Documentary History of the State of New York, Vol. IV
1 Thomas James, the eldest son of this gentleman, died a judge of Westchester county, at the age of 82; William Heathcote, his younger son, is the present Bishop of Western New York; Edward Floyd, another son, died in early manhood, His eldest daughter, Anne Charlotte, married John 'Loudon McAdam, immortalized by his system of making reads; the second, Susan Augusta, the wife of the late J. Fennimore Cooper, Esq., died 20th Jan'y, 1852; and the two youngest are still living unmarried. :
2 Smith's History of New York; II., Chap. 3. Vou. Iv. 67
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at the death of his wife, had made two previous attempts at suicide ; but so frantic were the efforts of his opponents, that the unscrupulous did not hesitate covertly to bring the charge of murder against their successful rival. After withholding his commission wrongfully for six years, they consummated their opposition by hinting at this atrocious calumny.
Religious acrimony greatly heightened the intensity of the hostility to De Lancey. He and his associates openly laughed at what they termed "the sanctimonious grimaces" of the other sects, and possibly were more careless of those cutting wounds inflicted by the tongue, than was either right or prudent. Asa consequence, his name has passed into history under colors which take their hues rather from the passions of the day than from the light of truth. The head of the court party, he was termed a demagogue--a gentleman, a scholar, affluent, and of a peculiarly gay and social temperament, he is accused of the sordid vices of the miser and extortioner,--delicate, a martyr to asthma, and obliged to be abstemious, he is charged with low excess--beloved by all around him, he is denounced as hateful--and approved by the ministry in England, even when opposing their policy, he is pointed out to posterity as a political sycophant.