 
 since that event, the name of De Lancey, once so 
 prominent, is never found in the records of the Govern- 
 ment. It is in the Church only that it has acquired 
 eminence, in the person of the former distinguished 
 Bishop of Western New York. 
 
 This is the kind of story which might be told of 
 many other loyalist families. Ruined by confiscations,
 
 IN THE OLDEN TIME. 35 
 
 they faded out of sight, and, being excluded from po- 
 litical office, they were forgotten, and their very names 
 would sound strange in the ears of the present gener- 
 ation of New Yorkers. Many years ago, in the old 
 country-house of a relative, the writer amused some 
 days of a summer vacation by bringing down from the 
 dust of a garret, where they had reposed for two gen- 
 erations, the letters of one of these refugees, who, at 
 the beginning of the Revolution, was obliged to seek 
 safety on board a British ship-of-war off New York 
 harbor (from whence he writes his farewell, commend- 
 ing his wife and children to the care of the family), and 
 then made his home in England, until, as he hoped, 
 " these calamities be overpast." It was sad to read 
 his speculations, as night after night he attended the 
 debates in Parliament and watched the progress of the 
 war, and, to the last, confidently trusted in the success 
 of the royal arms, which alone could replace him in the 
 position from which he had been driven into exile. 
 When these hopes were ultimately crushed, a high ap- 
 pointment was offered him by Government, but he pre- 
 ferred to return to his own land to share the straitened 
 circumstances of his family, and be buried with his 
 fathers. 
 
 The withdrawal of so many of the gentry from the 
 country, and the worldly ruin of so many more, was 
 necessarily detrimental to its social refinement. It was 
 taking away the high-toned dignity of the landed pro- 
 prietors, and substituting in its place the restless aspira- 
 tions of men who had to make their fortunes and posi- 
 tion, and get forward in life. Society lost, therefore, 
 much of its ease and gracefulness. Mrs. Grant, to 
 whose work we have already alluded, who in her youth 
 had seen New York society as far back as 1760, and 
 lived to know what it was after the peace, thus speaks
 
 36 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 of the change: "Mildness of manners, refinement of 
 mind, and all the softer virtues that spring up in the 
 cultivated paths of social life, nurtured by generous 
 affections, were undoubtedly to be found in the un- 
 happy loyalists. . . . Certainly, however neces- 
 sary the ruling powers might find it to carry their sys- 
 tem of exile into execution, it has occasioned to the 
 country an irreparable privation. What the loss of 
 the Huguenots was to commerce and manufactures in 
 France, that of the loyalists was to religion, literature, 
 and amenity in America. The silken threads were 
 drawn out of the mixed web of society, which has ever 
 since been comparatively coarse and homely."* 
 
 This is somewhat of an exaggeration. The tone of 
 society was, indeed, impaired, but not lost. There 
 were still enough of the old families remaining to give 
 it dignity, at least for another generation. The com- 
 munity could not suddenly become democratic, or throw 
 off all its old associations and habits of reverence. As 
 a writer on that day says, people were " habituated to 
 take off their hats to gentlemen who were got up re- 
 gardless of expense, and who rode about in chariots 
 drawn by four horses." It took a long while for the 
 community to learn to act on the maxim that " all men 
 are created equal." Not, indeed, until those were 
 swept away who had lived in the days of the Revolu- 
 tion, did this downward tendency become very evident. 
 Simultaneously, too, with their departure came a set 
 of the noiiveaux riches, which the growing facilities of 
 New York for making commercial fortunes brought 
 forward, and thus, by degrees, was ushered in the 
 age of gaudy wealth. 
 
 The final blow, indeed, to this stately old society 
 was given by the French Revolution. We know how 
 
 * "American Lady," p. 330.
 
 IN THE OLDEN TIME. 37 
 
 everything" dignified in society was then swept away 
 in the wild fury of democracy, but the present genera- 
 tion cannot conceive of the intense feeling which that 
 event produced in our own country. France had been 
 our old ally, England our old foe. We must side with 
 the former in her struggles against tyranny. It be- 
 came a political test. The Republicans adopted it, and 
 insensibly there seemed to grow up the idea that re- 
 finement and courtesy in life were at variance with the 
 true party-spirit. In this way democratic rudeness 
 crept into social life, and took the place of the aristo- 
 cratic element of former days. Gradually it went down 
 into the lower strata of society, till all that reverence 
 which once characterized it was gone. 
 
 The manners of an individual at last became an evi- 
 dence of his political views. Goodrich, in his " Recol- 
 lections," speaking on this very point, gives an amusing 
 instance of it. A clergyman in Connecticut, who was 
 noted for his wit, riding along- one summer day, came 
 to a brook, where he paused to let his horse drink. 
 Just then a stranger rode into the stream from the op- 
 posite direction, and, as his horse began to drink also, 
 the two men were brought face to face. 
 
 " How are you, priest ? " said the stranger. 
 
 " How are you, democrat ? " inquired the parson. 
 
 " How.do you know I am a democrat? " said one. 
 
 " How do you know I am & priest ? " said the other. 
 
 " I know you to be a priest by your dress," said the 
 
 stranger. 
 
 "And I know you to be a democrat by your ad- 
 dress" said the parson. 
 
 Even the dress was made the exponent of party 
 views, as much as it had been by the Cavaliers and 
 Puritans of England. As republican principles gained 
 ground, large wigs and powder, cocked hats, breeches
 
 3 NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 and shoe-buckles, were replaced by short hair, panta- 
 loons, and shoe-strings. It is said that the Marquis 
 de Breze, master of ceremonies at Versailles, nearly 
 died of fright at the first pair of shoes, divested of 
 buckles, which he saw on the feet of a revolutionary 
 minister ascending the stairs to a royal levee. He 
 rushed over to Dumouriez, then Minister of War. 
 "He is actually entering," exclajmed the Marquis, 
 " with ribbons in his shoes ! " Dumouriez, himself one 
 of the incendiaries of the Revolution, solemnly said, 
 " Tout est fini ! " " The game is up ; the monarchy is 
 gone." And so it was. This was only one of the 
 signs of the times. Buckles and kings were extin- 
 guished together. 
 
