James De Lancey was born in 1732 in New York City, in a house built by his grandfather, Stephen De Lancey, which later became famous as Fraunce's Tavern. He was the eldest son of Lieutenant-Governor James De Lancey and Anne Heathcote.
During his young manhood in England he had acquired the sporting tastes of the period.
De Lancey was educated at Eton and Cambridge.
On leaving the University De Lancey entered the army, reaching the rank of captain. He is said to have served as aide to Abercrombie in the Lake George campaign of 1758, and was certainly with Prideaux and Johnson at the capture of Fort Niagara in 1759. His military activities, however, were brought to a close by the sudden death of his father, in 1760, which left him, before his thirtieth year, with the responsibilities of the headship of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families of the provincial aristocracy.
His responsibilities as head of the family comprehended not only the development of the extensive De Lancey estates and the conduct of the family mercantile business, but also the continuation of the political influence of the "De Lancey interest. "
At first, under the leadership of the son, who lacked his father's dominant official position in the province, and his powerful influence in London, the political fortunes of the family suffered a decline. At the Assembly elections in 1761 held in consequence of the demise of the Crown, the Livingston party scored a triumph. But the next seven years offered abundant opportunity for the younger De Lancey to exercise a gift for dexterous management which came to be recognized as not inferior to that of his father. Provincial resistance to the policies of the British government in these exciting days was a matter in which the aristocratic De Lancey faction and the Livingston "Whigs" could and did combine with great effect. Into this contest, however, an element new to the political life of the province, the unfranchised classes, ready for radical and dangerous extremes of action, had begun to force its way.
Taking advantage of the reaction against this encroachment of the masses, the De Lancey merchant ticket won the city delegation in the elections of 1768 over the "Whig lawyers, " and again in 1769 the Tory-Episcopalian De Lancey combination obtained control of the Assembly. At this time "Captain James" was offered and refused a seat at the Council.
At its last session, beginning in January 1775, his hand is to be traced in the papers addressed to King, Lords and Commons, strongly resisting the ministerial policy but as carefully refraining from commitments to revolutionary activity. His was one of the eleven negative votes - to ten in favor - upon the resolution to approve the proceedings of the First Continental Congress.
Shortly thereafter he sold out his stud and racing stable and, taking his family with him, retired to England. He was included with his uncle Oliver and his cousin James in the Confiscation Act of 1777 and the Act of Attainder of 1779, and thus the famous "De Lancey interest" became a casualty of the American Revolution.
On the conclusion of peace De Lancey became very active in proceedings for compensating the Loyalists. He and his uncle Oliver were among those who suffered the heaviest losses by the American success. In dealing with the commissioners appointed by Parliament the claimants acted through a board of Agents, and in this organization James De Lancey represented New York, served as vice-president of the Board, and, next to Sir William Pepperell, was the most active member. He claimed a loss of $284, 000 and was allowed $160, 000, an amount of grant in this connection exceeded only by those to Frederick Phillipse and Sir John Johnson.
His holdings of New York City real estate, situated on what is now the lower East Side, brought at the sale of forfeited estates shortly after 1783 something over $234, 000, a figure which bears a quaint ratio to its present-day valuation.
James De Lancey imported what are believed to have been the first English racehorses, or thoroughbreds, ever brought to New York, and in a few years assembled the largest and most select stud and stable of running horses in the Colony if not in the whole country. From Wildair, Lath, and the Cub Mare, imported by De Lancey, were descended most of the great racehorses of America prior to the Civil War period, while True Briton, another of his horses, was, according to the Morgan Horse Register, the progenitor of that famous breed of early American road and carriage horses.
Cadwallader R. Colden, historian of the early racing, called De Lancey "the Father of the New York Turf. "
De Lancey's wife, whom he had married in 1771, was Margaret Allen of Philadelphia, daughter of William Allen, chief justice of Pennsylvania, and granddaughter of Andrew Hamilton, of Zenger trial fame.
As his children died without issue the eldest male De Lancey line became extinct.
