Oliver De Lancey Sr.

Major-General Oliver De Lancey, Sr. (1718-1785), also known as Oliver DeLancey and Oliver de Lancey, was a merchant, a Loyalist politician and soldier during the American Revolution.

DeLancey was the son of Etienne DeLancey and Anne Van Cortland, born on September 17, 1718 in New York City, New York. From 1754 to 1757 he served as a New York City alderman for the Out Ward and a member of the New York assembly from New York County from 1756 to 1761. [Bonomi, p. 145] During the French and Indian War he was selected by the New York Assembly, with the support from his brother James DeLancey the acting governor, to provide provisions for New York provincial units. [Bonomi, p. 176] He commanded a provincial detachment in the Ticonderoga campaign of 1758. In 1766, he was one of the judges in the Pendergast case, where the alleged leader of the Dutchess County land rebels was convicted and sentenced to death. [Bonomi, pg. 224]

In 1768, he allied himself with Isaac Sears and the Sons of Liberty. He spoke out against the Boston Port Bill, but did not support non-importation. He was one of the persons responsible for the creation of the Committee of Fifty. He was a member of Governor William Tryon's executive council from 1760 until the American Revolution.

In 1773 he was appointed colonel in chief of the Southern Military District. DeLancey was a senior Loyalist officer in the American Revolutionary War. He joined General Howe on Staten Island in 1776, and raised and equipped the DeLancey's Brigade of three battalions consisting of 1500 loyalist volunteers from the state of New York, and served as commanding officer on Long Island.

His mansion was plundered in November, 1777 and in October, 1779 was confiscated. He left New York in 1783, and he died on October 27, 1785 in Beverley, Yorkshire, England, and was buried in Beverley Minster where his grave and memorial can be visited.

Footnotes

References

* Bonomi, Patricia, "A Factious People, Politics and Society in Colonial New York", 1971, ISBN 0231035098
* Ketchum, Richard, "Divided Loyalties, How the American Revolution came to New York", 2002, ISBN 0805061207

External links

* [http://www.royalprovincial.com/military/rhist/delancey/dellist.htm The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies]
* [http://delanceys.org/oliver.htm Re-enactor Group]