 Such being the feelings of the sans culottes in France, 
 the favorers of Jacobinism in this country were not 
 slow to imitate them. Jefferson eschewed breeches 
 and wore pantaloons. He adopted leather strings in 
 his shoes instead of buckles, and his admirers trum- 
 peted it as a proof of democratic simplicity. Wash- 
 ington rode to the Capitol in a carriage drawn by four 
 cream-colored horses with servants in livery. All this 
 his successor gave up, and even abolished the Presi- 
 dent's levees, the latter of which were afterwards re- 
 stored by Mrs. Madison. Thus the dress, which had 
 for generations been the sign and symbol of 3. gentle- 
 man, gradually waned away, till society reached that 
 charming state of equality in which it became impos- 
 sible, by any outward costume, to distinguish masters 
 from servants. John Jay says, in one of his letters, 
 that with small-clothes and buckles the high tone of 
 society departed. 
 
 In the writer's early day this system of the past was 
 just going out. Wigs and powder and queues, breeches 
 and buckles, still lingered among the older gentlemen
 
 IN THE OLDEN TIME. 39 
 
 vestiges of an age which was just vanishing away. 
 But the high-toned feeling of the last century was still 
 in the ascendant, and had not yet succumbed to the 
 \vorship of mammon which characterizes this age. 
 There was still in New York a reverence for the colo- 
 nial families ; and the prominent political men like Du- 
 ane, Clinton, Golden, Radcliff, Hoffman, and Living- 
 ston were generally gentlemen by birth and social 
 standing. The time had not yet come when this was 
 to be an objection to an individual in a political career. 
 The leaders were men whose names were historical in 
 the state, and they influenced society. The old fami- 
 lies still formed an association among themselves, and 
 intermarried one generation after another. Society 
 was therefore very restricted. The writer remembers, 
 in his childhood, when he went out with his father for 
 his usual afternoon drive, he knew every carriage they 
 met on the avenues. 
 
 The gentlemen of that day knew each other well, for 
 they had grown up together, and their associations in 
 the past were the same. Yet, what friendships for 
 after-life did these associations form ! How different 
 this from the intimacy between Mr. Smith and Mr. 
 Thompson, when they knew nothing of each other's 
 antecedents, have no subjects in common but the mo- 
 ney market, and never heard of each other until the 
 last year, when some lucky speculation in stocks raised 
 them from their "low estate," and enabled them to 
 purchase houses " up-town," and set up their car- 
 riages ! 
 
 There was in that day none of the show and glitter 
 of modern times ; but there was with many of these 
 families, particularly with those who had retained their 
 landed estates, and were still living in their old family 
 homes, an elegance which has never been rivalled in
 
 4-O NEW YORK SOCIETY 
 
 other parts of the country. In his early days the 
 writer has been much at the South ; has stayed at 
 Mount Vernon, when it was yet held by the Washing- 
 tons ; with Lord Fairfax's family at Ashgrove and Van- 
 cluse ; with the Lees in Virginia, and with the aristo- 
 cratic planters of South Carolina ; but he has never 
 elsewhere seen such elegance of living as was formerly 
 exhibited by the old families of New York. 
 
 Gentlemen then were great diners-out. Their asso- 
 ciations naturally led to this kind of intimacy, when 
 almost the same set constantly met together. Giving 
 dinners was then a science, and a gentleman took as 
 much pride in the excellence of his wine-cellar as he 
 did in his equipage or his library. This had its evils, 
 it is true, and led to long sittings over the table, and 
 an excess of conviviality which modern customs have 
 fortunately corrected. 
 
 There was a punctiliousness, too, in their intercourse, 
 even among the most intimate, which formed a strange 
 contrast to the familiarity of modern society. Gentle- 
 men were guarded in what they said to each other, for 
 those were duelling days, and a hasty speech had to 
 be atoned for at Hoboken. Stories are still handed 
 down of disputes at the dinner-table which led to hos- 
 tile meetings, but which, in our day, would not have 
 been remembered next morning. In an obituary sketch 
 of one of this set, published at his death twenty-five 
 years ago, when speaking of the high tone which then 
 characterized society, the writer said: "Perhaps the 
 liability, which then existed, of being held, personally 
 answerable for their words, false as the principle may 
 have been, produced a courtesy not known in these 
 days." 
 
 One thing is certain that there was a high tone 
 prevailing at that time, which is now nowhere seen.
 
 IN THE OLDEN TIME. 4! 
 
 The community then looked' up to the public men with 
 a degree of reverence which has never been felt for 
 those who succeeded them. They were the last of a 
 race which does not now exist. With them died the 
 stateliness of colonial times. Wealth came in and 
 created a social distinction which took the place of 
 family, and thus society became vulgarized. 
 
 During the last year we have witnessed the depar- 
 ture of one Gulian C. Verplanck who was, perhaps, 
 the last prominent member of the generation which 
 has gone. Where can we point to any one of those 
 now living, like him, surrounded by the elevating asso- 
 ciations of the past, distinguished in public life, and a 
 ripe scholar in literature and theology ? The old his- 
 torical names of Jay and Duer and Hoffman, and a few 
 more of colonial times, are still upheld among us by 
 their sons, who are showing, in the third generation, 
 the high talents of those who had gone before them ; 
 " but what are they among so many ! " 
 
 " Rari nantes in gurgite vasto." 
 
 The influences of the past are fast vanishing away, 
 and our children will look only to the shadowy future. 
 The very rule by which we estimate individuals has 
 been entirely altered. The inquiry once was, "Who 
 is he?" Men now ask the question, "How much is 
 he worth ? " Have we gained by the change ? 
 
 Is it strange that the writer answers in himself that 
 description in Horace " Laudator acti temporis, me 
 puero?" As years gather round him, and the shadows 
 deepen in his path, he instinctively turns more and 
 more from the "living Present" to commune with the 
 " dead Past." Many, however, to whom he has re- 
 ferred in these pages, will be to most of his readers
 
 42 NEW YORK SOCIETY IN THE OLDEN TIME. 
 
 only names, while to him they are realities living and 
 breathing men ; and, as he thinks of them, he believes 
 there is no delusion in the conviction that, for elegance 
 and refinement, for all the graces which elevate and 
 ennoble life, they have left no successors. The out- 
 ward pressure is now too democratic. Most of the 
 prominent men, also, of the present day, want the asso- 
 ciations of the past. 
 
