482 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



voost, he was elected again to that body. The following year he was 

 re-elected, and continued in office until 1737; a service of twenty-six 

 years in all. In 17 16, being a vestryman of Trinity church, he con- 

 tributed ^50, the amount of his salary as Representative to the General 

 Assembly, to buy a city clock for that church, the first ever erected in 

 New York. To him and Mr. John Moore, his partner, the city is also 

 indebted for the introduction of fire engines, in 1731."" He was one of 

 the principal benefactors of the French church, Du St. Esprit, estab- 

 lished in New York by the refugees who fled upon the Revocation of 

 the Edict of Nantz, and a warm friend of the French Huguenots at New 

 Rochelle. The following letter addressed by him, 1591, to his friend 

 Alexander Allaire, still preserved among the public records at New 



Rochelle. 



Nietx York, lk 27 Jtliet, 1691. 

 Mons. Allaire: 



Monsieur Notre Amy Mons. Bonheiler, avant de partir rne donnera ordre qu'en 

 cas quil vinsse a niourir il soit fait donnation de ses terres a. sa filleule votre fille, 

 Sy vous pouvez faire quelque Benefice des dits terres. Soit a, Couper des arbres 

 ou a faire des foins sur les prairies vous le pouves a l'excluskm de qui quese soit, 

 Je suis. Mous. votre tre humble serviteur, 



Etienne de Lanoey, 

 Ceu est la veretable coppie de l'original.< 5 



He was a vestrymen of Trinity church, New York at the time of his 

 death, in 1741. He married January 23d, 1700, Anne Van Cortlandt, 

 daughter of Stephanus Van Cortlandt (whose family was then one of 

 the most opulent and extensive in the Province. Stephen deLancey at 

 his death in 1741 left issue surviving, James, Peter, Oliver, and Stephen 

 his youngest son, who died a bachelor, Susan and Anne. The eldest 

 son, James de Lancey, a man of great talent, was born in the City of 

 New York, 27th November, 1703, and received his education at the 

 University of Cambridge, England. He was a fellow commoner of 

 Corpus Christi College (where he was styled the "handsome Ameri- 

 can") and studied law in the Temple. In 1725, he returned to New 

 York, and on the decease of John Barbarie, his uncle by marriage, was 

 appointed by George II. to succeed him in the Provincial Council. He 

 took his seat at the board, January 29th, 1729, and held it to April 9th, 

 1733, when he was appointed Chief Justice of New York and continued 

 so the remainder of his life. In 1753, on the accession of Sir Danvers 

 Osborn as Governor, in the place of George Clinton, he received the 

 commission of Lieutenant-Governor, which had been conferred upon 



a Miscellaneous works, by Gen. de Peyster ; De Peyster Gen. Ref. p. 54. 

 b Copied from original MSS. inRec. of New Rochelle. 



