James Duane (February 6, 1733 – February 1, 1797) was an American
Founding Father
The following is a list of national founders of sovereign states who were credited with establishing a state. National founders are typically those who played an influential role in setting up the systems of governance, (i.e., political system ...
, attorney, jurist, and
American Revolutionary leader from
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
New York may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* ...
. He served as a delegate to the
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates of twelve of the Thirteen Colonies held from September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia at the beginning of the American Revolution. The meeting was organized b ...
, the
Second Continental Congress
The Second Continental Congress (1775–1781) was the meetings of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolution and American Revolutionary War, Revolutionary War, which established American independence ...
and the
Congress of the Confederation
The Congress of the Confederation, or the Confederation Congress, formally referred to as the United States in Congress Assembled, was the governing body of the United States from March 1, 1781, until March 3, 1789, during the Confederation ...
, a New York state senator, the 44th
Mayor of New York City
The mayor of New York City, officially mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The Mayoralty in the United States, mayor's office administers all ...
, the 1st post-colonial Mayor of New York City and a
United States district judge
The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...
of the
United States District Court for the District of New York
The following are former United States district courts, which ceased to exist because they were subdivided into smaller units. With the exception of California, each of these courts initially covered an entire U.S. state, and was subdivided as the ...
. Duane was a signatory of the
Continental Association
The Continental Association, also known as the Articles of Association or simply the Association, was an agreement among the Thirteen Colonies, American colonies, adopted by the First Continental Congress, which met inside Carpenters' Hall in Phi ...
and the
Articles of Confederation
The Articles of Confederation, officially the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, was an agreement and early body of law in the Thirteen Colonies, which served as the nation's first Constitution, frame of government during the Ameri ...
.
Early life

Duane was born on February 6, 1733, in New York City, in the
Province of New York
The Province of New York was a British proprietary colony and later a royal colony on the northeast coast of North America from 1664 to 1783. It extended from Long Island on the Atlantic, up the Hudson River and Mohawk River valleys to ...
, to
Anthony Duane and his second wife, Althea Ketaltas. Anthony Duane was a
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
Irishman from
County Galway
County Galway ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Northern and Western Region, taking up the south of the Provinces of Ireland, province of Connacht. The county population was 276,451 at the 20 ...
who first came to New York as an officer of the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
in 1698. Duane's surname is from the Irish O'Dubhain. In 1702, Anthony Duane left the navy to marry Eva Benson, daughter of Dirck Benson, a local merchant. They had two sons, Abraham and Cornelius. Duane prospered and bought land for investment, rental, and future development. After his wife's death, Anthony married Althea Ketaltas (Hettletas), the daughter of a wealthy Dutch merchant.
By the time of James' birth, his father had become a wealthy colonial settler.
[Burrows & Wallace (1999), p. 221]
Duane's mother died in 1736, and his father married a third time in 1741 to Margaret Riken (Rycken).
When Anthony died in 1747, James became the ward of
Robert Livingston, the 3rd Lord of
Livingston Manor
Livingston Manor was a tract of land in the Province of New York granted to Robert Livingston the Elder during the reign of George I of Great Britain. Located between the Hudson River and the Massachusetts border, the Livingston Manor was locate ...
,
where he completed his early education.
Career
Duane completed preparatory studies and
read law
Reading law was the primary method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship un ...
in 1754, with
James Alexander.
He had an impressive command of the law and was admitted to the bar on August 3, 1754.
["James Duane", Historical Society of the New York Courts]
/ref> He maintained a private practice in New York City from 1754 to 1762, when he became a clerk of the Chancery Court of New York.
Duane was acting attorney general of the Province of New York in 1767[Vorhees, David William. "Duane, James" in , p. 380] and a boundary commissioner in 1768 (and again in 1784), before returning to private practice in New York City in 1774 and 1775. He was a delegate to the New York Convention which ratified the United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the Supremacy Clause, supreme law of the United States, United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, on March 4, 1789. Originally includi ...
in 1788. Duane was a member of the Federalist Party
The Federalist Party was a conservativeMultiple sources:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* and nationalist American political party and the first political party in the United States. It dominated the national government under Alexander Hamilton from 17 ...
.
Law practice and other activities
Duane represented Trinity Church in the very protracted legal action brought by heirs of Anneke Jans, who claimed that they, and not the church, were the lawful owners of much of lower Manhattan
Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
, a tract which had been given to the church by the British crown.
By the early 1770s, his practice earned him 1,400 pounds annually. At the height of his success, Duane had a house in Manhattan, one in the country, and an estate near Schenectady
Schenectady ( ) is a City (New York), city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the United States Census 2020, 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-most populo ...
, New York, of and 253 tenants. He was a vestryman of Trinity Church, was appointed one of the church's nine trustees during a post-war crisis about the church's Tory
A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...
leanings, and was also a trustee of Kings College, the precursor to Columbia University.