 As Edward IV. stood on the tower of Warwick 
 Castle, and saw marching through the park below him 
 the mighty host of retainers who, at the summons of 
 the great Earl of Warwick, had gathered round him, 
 and then thought how powerless, in comparison, were 
 the new nobles with whom he had attempted to sur- 
 round his throne, he is said to have muttered to him- 
 self, "After all, you cannot make a great baron out of 
 a new lord ! " And so we would say, You cannot make 
 out of the new millionaire what was exhibited by the 
 gentlemen of our old colonial families ! 
 
 Commerce, indeed, is fast taking the place of the 
 true old chivalry with all its high associations. It is 
 impossible, in this country, for St. Germain to hold its 
 own against the Bourse. Money-getting is the great 
 object of life in this practical age, and, every month, 
 the words which Halleck wrote so many years ago are 
 becoming more true : 
 
 These are not romantic times 
 So beautiful in Spenser's rhymes, 
 
 So dazzling to the dreaming boy ; 
 Ours are the days of fact, not fable, 
 Of Knights, but not of the Round Table, 
 
 Of Baillie Jarvis, not Rob Roy. 
 And noble name and cultured land, 
 Palace and park, and vassal band, 
 Are powerless to notes of hand 
 
 Of Rothschild or the Barings.
 
 TRACES 
 
 AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND.
 
 RICHMOND HII.L HOUSE, N. Y., IN 1776.
 
 TRACES 
 
 OF 
 
 AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 THEY say in England that Burke's Peerage is " the 
 Englishman's Bible." He certainly pores over it with 
 a devotion which, had it been the Bible, would have 
 prepared him to be a Professor of Biblical Interpreta- 
 tion in a Theological Seminary. The aristocracy have 
 this immense crimson-bound volume in their libraries 
 because it gives their own family history. The middle 
 class parade it on their centre-tables because its pos- 
 session seems in some way, they cannot define how, 
 to associate them with the titled class. Then, if they 
 should happen to see a live lord, it is a great satisfac- 
 tion, on their return home, to open Burke and learn 
 all about him. It makes them almost feel as if they 
 were acquainted with him. 
 
 Burke, it is true, gives the history of these families, 
 but then there is added to it an immense amount of the 
 Romance of History. The old Norman nobility of 
 England have most of them died out, and it is strange 
 to see, in Shirley's Noble and Gentle Men of England, 
 how few families are now remaining, in the male line, 
 of those who occupied any prominent position in the 
 days of the wars of York and Lancaster. The great 
 Percy family, for example, has three times become ex- 
 tinct in the male line. Then, some one who had mar- 
 ried its heiress took the name of Percy, and had the 
 title of Duke of Northumberland revived for his bene-
 
 46 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 fit. The last time this occurred was in 1750, when it 
 was done for one of the Smithson family, who had 
 married the daughter and only child of the last Duke. 
 Thus, new shoots are grafted on the old lines. 
 
 Besides this, new men are constantly rising up and 
 winning their way into the upper class, and these must 
 be furnished with pedigrees. So Burke begins per- 
 haps by stating, that "one of this name flourished in 
 Kent, temp. Henry III." To be sure there is a dread- 
 ful hiatus between this imaginary character and temp. 
 Victories, when the new lord makes his appearance, 
 but there is a sort of uncertain glamour thrown over it 
 which, without any reason, seems to connect the pres- 
 ent with the distant past. Still, with all these draw- 
 backs, Burke is a very valuable record, and we cannot 
 understand the history of England without knowing 
 something of the history of its great families. 
 
 Then, besides Burke's Peerage is his Landed Gentry, 
 a work of equal interest and value to the historical 
 student. Many of these untitled families have lived 
 on their broad lands since the Norman conquest. You 
 turn, for instance, to the Fitzherbert family, and read 
 of the present proprietor of their estates "Mr. Fitz- 
 herbert is the 26th Lord of the Manor of Norbury, and 
 the loth Lord of Swinnerton." Many of these families 
 have for generations refused peerages, preferring to 
 be Old Commoners rather than New Lords. 
 
 The third volume, to complete the set, is Burke's 
 Extinct Peerages, a record of families which possessed 
 titles, traced down to the death of the last holder of 
 the title. 
 
 What interest have we Americans in these volumes? 
 Apparently very little. And yet, in turning them over, 
 we every little while light on some scrap of American 
 family history, giving a portion of the records of fami-
 
 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. \"J 
 
 lies who are descended from these old stocks, and 
 whose history would not be complete without this no- 
 tice of the parent tree ; or, what we find is mingled in 
 some way with the annals of our own country, so that 
 it throws new light on some point in our affairs, or 
 gives a completion of detail to some portion of Ameri- 
 can History. 
 
 Let us take an example of this BENEDICT ARNOLD. 
 His name is unfortunately "familiar in our ears as 
 household words." Every school-boy knows the story 
 of his treason, as it mingles with the sad narrative of 
 Major Andre's life and death. We know that England 
 rewarded his betrayal of his trust with the rank of 
 Major-General in her service, the same which he had 
 held in our army. But the war ended, and he went to 
 Europe with her returning forces, and what is after- 
 wards known of him ? There are one or two anecdotes 
 floating about such as the account of his duel with 
 Lord Balcarras and that is all. We will guarantee 
 there is not one American in a thousand can tell any- 
 thing with regard to his future. As far as we are 
 concerned as Carlyle would express it "he disap- 
 peared into infinite space." 
 
 Have not some of our readers thought of this; 
 wished to know the subsequent history of the Arnold 
 family, and wondered whether his treason enabled 
 them to prosper in worldly matters, or whether " the 
 sin of the father was visited on the children to the third 
 and fourth generation " ? We know no source from 
 which this want can be supplied, except by Burke's 
 Landed Gentry. We turn to the name of Arnold and 
 find this history of the family : 
 
 GENERAL BENEDICT ARNOLD, m. 8 April, 1779, Margaret, dau. of 
 Edward Shippen, Chief Judge of Pennsylvania, and died in 1801, 
 having had issue.
 
 48 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN AMERICA. 
 
 Edward Shippen, Lieut. 6th Bengal Cavalry, and Paymaster of 
 Mutra, d. at Dinapore in India, 13 Dec., 1813. 
 
 James Robertson, Lieut.-General, K. H. and K. Crescent, m. Vir- 
 ginia, d. of Bartlett Goodrich, Esq., of Saling Grove, Essex, which 
 lady died 14 July, 1813. 
 
 George, Lieut. -Col. 2d Bengal Cavalry, died in India i Nov., 1828. 
 
 WILLIAM FETCH, of whom presently. 
 
