In beth cases we see that fearlessness of governmental authority, which, a few years later, led him to risk his life and estate in the war for our Independence.

In the various. contests for seats in the Colonial Assembly which took place after each general election, Mr. Duane was very frequently employed by one party or the other. In the noted case-between John Morrin Scott and James Jauncey, in

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HON. JAMES DUANE. 1067

1768, Mr. Duane was employed by Jauncey, and successfully defended him.

The election on this occasion had not been entirely contested on political grounds; it was to some extent a church controversy, and Mr. Duane sided with Jauncey, the church candidate, although his wife's family and many of his best friends were against him. The part he took against Mr. Scott on this occasion rendered them cool towards each other until some time after the commencement of the revolution, in which they both engaged, and during which they appear by their correspondence to have become good friends

The only office Mr. Duane held, prior to the revolution, was that of clerk in chancery, given to him by Lt. Governor Colden, April 20th, 1762. He officiated, however, for John Tabor Kempe, the Attorney-General, in 1767, when the latter went to England, but appears to have done it more from friendship to the incumbent than emolument. His father had left to him and his three brothers, among other property, about six thousand acres of wild land in the present town of Duanesburgh. By the death of two of his brothers, and by purchase from the third and by other purchases, he subsequently became owner of nearly the whole of that township then also wild. In 1765, before his purchases were all made, after some previous feeble efforts, he commenced active measures for its settlement.