* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * .. * * * * DE L AF I E L D * * * * * * •·· * * * * * * * * * * * * *·· * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * -4= * * * * * * * * * * * * Arms.- Sable, a cross flory (or patonce), or. Crest.- A dove displayed, holding in its beak an olive branch proper. $/!Ct/~~1/ti ;/t.J,tr~_ar . ~ ·t vf~ ~~~A~~ [C~~ 1~). w~ ft~~!« fiA:d41 ~~1 ~w,~. __ 1"l.-r~711 t~v 1 ~b f-1~~q ~J· t----1/ /j ~J~te_, ~~L.-.r /}l~ ~- DEL A'F IE L D The name variously written de la ffelde, Delafeld_and Delafield, is of Norman origin and ia found in England soon after the conquest. In Latin documents it was often spelled de ffelda. Though the spelling de la ffelde was the usual form until nearly the end of the fourteenth century it is interesting that the pro­ nunciation of the name ,vas then the same as it is· .today; for the nen in the E~gliah word "feld" was always a long ne 6 • Though the spelling has changed, the spoken name has not ch.anged._ Richard de la ffeld, first mentioned circa-li96-98, ances­ tor of the English and American family; received from.King John in 1201 large grants of land in Ireland .. A few:years .earlier he had bought other lands in county Dublin from one of the Irish ohieftains1 Dermot son of Gillemaholmoc. Part of his possessions in Ireland were named Glynsu.rd and these subsequently- (about 1350) became known as Feldeston which finally was written Fieldstown. This name oxiginally meant the enclosed or fortified Manor of the de la ffeldes. Richard de la ffelde settled in Ireland, where his services were required by the orown in connection with the Excheq­ uer. He is once referred to as "the Queen's servantn. Th~ prop­ erty at Glynsurd or Feldeaton passed first to his oldest son, Nicholas and then to Henry a son of one of Nicholas' brothers and remained the property of hie descendants until after the middle of the fifteenth century when it passed to the Barnewalls of Trimels­ town through the marriage of the only child and heiress of John Delafield. During the thirteenth century• the holdings of the family were increased and the Manors of Wimbleton, Knightstown, Skyd~th, Culduffe, Ballymolthan and Painstown were added to the lands already owned by its members. Several of these Manors were held by younger sons and their desoendants who settled and became powerful land­ owners in variou.s parts of Dublin, Meath and Louth. William de la ffe~de, or Delafeld, a member of this family and an attorney-at-law, removed to· Buckinghamshire, England.I about 1370 and founded the family there. The rec·ord of his denization appears in the Patent Rolls~for the eighteenth year of Richard II (1394). One of his descendants in the thirteenth generation was l. JOHN 13 DELAFIELD, oldest son of John 12 and Sarah. {Goodwin) Delafield, born at his father•s·reaidence in 62 White­ cross Street, St. Giles without Cripplegate, London, on the 9th of June, 1718. Soon after coming of age he was made free of the Leathersellers Company by patrimony, the date of the entry being the 19th of October, 1742. This company was one of the principal -guilds of the city of London. His father had joined it many years before, and he was admitted by right of his father's membership. He was a merchant in London and continued to hold the then very profitablewater works which supplied the town of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire with its water. He married Martha, the ~aughter of Jacob Dell of Aylesbury, and Susannah, his wife, at Aylesbury in June, 1747. She was born on the ninth of March 1719. They had seven children: 2. John Delafield, born 16 March, 1748, an account of· whom follows. 3. Joseph Delafield, born 14 May, 1749, of whom hereafter. Martha Delafield, born 29 June, 1750, married on the 6th of April, 1779, William Arnold of Slatswood, Isle of Wight, collector of customs at Cowes, son of Matthew Arnold of Lowestofft. One of her child­ ren, Lydia married the Earl of Cavan. Another was the celebrated Thomas Arnold, master of Rugby, father of Matthew Arnold and grandfather of Wu-s. Humphrey Ward. Mary Delafield, born 2 February, 1758; died unmaxried November 1st, 1804. William Unsworth Delafield, born 19 February 1753, be­ came a midshipman in the East India Company service ... and died of fever at Bengal in 1771. Susannah Delafield, born at Aylesbury, September 10th, 1757. She lived most of her life with her sister., 11artha Arnold, in the Isle of Wight. She died un­ married on the 14th of November, 1836 • • Sarah