 Sophia, m. Col. Pownall Phipps, E. I. C. Service (of the Mulgrave 
 family). 
 
 WM. FETCH ARNOLD, ESQ., of Little Missenden Abbey, Capt. izth 
 Lancers, ^.25 June, 1794 ; m. 19 May, 1819, Elizabeth Cecelia, only 
 dau. of Alexander Ruddach, Esq., of Tobago, and had issue. 
 
 EDWARD GLADWIN, of whom presently. 
 
 William Trail, b. 23 Oct., 1826, Capt. 4th Regt. 
 
 Margaret Stuart, m. Rev. Robert H. S. Rogers. 
 
 Elizabeth Sophia, m. Rev. Bryant Burgess. 
 
 Georgiana Phipps, m. Rev. John Stephenson. 
 
 REV. EDWARD GLADWIN ARNOLD; of Little Missencen Abbey, Co. 
 Bucks, Rector of Stapleford, Herts, b. 25 April, 1823; m, 27 April, 
 1852,- Charlotte Georgiana, eldest daughter of Lord Henry Chol- 
 mondeley. 
 
 Seat, Little Missenden Abbey, Co. Bucks. 
 
 Here we have the whole story minutely set forth, 
 from the arch traitor himself down to his grandson, the 
 present representative. It seems that his sons held 
 high offices in the army, and the family had been en- 
 abled to take its place among the English Landed 
 Gentry, and to hold it to the present time. In a world- 
 ly point of view, there is probably hardly a family of 
 the American Generals who remained faithful in the 
 " times which tried men's souls," which at the present 
 day is as well off as that of Benedict Arnold. 
 
 Let us take another example SIR WILLIAM JOHN- 
 SON. There has always been a great deal of romance 
 associated with his life. Settling on the Mohawk, 
 among the Indians, he obtained an influence over the 
 Six Nations which no other white man on this Conti- 
 nent has possessed. In the old French war he was
 
 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN AMERICA. 49 
 
 able to array these powerful tribes on the side of the 
 English, and under his command they secured to the 
 Colonial troops the victory over the French under 
 Baron Dieskau at Lake George, and thus this raid into 
 the colonies was hurled back. For this he was re- 
 warded with a Baronetcy. He resided at Johnson Hall 
 in a kind of barbaric splendor, which was most capti- 
 vating to the Indian chiefs who were his constant visit- 
 ors. The late Wm. L. Stone, of New York, published 
 his life in two volumes, and Paulding made him a pro- 
 minent character in his novel of Tke Dutchman's Fire- 
 side. He died just as the Revolutionary War began, 
 and it is asserted that his life was shortened by the vio- 
 lent struggle through which he, like many other lead- 
 ing men, was obliged to pass in deciding between the 
 cause of his old friends and that of the Government to 
 which he owed his honors. 
 
 His son and successor, Sir John Johnson, seems to 
 have been troubled with no such scruples, but at once 
 arrayed against the Colonists all the Indian tribes over 
 which he had influence. For years his inroads kept in 
 fear the whole border down to the very surburbs of 
 Albany, and terrible were the scenes enacted in many 
 a solitary hamlet, and even in the large town of Sche- 
 nectady, when they were sacked and burned by his 
 wild warriors. Their record is graphically written in 
 Stone's Life of Brandt. When the war ended he re- 
 treated into Canada, abandoning his great possessions 
 and leaving Johnson Hall, which still stands, a monu- 
 ment of the family. 
 
 But what was his future history, and how fared it 
 with the family who, for loyalty, thus abandoned their 
 wide lands? Few indeed had sacrificed as much as 
 they did for this cause. We turn to Burke's Peerage, 
 and here is the record of the next generations : 
 7
 
 5O TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 WILLIAM JOHNSON, ESQ., born at Smithtown, Co. Meath, descend- 
 ed from an Irish family, was adopted by his maternal uncle, Sir Peter 
 Warren, K.B., and went out with him to North America, where he 
 rose to the rank of a Col. in the army, and distinguished himself as a 
 military commander during the first American war, and as a negotiator 
 with Indian tribes; he was created a Baronet 27 Nov., 1755. He 
 d. ii July, 1774, aged 59, at his seat, Johnson Hall, New York, leav- 
 ing, by Catherine Wisenberg, his wife, 
 
 JOHN, his heir, 
 
 Anne, m. to Col. Daniel Clauss, of North America, and d. about 
 1798. 
 
 Mary, m. Col. Gray Johnson, and had two daughters, Mary, wife of 
 Gen. Colin Campbell ; and Julia. 
 
 The son and heir, 
 
 II. SIR JOHN, of Mount Johnson, Montreal, Superintendent-Gen- 
 eral, and Inspector-General of Indian Affairs in British North Ameri- 
 ca, Colonel-in-Chief of the six battalions of the militia of the Eastern 
 Township of Lower Canada, was knighted at St. James, London, 22 
 Nov., 1765. He m. 30 June, 1773, Mary, dau. of John Watts, Esq., 
 some time President of the Council at New York, and by her had 
 issue, 
 
 1. William, Lieut.-Col., b. 1775; m. 1802, Susan, dau. of Stephen 
 De Lancey, Governor of Tobago, and left issue,. 
 
 Charlotte, m., in 1820, to Alexander, Count Balmain, Russian Com- 
 missioner at St. Helena. 
 
 2. ADAM GORDON, 3d Baronet. 
 
 3. James Stephen, Capt. 28th Regt, killed at Badajos. 
 
 4. Robert Thomas, drowned in Canada, 1812. 
 
 5. Warren, Major 68th Regt, d. 1813. 
 
 7. John, of Point Oliver, Montreal, Col. Comm. 6th battalion of 
 militia, b. 8 Aug., 1782, m. 10 Feb., 1825, Mary Deane, dau. of 
 Richard Dillon, Esq., of Montreal ; and d. 23 June, 1841, leaving 
 issue, 
 
 WILLIAM GEORGE, present Baronet. 
 
 7. Charles Christopher, b. 29 Oct., 1798, Lieut.-Col. in the army, 
 Knight of the 2d class of the Prussian Order of the Lion and Sun ; m. 
 1818, Susan, eldest dau. of Admiral Sir Edward Griffith, of North- 
 brook House, Hants, and d. 30 Sept., 1854. 
 
 Sir John died Jan., 1830, and was succeeded by his eldest surviv- 
 ing son. 
 
