de Lancey family

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de Lancey family
Arms: Or, an eagle wings displayed, sable, charged on the breast with a shield azure, three tilting lances, or, in pale, points upward[1]
Parent familyde Lancy
Current regionEngland, United States, Canada
Place of originFrance
Connected familiesSchuyler, Van Cortlandt

The de Lancey family was a distinguished colonial American and British political and military family.

History[edit]

Of French origin, the de Lancey family was a Huguenot cadet branch of the House of Lancy, recognized in 1697 as part of the noblesse d'ancienne extraction (nobility of old extraction),[1] as its noble status had been proven since the 15th century. The earliest known head of the house, Guy de Lancy, was the first viscount of Laval and of Nouvion, and held those fiefs in 1432. His great-great-grandson, Charles II, the fifth viscount, had three sons, including his second son, Jacques, who converted to Protestantism.[2]

The grandson of Jacques de Lancy, Étienne, fled to London following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, where he obtained denization on March 11, 1686, after taking an oath of allegiance to James II and becoming a British subject.[1] He then sailed for New York, arriving on June 7, 1686, and obtaining denization on July 7. Anglicizing his name to "Stephen de Lancey," he married into the influential Van Cortlandt family and became a prominent merchant and member of the provincial assembly.[1] His eldest surviving son, James (1703–1760), became successively Chief Justice of New York and Lieutenant-Governor of the province.[1]

The De Lanceys remained one of the most prominent and politically influential families in the Province of New York until the American Revolution,[3] when they sided with the Loyalists and raised units of Loyalist troops.[1] Consequently, following the end of the conflict in 1783, their estates were confiscated and the family exiled to Britain and Canada.[3] The branch of the family descended from Oliver de Lancey (1718–1785), youngest son of Stephen Delancey, emigrated to Britain, several of its members becoming distinguished officers in the British Army.[1][2] While most of the family permanently left the United States following the Revolution, John Peter (1753–1828), the son of James De Lancey, resigned his commission in the British Army and returned to New York in 1789, having missed his homeland. His son, William H. DeLancey (1797–1865), served as the Provost (chief administrator) of the University of Pennsylvania and subsequently became the first Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Western New York.[1][2]

Family tree[edit]

The following genealogical tree illustrates the links among the more notable family members:[1][4][5][6]

  • Stephen De Lancey (1663–1741), m. 1700: Anne Van Cortlandt (1676–1742)
    • James (1703–1760), m. 1729: Anne Heathcote (1703–1778)
      • James Jr. (1732–1800), m. 1771: Margaret Allen
        • Charles Stephen (d. 1840)
        • James III (d. 1857)
      • Stephen II (d. 1795)
      • John Peter (1753–1828), m. 1785: Elizabeth Floyd (1759–1819)
        • Thomas James (1789–1822), m. Mary Ellison (1798–1842)
          • Thomas James II (1817–1859)
        • Susan Augusta (1792–1852), m. 1811: James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851)
        • Edward Floyd (1795–1820)
        • William Heathcote (1797–1865), m. 1820: Frances Munro (1797–1869)
          • Edward Floyd (1821–1905), m. 1848: Josephine Matilda De Zeng (1823–1865)
            • Edward Etienne (1859–1927), m. 1890: Lucia Cleveland Grannis (1872–1939)
              • Edwin Floyd (1893–1982)
              • William Heathcote III (1897–1961)
          • William Heathcote II (1837–1924)
    • Peter (1705–1770), m. 1737: Elizabeth Alice Colden (1721–1785)
      • Stephen (1738–1809)
      • John (1741–1830)
      • Peter (d. 1771)
      • James (1746–1804), m. 1784: Martha Tippett (1760–1837)
        • William (1783–1869)
        • Peter (1802–1882)
      • Oliver (1750–1820)
      • Warren (1761–1846)
    • Susannah (1707–1771), m. 1731: Vice-Admiral Peter Warren (1703–1752)[7]
    • Oliver (1718–1785), m. 1742: Phila Franks (1722–1811)
    • Anne (1723–1775), m. 1742: John Watts

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Jones, Thomas (1879). de Lancey, Edward Floyd (ed.). History of New York during the Revolutionary War, and of the leading events in the other colonies at that period. Vol. 1. New York: New York Historical Society. pp. 649–663. Retrieved 14 October 2023. These arms, originating before crests were introduced in heraldry, were modified, like his name, by Etienne de Lancey, on becoming a British subject, to make them more like English arms, most of which have crests...They are thus blazoned : — Arms: azure, a tilting lance proper, point upward, with a pennon argent bearing a cross gules, fringed, or, floating to the right, debruised of a fesse, or. Crest : a sinister arm in armor embowed, the hand grasping a tilting lance, pennon attached, both proper. Motto : Certum voto pete finem. Though they are given, as so modified, in English armories, the change was never officially registered in the English "College of Arms."
  2. ^ a b c Hamm, Margherita Arlina (1902). "IX. De Lancey". Famous families of New York; historical and biographical sketches of families which in successive generations have been identified with the development of the nation. Vol. 1. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. pp. 89–98. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  3. ^ a b Ranlet, Philip; Morris, Richard B. (April 1999). "Richard B. Morris's James DeLancey: Portrait in Loyalism". New York History. 80 (2): 185–210. JSTOR 23182484. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  4. ^ Genealogical record of the Saint Nicholas Society. New York. 1902. p. 81. Retrieved 14 October 2023.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  5. ^ Hockman, Anne Miller (1977). "Burial Grounds in the Mamaroneck Larchmont Area". Town of Mamaroneck, New York. Mamaroneck Historical Society. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
  6. ^ Hough, Franklin B. (1875). American biographical notes. Albany, New York. p. 81. Retrieved 15 October 2023.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ "The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera". Winterthur.org. Retrieved 14 October 2023.
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