Duane and Featherstonhaugh family papers, 1666-1900 (bulk 1756-1900) | WorldCat.org (original) (raw)

Summary:Correspondence and papers, 1666- ca. 1900 (mostly 1756 - ca. 1900), of various members of the Duane, Featherstonhaugh, and related families. The major part of the collection is the papers of the New York lawyer, patriot, and land developer James Duane. There are also a substantial number of papers of Duane's son, James Chatham Duane, a lawyer of Duanesburgh and Schenectady, and of his son-in-law George William Featherstonhaugh, a geologist and resident of Schenectady, as well as smaller groups pertaining to Abraham, Anthony, Cornelius, and Mary Duane (wife of James Duane and daughter of Robert Livingston, Jr., third lord of Livingston Manor); and to William North, Hannah E. North, William North Duane, and the latter's mother, Mrs. A.D. Duane. The James Duane papers, ca. 1756-1798, comprise letters, deeds and other land papers, a large group of legal papers, miscellaneous certificates, commissions, bills, memoranda, etc., and pertain to such matters as: his practice of law in New York and New Jersey; relations with Great Britain and political affairs in the colonies prior to the Revolution; New York State's controversy with Massachusetts over the New Hampshire grants, and Duane's own holdings in the disputed area; his activities and interests as New York delegate to the Continental Congress, as the first federal judge for the district of New York, as a New York State senator, and as mayor of New York City; the settling of Duanesburgh, Schenectady County, New York; affairs of the Livingston family and of Livingston Manor; the settlement of estates; his property holdings in the Hardenburgh, Schuyler, and Franklin patents, and in New York City, Otsego County, Ulster County, and Socialborough, New Hampshire (now Rutland, Vermont); New York State boundaries; military and political events during the Revolutionary War; Indian affairs during the war; etc. Some of his more frequent correspondents were George Clinton, Robert R. Livingston, Horatio Gates, Philip Schuyler, Richard Varick, Walter Livingston, William Cockburn, John Myers, James Chalmers of London, Goldsbrow Banyar, Jacob Cuyler, Isabella Graham, John Jay, Robert Livingston, Jr., John McFarland, John Munro, John Patterson, John Morin Scott, Isaac Vrooman, Peter Van Schaack, and George Washington