 III. SIR ADAM GORDON, Lieut. -Col. of 6th battalion of militia, b. 
 6 May, 1781, d. unm., 21 May, 1843, and was succeeded by his 
 nephew, William George.
 
 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 51 
 
 IV. SIR WILLIAM GEORGE JOHNSON, of Twickenham, Co. Middle- 
 sex, an officer in the Royal Artillery, b. 19 Dec., 1830, succeeded as 
 4th Baronet, at the decease of his uncle in May, 1843. 
 
 They too have preserved their position, but at the 
 end of the lineage, in Burke, there is no Seat given, as 
 usual, and we presume, therefore, the Baronet is land- 
 less, and has no compensation for the wide manors his 
 family once held on the pleasant Mohawk. 
 
 Sometimes, when no lineage of a family is given, we 
 trace the name through various intermarriages. This 
 is the case with the DE LANCEYS, Huguenots from 
 France, so prominent in New York, until they were 
 crushed by the confiscations which followed the Revo- 
 lution. One of them, as we see above in the Johnson 
 family, is mentioned as marrying a son of Sir John 
 Johnson. The name occurs again in another family, 
 for after the death of her first husband we find her mar- 
 rying Lieut-General Sir Hudson Lowe, K. C. B., so 
 well known as the Governor of St. Helena during the 
 imprisonment of Napoleon. Her brother, Sir William 
 Howe De Lancey, died at Waterloo on the Staff of 
 the Duke of Wellington. Another of the family mar- 
 ried Lieut.-Gen. Sir William Draper, and another Field- 
 Marshal Sir David Dundas. Another is recorded as 
 the wife of Sir Julius Clifton, Bart. In this way it is 
 that here and there we meet with traces of this old 
 loyalist family. 
 
 At the close of the last century, SIR JOHN TEMPLE 
 came to this country as British Consul-General. He 
 married in Boston, and his descendants, in different 
 lines, under various names, are widely diffused through 
 New York. This is Burke's record : 
 
 SIR JOHN TEMPLE, born in 1730, m. 20 Jan., 1767, Elizabeth, dau. 
 of James Bowdoin, Esq., Governor of the State of Massachusetts, and 
 had issue.
 
 52 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 GRENVILLE, his successor. 
 
 James, b. 7 June, 1776, who assumed the surname of Bowdoin, 
 pursuant to the desire of his maternal uncle. 
 
 Elizabeth Bowdoin, m. in 1786, Thomas Lindell Winthrop, Esq., 
 Boston. 
 
 Augusta, m. to Lieut.-Col. Palmer, of 8th Hussars. 
 
 SIR GRENVILLE TEMPLE, b. 10 Oct., 1768, m. 20 March, 1797, 
 Elizabeth, dau. of Col. George Watson of Boston, and had issue, 
 
 GRENVILLE, late Baronet. 
 
 Sir John Temple died in 1796, and his monument 
 can now be seen in the chancel of St. Paul's Church, 
 New York, with the arms and punning motto, TEMPLA 
 QUAM DILECTA (the opening words of the Latin.version 
 of Ps. Ixxxiv.), " Temples, how lovely ! " 
 
 In the romantic story of Major Andre we learn that 
 it was at the residence of BEVERLEY ROBINSON, oppo- 
 site West Point, that he met Arnold. The house is 
 still standing unaltered from that day. The owner's 
 family were well-known loyalists. Emigrating from 
 England in the reign of Charles II., Christopher Rob- 
 inson was Secretary of the Colony, and his son, John 
 Robinson, was President of the Council of Virginia, 
 and married Catherine, dau. of Robert Beverley, Esq. 
 
 From one of his sons the New York family de- 
 scended. At the close of the Revolution they retired 
 to New Brunswick and Canada, where Burke thus gives 
 the history of the present head : 
 
 SIR JOHN BEVERLEY ROBINSON, BART., of Beverley House, in the 
 city of Toronto, Chancellor of Trinity College in the Province. 
 
 Sir John was appointed Acting Attorney-General of Upper Canada, 
 in November, 1812 ; Solicitor-General in March, 1815 ; Attorney- 
 General in February, 1818; and Chief Justice of Upper Canada, 13 
 July, 1829. In November, 1850, he was appointed a Companion of 
 the Order of the Bath, and created a Baronet, by patent, September 
 21, 1854.
 
 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 53 
 
 Another branch remained in New York, where the 
 name is still held in honor in the community. 
 
 In turning over the old volumes of Burke's Peerage, 
 we find the lineage of another former New York family, 
 the INGRAHAMS. 
 
 The records of this family begin with Ranulf, the son 
 of Ingel'ram or Ing'ram, who was sheriff of Nottingham 
 and Derby in the beginning of the reign of Henry II., 
 as were his sons Robert and William. Robert In- 
 gram, Knight, whose arms are painted at Temple 
 Newsam, was of so great eniinency in the reign of 
 Henry III. that the Prior and Convent of Lenton 
 granted to him a yearly rent out of their lands at 
 Sheynton and Nottingham for his military services in 
 their defence. 
 
 In the reign of Charles I. Sir Arthur Ingram, of 
 Temple Newsam, was prominent as a Cavalier. On 
 the triumph of the Parliament, he saved his estate by 
 the fact that he married a daughter of Lord Viscount 
 Fairfax, of Gilling, and his eldest son had married a 
 daughter of Montague, Earl of Manchester, both Par- 
 liamentary leaders. Sir Arthur died in 1655, six years 
 before the restoration of Charles II. On the King's 
 return, he created Sir Arthur's eldest son Henry, Vis- 
 count Irwin.* The title remained in the family until 
 1778, when, on the death of Charles Ingram, ninth Vis- 
 count Irwin, without sons, it became extinct. Hence- 
 forth the history of the family is carried on in Burke's 
 Landed Gentry. The estate descended to the Mar- 
 chioness of Hertford, daughter of the last Viscount, and 
 from her to her sister, Mrs. Meynell, whose son took 
 
 * The portraits of Sir Arthur Ingram, in Cavalier dress, of his son Henry, first 
 Viscount Irwin, in full armor, and his grandson Arthur, second Viscount Irwin, in 
 half armor (all nearly full length), are in the collection of the Bishop of California, 
 in San Francisco.
 
 54 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the name of Ingram, and his son is now the possessor 
 of Temple Newsam. 
 
