Duane, James, jurist, was born 6 February 1733 in New York, NY, a son of
Anthony and Althea (Ketaltas) Duane. Anthony Duane, a native of County
Galway, Ireland, and an officer in the British navy, resigned after being
stationed in New York, and returned there to make the city his home. He
married as his second wife Althea Ketaltas, the daughter of a leading merchant
of the city. She died in 1736 and he was married in 1741 to the widow of
Thomas Lynch of Flushing, NY. He died 14 August 1747. His son James was
educated for the law in the office of James Alexander and was admitted an
attorney, 3 August 1754. He was married 21 October 1759, to Mary, eldest
daughter of Robert Livingston, proprietor of the Livingston manor on the
Hudson river. He inherited from his father valuable property, including a
tract of 6000 acres of land in the wilderness west of Albany, NY, afterward
Duanesburg, Schenectady county. He also purchased 64,000 acres of land in the
New Hampshire grant, now a part of Vermont, which he supposed to be a portion
of the province of New York, and of which he could never gain possession. In
1774 he was a member of the active committees organized in New York City to
oppose British encroachments and he was elected to the Continental congress of
that year. In April 1775, he was a delegate to the New York provincial
congress and again from June 1776, to April 1777. He was again chosen by that
body to the Continental Congress and continued a delegate in regular
attendance, 1774-1784, meanwhile removing his family from New York City to
Livingston manor for safety. He at first favored the uniting of the colonies
under a president appointed by the king, with congress bound by the acts of
parliament. He also opposed the Declaration of Independence, and sought to
defer its adoption, hoping to avoid final separation. With John Jay and Peter
Van Schaeck he was in favor of conciliation. He however signed the Articles
of Confederation for New York with Francis Lewis, William Duer and Gouverneur
Morris in 1771. He took possession of his large estates in New York city upon
the evacuation of the place by the British troops, 25 November 1783, and made
his home on his farm of twenty acres, afterward Gramercy Park. The same year
he was elected a state senator, serving 1782-1785, and again, 1789-1790. On 5
February 1784, he was appointed by Governor Clinton Mayor of New York and held
the office for nearly six years. He was a member of the council and of the
convention of 1788. President Washington appointed him U.S. district judge
of New York in 1789 and he continued on the bench for five years. His failing
health compelled him to resign in 1794, and he erected a house at Duanesburg,
but did not live to see it completed. He died in Schenectady, NY, 1 February
1797.
The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans: Volume III
D Duane, James Chatham
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