Oliver De Lancey

Background

Oliver De Lancey was born on September 16, 1718 in New York City, New York, United States. He was the youngest son of Stephen De Lancey and Anne van Cortlandt.

Career

Like the other members of his family he was a successful merchant. For a time he was associated in business with his brother-in-law, John Watts. It was Oliver De Lancey’s fate to cooperate with his brother James, the chief justice and lieutenant-governor, in erecting the De Lancey party into a powerful position in New York provincial politics, to survive his brother into a period of entirely new conditions in contest with which the family “interest” was utterly wrecked, and finally himself to die in exile. He lacked entirely the far-sighted astuteness, the capacity for persistent pursuit of objects by indirect methods, and the urbanity of demeanor which characterized his leader-brother.

His contribution was made by vigor in action and in exploiting the prestige and formidable power of the family interest. The violence of his language and conduct in behalf of the faction opposed to Gov. Clinton was frequently referred to in the latter’s dispatches to England, with particular emphasis laid on the difficulty in finding lawyers willing to appear in court to prosecute for his words a person so nearly related to the chief justice of the province. These circumstances were mentioned in the famous Representation by the Lords of Trade to the Privy Council in the affairs of New York in 1751.

Oliver De Lancey was prominent in New York’s participation in the fourth intercolonial war, raising troops and commanding the provincial contingent in the Ticonderoga campaign of 1758. For such services he twice received votes of thanks from the Assembly of the province. He served as an alderman for the Out Ward from 1754 to 1757.

He was a member of the city delegation to the Assembly elected in 1759. At the close of 1760 he took his seat in the Council by virtue of a mandamus dated two years earlier, and was a member of that body until the end of the provincial period.

He was appointed receiver general in 1763, and in 1773 was colonel-in-chief of the Southern Military District. The notable contribution of his military career was in raising a brigade of fifteen hundred Loyalists “for the defense of Long Island and for other exigencies. ” Of these “De Lancey’s Battalions, ” two afterward took a brilliant part in the British campaigns in the south, while the third remained in Queens County during the whole period of hostilities. De Lancey himself, in chief command of this force as brigadier-general, remained in New York, and was the senior Loyalist officer in the British army in America. Patriot notice of his zeal was effectively shown by the sacking of his mansion at Bloomingdale in 1777 and by his inclusion in the New York Act of Attainder of 1779, by which his property was confiscated. On the other hand, Lord George Germain in a dispatch in 1780 commented on the satisfaction it must afford De Lancey to know that his services are approved by His Majesty”. After the war, in the proceedings in England for the benefit of the Loyalists, he received $125, 000 on a claim of $390, 000 loss.

Achievements

• Oliver De Lancey raised a brigade of fifteen hundred Loyalists “for the defense of Long Island and for other exigencies. ”

Works

More photos

• book

  • Statement Of The Case Of Lieutenant-general De Lancey...

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • Observations of Lieut. Gen. De Lancey, late barrack master general, upon the fourth, and supplement to the first, report of the Commissioners of Military Inquiry
  • Brief statement of the case of Lieutenant General De Lancey

Connections

His wife was Phila, daughter of Jacob Franks of Philadelphia. Of their children, two sons attained high office, one as chief justice of the Bahamas and governor of Tobago, and the other as adjutant general of the British army.

Father:

Stephen De Lancey

Mother:

Anne van Cortlandt

Wife:

Phila Franks