 The American Ingrahams the spelling of the name 
 having been changed after their settlement in this coun- 
 try are descended from Arthur Ingram, second son of 
 Sir Arthur and youngest brother of the first Viscount. 
 He married a daughter of Sir John Mallory. At the 
 Revolution, the New York branch of this family was 
 represented by Duncan Ingraham, Esq., of Greenvale 
 Farm, near Poughkeepsie, Dutchess Co. He was a 
 loyalist, and went to Europe, where he resided, in 
 Paris, until the peace of 1784. President John Adams 
 frequently mentions him in his diary, in Paris, in 1779. 
 In 1784 he returned to this country, conformed to the 
 Government, and died at his place, on the Hudson, 
 in 1807. This family is now extinct in New York, and 
 is represented by Commodore Duncan N. Ingraham, 
 of Charleston, South Carolina, who was distinguished, 
 in 1853, by his gallantry in the harbor of Smyrna, in 
 the controversy with the Austrian vessels of war. 
 
 We turn to another New York family the PIERRE- 
 FONTS. They are of Norman origin, Robert de Pierre- 
 pont having come over to England with the Conqueror. 
 Pierrepbnt was a designation taken by the head of the 
 family, from a stone bridge built by him in Normandy 
 in the time of Charlemagne, to take the place of a ferry, 
 which was then considered a great achievement. 
 
 In the time of Edward I., Sir Henry de Pierrepont, 
 then possessed of large landed estates, married Annona 
 de Manvers, by whom he acquired the Lordship of 
 Holme, in the County of Nottingham, now called 
 
 HoLME-PlERREPONT. 
 
 Sir George Pierrepont of Holme-Pierrepont had three 
 sons, from the elder of whom descended the Dukes of 
 Kingston. From the younger son was descended
 
 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 55 
 
 John Pierrepont, who came to Roxbury, Mass., and his 
 eldest son was the Rev. James Pierrepont, of New 
 Haven. During the American Revolution, the second 
 Duke of Kingston died without issue, when the eldest 
 line of the descendants of Rev. James Pierrepont, of 
 New Haven, became rightful heir to the dignities and 
 estates. The brilliant and celebrated Duchess of 
 Kingston, whose marriage with the Duke the collateral 
 relatives attempted to set aside, sent over to America 
 and offered her influence in sustaining the cause of the 
 American heirs. It was, however, during the troubles 
 of the Revolution, and no steps. were taken. 
 
 Lady Frances Pierrepont, sister of the second Duke 
 of Kingston, married Sir Philip Meadows, and her son 
 assumed the name of Pierrepont, and took the estates, 
 though he could not inherit the titles. 
 
 Of the branch in this country, some of our most em- 
 inent men have been descendants of James Pierrepont 
 of New Haven. One daughter married the eminent 
 divine, President Jonathan Edwards. The celebrated 
 Pierrepont Edwards was her son. Judge Ogden Ed- 
 wards of New York, Governor Henry W. Edwards of 
 Connecticut, and Timothy Dwight, D.D., President of 
 Yale College, were her grandsons. The New Haven 
 branch still occupies the old mansion on part of the 
 estate granted to James Pierrepont in 1684, and has 
 the original portrait of their ancestor painted in 1711. 
 
 The New York branch is represented in Brooklyn, 
 Long Island, and at Pierrepont Manor, in Western 
 New York, by the descendants of Hezekiah, sixth son 
 of the Rev. James Pierrepont. 
 
 Perhaps three of the most historical English descents 
 of American families are those of the Barclays, Liv- 
 ingstons, and Lawrences, of New York. Each of them 
 has a proved pedigree of more than 700 years. The
 
 56 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 BARCLAYS prove their descent from Theobald de Ber- 
 keley in i no. From him they are traced down* to 
 David Barclay, of Urie, of whom Burke gives the fol- 
 lowing notice : 
 
 David Barclay, born in 1610, Colonel under Gustavus Adolphus, 
 purchased, in 1648, the estate of Urie, from William, Earl Marischal. 
 He was eldest son of David Barclay, of Mathers, the representative 
 of the old home of BARCLAY, of Mathers. He m. Katherine, daughter 
 of Sir Robert Gordon, of Gordonstown, and had, with two daughters, 
 Lucy and Jean, m. to Sir William Cameron, of Lochiel, three sons, 
 Robert, his heir. John, who settled in America, and David. 
 
 From this son John is derived the American branch. 
 It is curious to see how soon the line became mingled 
 up with the familiar names of our old New York fami- 
 lies. We will trace it for a couple of generations. The 
 great grandson of John Barclay was the Rev. HENRY 
 BARCLAY, D.D., Rector of Trinity Church, New York, 
 who died 1 764. He married Mary, daughter of Colonel 
 Rutgers, of New York, and had issue- 
 Cornelia, m. Col. Stephen De Lancey. 
 
 Anna, m. Col. Beverley Robinson. 
 
 Thomas, m. Susan, daughter of Peter De Lancey, 
 Esq. 
 
 The children of Thomas Barclay were 
 
 Eliza, m. Schuyler Livingston, Esq. 
 
 De Lancey, m. Mary, widow of Gurney Barclay, 
 M.P. 
 
 Susan, m. Peter G. Stuyvesant, Esq. 
 
 Thomas, m. Catharine, daughter of Walter Chan- 
 ning, Esq., of Boston. 
 
 We turn now to the LIVINGSTON family of New York. 
 Few American families have so distinguished a lineage. 
 The history of the elder branch, the attainted Earl of 
 
 * "Nicoll's Peerages" and "Holgate's Genealogies."
 
 TRACKS OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 57 
 
 Linlithgow, can be found in Burke's Extinct Peerages. 
 The present representative of the family in Scotland is 
 a Baronet, and his lineage is given by Burke in his 
 Peerage. 
 
 The family is descended from Livingius, a Hungarian 
 nobleman, who came over to Scotland in the suite of 
 Margaret, Queen of King Malcolm III., about 1068. 
 From that time their names were prominent in all the 
 political and warlike movements in Scotland. Sir 
 Alexander Livingston, of Calendar, was Judiciary of 
 Scotland. His son, Sir James Livingston, had the 
 appointment of Captain of the Castle of Stirling, with 
 the tuition of the young King, James II., committed to 
 him by his father. He died about 1467. 
 
