John Delafield was an English-born American merchant and underwriter. He was engaged in mercantile business, and served as president of the United Insurance Company and as director of New York branch of United States Bank.
Background
John Delafield was born on March 16, 1748 in London, England. He was the son of John and Martha (Dell) Delafield.
Delafield was among the first men of English birth to establish themselves in America after the close of the Revolution. His family had lived in England since the Norman Conquest, having been, as the name suggests, of French origin. His father was a prosperous dealer in cheese. One of his sisters married William Arnold, customs collector on the Isle of Wight, and was the mother of Doctor Thomas Arnold of Rugby, while another sister became the teacher of the six-year-old boy Thomas after the death of his father.
Career
Delafield as a young man had accumulated property and at thirty-five was prepared to emigrate to the United States and cast his lot with the new Republic. The manner of his coming had in it something of the spice of adventure. He took passage on a British ship that carried letters of marque; during the voyage a French merchantman was seized and Delafield received 100 as his share of the prize money. He arrived at New York, which was still held by British troops, in the spring of 1783, bringing with him the first copy of the provisional treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain to reach America.
Shortly after the British evacuation of New York, Delafield went into trade and conducted his affairs so shrewdly that within fifteen years he became one of the wealthiest men in the city. His home on Long Island, just across the East River from New York, was among the best-known mansions of its period.
In 1798 he retired from mercantile business, but later became president of the United Insurance Company.
During the War of 1812, when American merchantmen were at the mercy of both British and French war vessels he shared the fate of all American underwriters who had offered marine insurance; to meet the losses he was compelled to sacrifice his property. Stripped of his wealth, Delafield found himself far less favorably situated than when he landed at New York thirty years before.
At this time his oldest son John Delafield, while technically a prisoner in London because of his American citizenship, was permitted to engage in banking. Thus in a few years the family fortunes were measurably retrieved.
His personal example in assuming obligations that were not legally his as to the payment of losses to policyholders in his insurance companies was of great value in the early days of American underwriting practice. It was the irony of fate that he, a man of English birth and antecedents, should suffer in America from British depredations on American shipping, although he retained strong family ties and associations with the mother country.
Achievements
John Delafield is remembered as one of the original directors of the United Insurance Company of New York, organized in 1787 by Alexander Hamilton and others.
Delafield was also the founder of a line that was notable in New York to the second and third generation, in commerce, in finance, in the army, and in the medical profession.
Connections
Delafield was married to Ann Hallett, the daughter of Joseph Hallett, a Revolutionary officer. They had nine sons and four daughters. Two of their sons died young.
