James De Lancey was an American officer and politician who served as a sheriff of Westchester County and member of the General Assembly of Nova Scotia for the Town of Annapolis.
Background
James De Lancey was born in 1746 in New York. He was the fourth son of Peter De Lancey and Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Cadwallader Colden, lieutenant-governor of New York just before the Revolution. Peter De Lancey, "Peter of the Mills, " was a brother of James De Lancey, chief justice and lieutenant-governor of the province, and was the second son of Stephen, the founder of the family in America.
In 1782 removed with his family to Nova Scotia, where he settled at Annapolis on a farm a part of which is still held by his descendants.
His historic house sits prominently on a knoll with views of the Annapolis River.
Career
De Lancey served as sheriff of Westchester County from 1769 to 1776 and as an officer in the militia. Because of his loyalist sympathies, he was forced to leave the area and went to New York City, where he and his uncle, Oliver De Lancey, raised a loyalist unit known as "De Lancey's Brigade", "De Lancey’s Cowboys", and "De Lancey's refugees". De Lancey himself was called the "Outlaw of the Bronx".
Forces under Delancy ambushed and killed Colonel Christopher Greene and Major Ebenezer Flagg of the Rhode Island Regiment of the Continental Army at the Battle of Pine's Bridge on May 14, 1781. From one account of the attack, "his body was found in the woods, about a mile distant from his tent, cut, and mangled in the most shocking way. " A common conjecture is that this indignity was retribution for his leading black soldiers against the British Crown.
Around the start of 1783, following the Patriot victory in the American Revolution, he moved to Nova Scotia, settling at Round Hill in Annapolis County. De Lancey was elected to the provincial assembly after his brother Stephen was named to the province's Council; in 1794, James was also named to the Council by Governor Wentworth.
He resigned from his seat on the council in 1801 due to poor health.
Achievements
James De Lancey went down in history as a noted officer who led one of the best known and most feared of the loyalist units, the De Lancey's Brigade, during the American Revolution, and also as a prominent political figure in Nova Scotia.
Politics
De Lancey was a devout Loyalist.
He was a slave owner and was thwarted by Richard John Uniacke in De Lancey's efforts to have slavery legally recognized in Nova Scotia.
Personality
De Lancey was known as the "Commander of the Cowboys" by the loyalists and by the Patriots he was known as the "Outlaw of the Bronx".
Connections
In 1784, De Lancey married Martha Tippett, the daughter of William Tippett and Martha Hunt. They had had six sons and four daughters.