 The family then received the title of Lord Livingston, 
 which, in the seventh Lord Livingston, was merged in 
 the higher title of Earl of Linlithgow, which title was 
 transmitted through five descendants, till it was for- 
 feited with the estates in 1/15, for their devotion to the 
 Stuarts. Unlike most of these attainted Scotch titles, 
 it has not been restored, as the present heir declines 
 the barren and expensive honor. 
 
 In 1647, Sir James Livingston was created Earl of 
 Newburgh, a title which has since been absorbed in 
 the old Venitian House of GIUSTINIAM, with which 
 they intermarried. The sixth Lord Livingston fought 
 for Queen Mary at Langdale, and his sister, Mary 
 Livingston, was one of the four Marys who were 
 maids of honor to the Queen. As an old Scotch song 
 recounts it 
 
 i; Last night the Queen had four Maries, 
 To-night she'll hae but three, 
 There was Mary Seaton, and Mary Beaton, 
 And Mary Livingstone, and me."
 
 58 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 In March, 1650, John Livingston was sent as a Com- 
 missioner to Breda, to negotiate terms for the restora- 
 tion of Charles II. He died in 1692, and his son, 
 Robert Livingston, emigrated to America in 1676. He 
 became, July 18, 1683, the first proprietor of the Manor 
 of Livingston, on the Hudson. From that day the 
 name has been identified with every movement in the 
 State, and (what should be a patent of nobility in this 
 country) it is found among the Signers of the Declara- 
 tion of Independence. 
 
 We finish this list with the LAWRENCE family of New 
 York. Their first ancestor of whom mention is made 
 in the English Records, was Robert Laurens, Knight 
 of Ashton Hall, Lancastershire. He accompanied 
 Richard Cceur de Lion in his famous Crusade to 
 Palestine, and distinguished himself at the siege of St. 
 Jean d'Acre in 1191, by being the first to plant the 
 banner of the Cross on the battlements of that town. 
 For this he received the honor of knighthood from 
 King Richard, and also a coat of arms with the fire 
 cross (cross raguly gules), which is borne by his des- 
 cendants in this country to this day. His family inter- 
 married with that of the Washingtons, his grandson, 
 Sir James Laurens, having married Matilda Washing- 
 ton, in the reign of Henry III. 
 
 After this the family became eminent in England. 
 Sir William Lawrence, born in 1395, was killed in bat- 
 tle in France, in 1455, with Lionel, Lord Welles. Sir 
 John Lawrence was one of the commanders of a wing 
 of the English army at Flodden Field, under Sir Ed- 
 mund Howard, in 1513. Sir John Lawrence, the ninth 
 in lineal descent from the above Sir Robert Laurens, 
 possessed thirty-five manors, the revenue of which, in 
 1491, amounted to ,6,000 sterling/*??' annum. Hav- 
 ing, however, killed a Gentleman Usher of Henry VII.,
 
 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 59 
 
 he was outlawed and died in France, when, Ashton 
 Hall and his other estates passed, by royal decree, to 
 his relatives Lord Monteagle and Lord Gerard. 
 
 Another member of this family was Henry Lawrence, 
 one of the Patentees of Connecticut in 1635, with Lord 
 Say and Seal, Lord Brook, Sir Arthur Hasselrigg, 
 Richard Saltonstall, George Fenwick, and Henry Dar- 
 ley. They commissioned John Winthrop, Jr., as Gov- 
 ernor over this Territory, with the following instruc- 
 tions : " To provide able men for making fortifications 
 and building houses at the mouth of the Connecticut 
 River and the harbor adjoining ; first, for their own 
 present accommodation, and then such houses as may 
 receive men of quality, which latter houses we would 
 have builded within the fort." The Patentees all in- 
 tended to accompany Governor Winthrop to America, 
 but were prevented by a decree of Charles I. 
 
 This Henry Lawrence was in great distinction in 
 England during Cromwell's time. Born in 1600, he 
 became a Fellow Commoner of Emanuel College, Cam- 
 bridge, in 1622, but having taken the Puritan side he 
 was obliged to withdraw for a time to Holland. In 
 1641 he was a member of Parliament for Westmore- 
 land, but when the life of the king was threatened, he 
 withdrew from the Independents. In a curious old 
 pamphlet printed in the year 1660, entitled, "The 
 mystery of the good old cause, briefly unfolded in a 
 catalogue of the members of the late Long Parliament, 
 that held office both civil and military, contrary to the 
 self-denying ordinance "-is the following passage: 
 " Henry Lawrence, a member of the Long Parliament, 
 fell off at the murder of His Majesty, for which the 
 Protector, with great zeal, declared that a neutral spirit 
 was more to be abhorred than a Cavalier spirit, and 
 that such men as he were not fit to be used in such a
 
 6O TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 day as that when God was cutting down Kingship root 
 and branch. Yet he came into play again, and con- 
 tributed much to the setting up of the Protector ; for 
 which worthy service he was made and continued Lord 
 President of the Protector's Council, being also one of 
 the Lords of the other House."* 
 
 He married Amy, daughter of Sir Edward Peyton, 
 Bart., of Iselham in Cambridgeshire. He leased his 
 estates at St. Ives, from the year 1631 to 1636, to 
 Oliver Cromwell, to whom he was second cousin. He 
 was twice returned as member of Parliament for Hert- 
 fordshire, in 1653 and 1654, and once for Colchester- 
 borough, in Essex, in 1656 ; his son Henry representing 
 Caernarvonshire the same year. He was President of 
 the Council in 1656, and gazetted as " Lord of the other 
 House," in December, 1657. On the death of Crom- 
 well he proclaimed his son Richard as his successor. In 
 Thurloe's State Papers, vol. 2, is a letter to him from the 
 Queen of Bohemia (sister of King Charles), recom- 
 mending Lord Craven to his good offices. From the 
 tenor of the letter it appears that they were in the habit 
 of corresponding. In a Harleian Manuscript, No. 
 1460, there is a drawing of all the ensigns and trophies 
 won in battle by Oliver, which is dedicated to his 
 councillors, and ornamented with their arms. Amongst 
 these are those of Henry Lawrence, the Lord Presi- 
 dent, with a cross, raguly gules, the crest, a fish's tail 
 or semi-dolphin. A portrait of the President is inserted 
 in Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. His monu- 
 ment, not yet effaced, is in the chapel of St. Margaret, 
 alias Thele, in Hertfordshire. f 
 
 John, William, and Thomas Lawrence, who came to 
 New York in 1635, were cousins of the above Henry 
 Lawrence, being descended from John Lawrence, who 
 
 * " Harleian Miscellany," vol. vi., p. 489. f Ibid.
 