In 1761, Duane acquired from Gerardus Stuyvesant a farm known as ''Krom Mesje'' ("little crooked knife") in reference to a small brook that flowed into the East River
The East River is a saltwater Estuary, tidal estuary or strait in New York City. The waterway, which is not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island, ...
. He named it "Gramercy Seat". In addition to the farm, Duane also had a house on King Street (later changed to Pine Street).[Pine, John B., "Gramercy Park", ''Valentine's Manual of Old New York'', No. 4, (Henry Collins Browne, ed.), New York. Valentine's Manual Inc., 1920, p. 194]
In 1765, he was granted a patent for land in Schenectady County, which became the township of Duanesburg.
With his boyhood friend James De Lancey, Duane was one of the Socialborough Proprietors, holding an area obtained by grant in 1771 and located on both sides of Otter Creek in the present towns of Pittsford and Rutland, Vermont.
American Revolution
Duane was politically conservative. Until his marriage to Mary Livingston, he had been a member of James De Lancey's political faction, which opposed to the Crown's policies but did not endorse the use of mob violence to protest British measures. His efforts to support resistance in New York led to his being chosen with others to represent the Province of New York at the Congressional meetings in Philadelphia. He remained active in both capacities.
Duane was a delegate to the First Continental Congress held in Philadelphia during the autumn of 1774 in reaction to the British Navy's blockade of Boston Harbor and the passage of the Intolerable Acts
The Intolerable Acts, sometimes referred to as the Insufferable Acts or Coercive Acts, were a series of five punitive laws passed by the British Parliament in 1774 after the Boston Tea Party. The laws aimed to punish Massachusetts colonists fo ...
by Parliament in response to the December 1773 Boston Tea Party
The Boston Tea Party was a seminal American protest, political and Mercantilism, mercantile protest on December 16, 1773, during the American Revolution. Initiated by Sons of Liberty activists in Boston in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colo ...
. He was one of the many who were most disposed to reconciliation with Britain and supported the Galloway Plan of Union, which was rejected by the majority of the delegates. Upon his return to New York, he was named to the '' Committee of Sixty'', a committee of inspection formed in the City and County of New York (Manhattan, New York City) in 1775, to enforce the Continental Association, a boycott of British goods enacted by the First Continental Congress.
He was a delegate to the Provincial Convention held in New York City on April 20, 1775, where delegates were elected to the Second Continental Congress. It included the delegates to the First Congress as well as five new members. The scope of the Provincial Convention did not extend beyond electing delegates, who dispersed on April 22, the day before news of the Battles of Lexington and Concord
The Battles of Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775 were the first major military actions of the American Revolutionary War between the Kingdom of Great Britain and Patriot (American Revolution), Patriot militias from America's Thirteen Co ...
arrived. The Second Continental Congress convened its first session on May 10. Duane served as a delegate from 1775 to 1781. Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton (January 11, 1755 or 1757July 12, 1804) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury from 1789 to 1795 dur ...
, an aide to General George Washington
George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
, wrote Duane to ask him to get Congress to expedite supplies.
The Committee of Sixty was replaced by a more representative Committee of One Hundred on May 1, 1775. The Committee still considered itself loyal to the British Crown but was opposed to the laws of the Parliament of Great Britain, which it considered unconstitutional because the colonies had no representation in it. The Committee of One Hundred was officially replaced by the New York Provincial Congress which first convened on May 23, 1775. Despite initial reservations regarding independence, he later supported the Declaration of Independence
A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...
. Because of his service with the Provincial Congress, Duane was not in Philadelphia to sign the Declaration.
When the British occupied New York in late summer 1776, he withdrew his wife and family to the relative safety of her father's home at Livingston Manor. He was a member of the New York Constitutional Convention which assembled at White Plains, New York, on Sunday evening, July 10, 1776, for the purpose of drafting a constitution to replace the colonial charter.
In July 1778 he signed the Articles of Confederation in Philadelphia. Duane was a member of the Congress of the Confederation from 1781 to 1783. He remained active as a political leader throughout the war and returned home to Gramercy Seat in 1783. He commented that his home looked "as if they had been inhabited by wild beasts".
Post war activities
He was Mayor of New York City
The mayor of New York City, officially mayor of the City of New York, is head of the executive branch of the government of New York City and the chief executive of New York City. The Mayoralty in the United States, mayor's office administers all ...
from 1784 to 1789,[ appointed by the Council of Appointment.][Burrows & Wallace (1999), p. 267] As mayor, one of Duane's first acts was to donate to the poor the money usually spent on entertainment for his inauguration, about 20 guineas. During his time in office, he strove to help the city revive itself after the damage done by the war and the British occupation, but he was unable to maintain the city's status as the capital of the United States. As head of the Mayor's Court, he heard the landmark case of '' Rutgers v. Waddington'', handing down a Solomonic decision that pleased neither party. After he was called before the State Assembly to explain his thinking, he was censured by that body.
