DAVID HOSACK. 



1769-1835. 



IN the early part of the nineteenth century no citizen of 

 New York was held in higher honour than was De Witt Clin- 

 ton. Closely associated with Clinton in the leadership of the 

 civic life of the day, but holding rigidly aloof from politics, 

 was Dr. Hosack. " It was not infrequently remarked by our 

 citizens," said his pupil and associate, John W. Francis, " that 

 Clinton, Hosack, and Hobart were the tripod on which our 

 city stood." Dr. Hosack was one of the founders of the New 

 York Historical Society and its president from 1820 to 1828, 

 He was also instrumental in founding an art society, was prom- 

 inent in various scientific, literary, and humane undertakings, 

 and, if his lead had been followed, New York would have to- 

 day a botanic garden equal to any in a European metropolis. 



David Hosack was the eldest of seven children, and was 

 born August 31, 1769, in the house of his maternal grand- 

 father, No. 44 Frankfort Street, New York. His father, Alex- 

 ander Hosack, was a native of Morayshire (Elgin), Scotland. 

 Having entered the British army, he was, at the age of twenty- 

 one, serving as an officer in the artillery. He came to America 

 in the force under General Sir Jeffrey Amherst, and was at the 

 retaking of Louisburg. April i, 1768, he married in New 

 York Jane, daughter of Francis Arden. Her father's family 

 came from England, while that of her mother belonged to that 

 valuable contingent of Huguenot citizens which America re- 

 ceived as a consequence of the revocation of the Edict of 

 Nantes. 



Young David, after receiving the ordinary elements of edu- 

 cation, was placed at fourteen or fifteen years of age in the 

 academy of the Rev. Dr. Alexander McWhorter, of Newark, 

 N. J., where he pursued the study of Latin and other usual 

 branches and began to learn Greek. But as Dr. Peter Wilson, 



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