82 THE MORGAN HORSE 



at Randolph until 1793 ; and as he was a poor man and owned no 

 real estate in Springfield, it is not likely that he owned and left any 

 horses there." 



It was Mr. Linsley, following Justin Morgan, 2d, who was sub- 

 ject to the " grave mistake", instead of Mr. Weir. It is quite prob- 

 able that had the " Albany Cultivator" published in full the letter of 

 John Morgan the error in dates would have been corrected at that 

 time. 



Right here let us settle the question, who was the DeLancey 

 that bred and lost True Briton? The following letter written to the 

 "Spirit of the Times", in 1843, by the distinguished horseman, Ben- 

 jamin O. Tayloe of Virginia, over his nom de plume, " Observer," is 

 given in full. The information, as will be seen, comes from the 

 famous novelist, J. Fenimore Cooper, whose wife was a daughter of 

 Col. James DeLancey's youngest brother : 



"Mr. J. S. Skinner has complimented the undersigned by a ref- 

 erence to him as a testimonial of his usual accuracy in details of this 

 nature. The following remarks by J. Fenimore Cooper, Esq., in 

 justice to him, as well as to the subject, I copy in extenso, not 

 doubting the correctness of Mr. Cooper's narrative in any one* par- 

 ticular. Its extraordinary detail, and being, too, from the pen of the 

 distinguished author, sheds interest upon a subject that would other- 

 wise be uninviting. 



"In Mr. Skinner's treatise on 'The Horse', prefacing the Amer- 

 ican edition of Youatt, Wildair is mentioned as having 'been im- 

 ported by Gen. DeLancey'. 'This', says Mr. Cooper, 'is a mistake. 

 Wildair was imported by James DeLancey, the gentleman who is the 

 head of the family, inheriting the estate of his father, Gov. DeLan- 

 cey. There were two Gen. De Lanceys, father and son, and both 

 named Oliver. The father died in 1877, in command of the British 

 troops then in occupation of Long Island, his rank being that of 

 brigadier. The son lived to be a full general, dying within the last 

 twenty-five years. At his death he must have been one of the oldest 

 generals in the British army. This Gen. De Lancey was a cavalry 

 officer, commanding the Seventeenth Light Dragoons some forty 

 years. He succeeded Andre as adjutant-general of the British army. 

 It has probably been owing to the cavalry propensities of this gen- 

 tleman that you have been led into the error. 



"'The De Lancey family had three branches, descended from 

 brothers, the sons of the Huguenot. The New York branch was the 

 oldest The Oliver branch, as it was called, was the next, and the 