 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 6 1 
 
 died in 1538, and was buried in the Abbey of Ram- 
 sey. . They became at once large landholders in the 
 Colony, and from these the present New York family 
 is descended. 
 
 But we must close this list. We have selected a few 
 merely as specimens of a numerous class. Were we 
 to attempt to include all who have historical pedigrees 
 in England, the time would fail us and this unpretend- 
 ing article swell into a volume. Through all the 
 original States were settled families who brought with 
 them the best blood of the Old Country. We might 
 refer to the Gardiners of Maine the Bowdoins 
 and Winthrops of Massachusetts the Saltonstalls 
 and Hillhouses of Connecticut the Constables, and 
 Montgomerys of New York the Throckmortons 
 of New Jersey the Cadwalladers of Pennsylvania 
 the Rodneys of Delaware the Calyerts and Carrolls 
 of Maryland the Washingtons and Lees of Virginia 
 the Stanlys of North Carolina and the Middle- 
 tons and Pinckneys of South Carolina. Most of these 
 names have been for generations " familiar as house- 
 hold words " in the ears of our people, and are inter- 
 woven with all that is historical in our land. In very 
 many cases the younger branches of distinguished 
 families sought here a field of enterprise and action 
 which was denied them at home, and thus their blood 
 has been widely mingled with that of our people. 
 And sometimes, generations afterwards, as in the case 
 of Lord Fairfax and the present Lord Aylmer in Can- 
 ada, the failure of the elder branch in England sent 
 titles to be inherited by the collateral relatives on this 
 continent. 
 
 It will be noticed that in this article we have con- 
 fined ourselves entirely to English lineage, though a 
 similar story might have been written of every one of
 
 62 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 the great Continental nations. Each furnished its pro- 
 portion to people our land. Nor did they all come as 
 mere adventurers. We look at the portrait in armor 
 of the old Governor Stuyvesant, painted by Van Dyck, 
 and it realizes our idea of the stern soldier who had 
 shed his blood on the battle-fields of the Low Coun- 
 tries before he settled on the banks of the Hudson. 
 In the same way Van Courtlandt had distinguished 
 himself in arms, as the Beekmans had done in diplo- 
 macy,- receiving as their reward, from the king of Ba- 
 varia, the coat-of-arms they now bear. 
 
 The possessors of many a knightly name, whose 
 war-cry once rang over the battle-fields of the Cruises, 
 are now quietly discharging their duties as citizens in 
 this great Republic, and not unfrequently the noble 
 from beyond the Rhine has broken away from the 
 conventionalities of his own land, and when he took 
 upon him the oath of citizenship, like Steuben and De 
 Zeng, has laid aside his baron's title to assume his 
 part in this great experiment of Equality and Self- 
 government. 
 
 But in this land of their adoption their very names 
 often suffered a change which would render them un- 
 familiar in the ears of those who first bore them to this 
 continent. Thus De la Montaigne has passed into 
 Montanya ; and who in the name of Carow can recog- 
 nize the Querault of French minstrelsy, or in Hasbrouck 
 a descendant of the chivalrous Asbroques of St. Reny ? 
 
 These may be called the " dottings of history." It 
 may seem unimportant to us as to what are the des- 
 cents or intermarriages of families, but this is far from 
 being the case. It is by these inquiries only that we 
 can often determine what are most likely to be the pro- 
 minent intellectual or moral traits of a race. An infu- 
 sion of new blood into a family may alter its character-
 
 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 63 
 
 istics for generations. The royal family of Austria still 
 exhibit the long face and peculiar shape of the jaw 
 which was derived from their intermarriage with a 
 Polish princess two centuries ago. And why may not 
 mental and moral peculiarities be stamped upon a race 
 in the same way ? One family is distinguished in war, 
 another in literature, another in statesmanship, and an- 
 other in art; and we can trace through the whole line 
 the same kind of talent developed. 
 
 The settlement of this new continent is often putting 
 a "great gulf" between families who have made it 
 their home, and the memorials and reminiscences they 
 left behind them on the other side of the ocean. Yet 
 these traditions and historical facts should be chronicled 
 for the benefit of those who are to succeed them. 
 From these data only can we understand those mys- 
 terious laws of organization by which either physical 
 or mental or moral traits are transmitted in families. 
 
 And this subject is now receiving increased attention 
 in our country. In New England a quarterly periodi- 
 cal is devoted to genealogical records, while numerous 
 volumes have been published, each comprising the 
 history of some single family. Will not, then, the 
 families which are now growing up in our land, branch- 
 es of some parent tree which is still fixed in the soil of 
 the old country, feel an interest in tracing their blood 
 as it flows through channels on different sides of the 
 Atlantic ? If so, these brief notes may not be without 
 their interest or use to the descendents of THE OLD 
 REGIME. 
 
 Year after year the historical families of New York 
 are fading away and disappearing. " What " the 
 writer once asked the Prince de Joinville, " has become 
 of the Rohans and Montmorencies and the other great 
 feudal families of France?" "Gone," said the prince,
 
 64 TRACES OF AMERICAN LINEAGE IN ENGLAND. 
 
 most energetically, " gone, never to be revived. The 
 abolition of the law of Primogeniture has destroyed 
 them forever." And so it has been, on a smaller scale, 
 with the Colonial families of New York. Their for- 
 tunes have been exhausted by the division of estates, 
 until their old ancestral seats have passed into the 
 hands of strangers and their names are fading out from 
 the land. 
 
 Perhaps, in future years, the sketches we have given, 
 may be read with pleasure by their descendants who 
 bear their honored names. For them the past has a 
 record from which they need not shrink. The feeling 
 which prompts them to dwell upon the generations that 
 have gone is one of which they have no reason to be 
 ashamed. It is sanctioned both by reason and religion. 
 
 There is a philosophy in those words of Daniel 
 Webster : 
 
 " It is wise for us to recur to the history of our an- 
 cestors. We are true to ourselves only when we act 
 with becoming pride for the blood we inherit, and 
 which we are to transmit to those who shall soon fill 
 our places." 
 
 WASHINGTON'S RESIDENCE AS PRESIDENT, FRAN:<LIN SQUARE AND CHERRY ST., 1789.
 
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