Delafield, born at Aylesbury, September 13th, 1758, and buried at the same place on the 7th of July, 1768. John Delafield, the father, died 9 March 1763, and was buried under the chan_cel of the Church at Aylesbury on the 16th of March, 1763. Hi"s wife had died on .the 26th November 1761 and was buxied at the same place on _the 27th of November, 1761. In the Cathedral Church at Aylesbury, there is a m-t.U:al tablet, formerly in the Lady Chapel but now over a side door, made in the form of drapery affixed to an oval of black veined marble. At the top of this is a shield with the arms sable a. cross flory or, and then follows the ~nscription To perpetuate the memory of JOF.li DELAFIELD Citizen·of London, and of MARTHA DELAFIELD his wife daughter of Jacob Dell of this town. 4 He died 9 March 1763 aged 43 She died 26 November, 1761 aged 42. The misstatement of John Delafield's age is curious. It should have been 45. The entry of his burial reads as follows: 1763 "John Delafield, gent. of St. Gylea's Criplegate, London, was buried on Wednesday the 16 of March. He was buried in the Chancel on the North eide.n 5 2. JOHN 14 DELAFIELD, the oldest son, was born at his father's house 62 Whitecross Street, St. Gyles without Cripplegate, London, England, March 16, 1748. He took passage on the British letter-of-marque 11 Vigilant", Captain Barnewall, and landed in New York, Saturday, April 5, 1783. He had brought with him a manuscript copy of the te~t of the provisional treaty of peace between England and the United States, the official copy having been forwarded by another vessel which arrived in America after the Vigilant. He also brought letters of introduction to the principal citizens of New Yoxk and those of Boston and Philadelphia. He also had letters to English officers stationed in New York some of whom he had known in England and who vouched for his identity. He was admitted as a citizen of the United States by an act of the legislature May 4, 1784 and as a freeman of the city, June 16 of the same year. He be­ gan business as a merchant and later in 1786 took up that of marine underwriting. On June 15, 1?87 was one of the founders and was made a director of the Mutual Insurance Company of !Jew York and on January 12, 1792, he was appointed one of the directors of the New York branch of the United States Bank, just established. In 1794 he be­ came one of the founders and a member cf the first board of trustees of the Tontine Coffee Rouse. On February 1, 1796 he was a founder and one of thirty-nine New York capitalists to subscribe ten thou­ sand dollars each to capitalize the United Insurctnce Company. He was made a director of the corporation and was subs·.equently elected president of the company, an office he held for many years. He was the pioneer marine underwriter_ in New York and became the head of the private underwr•i ters of the city; the war between France and England at the close of the eighteenth centuxy brought great 6 disaster on American shipping which loss fell heavily on New York. marine underwriters, W.i.r. Delafield paid his losses at the sacrifice of most of his fortune and the mortgaging of much of his real estate. His holdings were in New York, on Long Island and in the townships of Hague and Cam.bray in St. Lawrence county. In the summer of 1791 he purchased the Blackwell farm of one hundred and forty acres on the east bank of the East River opposite Blackwells Island where he built a large country residence. The place was named nsunswick", after a small river near by. It became one of the best kept country seats in the-neighborhood of New York and its flowers and fruits gained wide reputation. Physically .he was a tall man with a strong and active but slender figure. He had dark brown eyes and hair which he kept powdered after the fashion of ·the day and he was particularly neat and careful about his dress. Mr. Delafield died at No. 9 Pearl Street, New York City,. July 3, 1824; his remains were interred in Trinity Chuxoh burial ground at Hudson street; were removed to the vault of hie son John De~afield, St. Thomas' Church, Broadway and Houston Streets and in 1857 to the Delafield family vault in Greenwood cemetery. Married, December 11, 1784, Ann Hallett, born·february 24, 1766; died March 6, 1839, daughter and co-heiress of Joseph Hallett and Elizabeth (Hazard) Hallett. Joseph Hallett and his sister Lydia Hallett, wife of Colonel Jacob Blackwell, were the only children of Joseph and Lydia Hallett, Joseph being the eldest male heir, des- .