He was a member of the New York State Senate
The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature, while the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Established in 1777 by the Constitution of New York, its members are elected to two-year terms with no term l ...
from 1782 to 1785, and from 1788 to 1790. In 1785, Duane was one of 32 prominent New Yorkers who met to create the New York Manumission Society
The New York Manumission Society was founded in 1785. The term "manumission" is from the Latin meaning "a hand lets go," inferring the idea of freeing a slave. John Jay, first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States as well as stat ...
, which was intended to put pressure on the state of New York to abolish slavery, as every state in the north had done except New York and New Jersey.
He was chosen a member of the Annapolis Convention in 1786 but did not attend.
Federal judicial service
Duane was nominated by President George Washington on September 25, 1789, to the United States District Court for the District of New York, to a new seat authorized by .[ He was confirmed by the ]United States Senate
The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...
on September 25, 1789, and received his commission on September 26, 1789.[ He resigned on March 17, 1794, because of ill health.][
]
Personal life
On October 21, 1759, Duane married Mary Livingston (1738–1821), the eldest living daughter of his former guardian Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...
. Their children were:
* Mary Duane (b. 1762), who married Gen. William North (1755–1836) on October 14, 1787
* Catharine L. Duane
* Adelia Duane (1765–1860), who married merchant Alfred Sands Pell.
* James Chatham Duane (1769–1842), who married Mary Ann Bowers (1773–1828)
* Cornelius Duane (1774–1781), who died young
* Sarah Duane (1775–1828), who married George W. Featherstonhaugh (1780–1866) on November 6, 1808
Duane's grandchildren included George W. Featherstonhaugh Jr. (1814–1900), Robert Livingston Pell (1811–1880), James Duane Pell (1813–1881), George W. Pell (1820–1896), and Richard Montgomery Pell (1822–1882). His great-grandchildren included Alfred Duane Pell (1864–1937) and James Chatham Duane (1824–1897).
Death and legacy
Duane died on February 1, 1797, in Duanesburg, Schenectady County, New York.[He may have died in New York City, according to his Congressional Biography.] He was interred under Christ Church in Duanesburg.
Duane Street in Manhattan was named in his honor.[, p. 45] Duane Park, at the corner of Duane and Hudson streets is named for him. The Fire Department of New York
The New York City Fire Department, officially the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) is the full-service fire department of New York City, serving all Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs. The FDNY is responsible for providing Fi ...
operated a fireboat
A fireboat or Fire-float Pyronaut, fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with ...
named ''James Duane'' from 1908 to 1959. The town of Duanesburg, New York, in the western part of Schenectady County, is named for James Duane, who held most of it as an original land grant.
The Northern District of New York Federal Court Bar Association presents the annual Judge James Duane Award upon "...a distinguished member of the bar who has carried on Judge Duane’s legacy of excellence in the practice of law, unwavering integrity, and a tireless commitment to the legal profession.""Annual Dinner …", Northern District of New York Federal Court Bar Association, November 29, 2012
/ref> James Joseph Duane
James Joseph Duane (born July 30, 1959) is an American law professor at the Regent University School of Law, former criminal defense attorney, and Fifth Amendment expert. Duane has received considerable online attention for his lecture "Don't ...
, an American law professor at the Regent University School of Law
Regent University School of Law is the law school of Regent University, a Private university, private Christianity, Christian university in Virginia Beach, Virginia. It was founded in 1986 and accredited by the American Bar Association in 1996.
...
, is a living descendant of James Duane who has received online attention for his video lecture "Don't Talk To Police".
Ed Jewett portrayed Duane in the 2008 ''John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...
'' miniseries directed by Tom Hooper
Thomas George Hooper (born 5 October 1972)''Births, Marriages & Deaths Index of England & Wales, 1916–2005''. 5d: 2485. is a British-Australian filmmaker. Known for his work in film and television he has received numerous accolades includ ...
. He appeared in episode 2 "Independence."
Notes
References
Sources
*
The Duane Family Papers 1700-1945 at the New York Historical Society
*
James Duane Historic Marker
Gramercy Park's Hawk Gets a Name
Further reading
* Alexander, Edward. ''Revolutionary Conservative: James Duane of New York''; New York: AMS Press, 1978. .
* Randall, Willard Sterne, 2011. ''Ethan Allen: His Life and Times'', W.W. Norton & Co., New York and London.
External links
James Duane, The Irish American Who Rebuilt New York
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duane, James
1733 births
1797 deaths
18th-century American lawyers
18th-century mayors of places in New York (state)
Livingston family
American people of Irish descent
Continental Congressmen from New York (state)
Signers of the Articles of Confederation
Mayors of New York City
Judges of the United States District Court for the District of New York
New York (state) state senators
People from Duanesburg, New York
Lawyers from New York City
United States federal judges appointed by George Washington
United States federal judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law
People from colonial New York
Duane family
People from Gramercy Park
Abolitionists from New York City
Signers of the Continental Association
Founding Fathers of the United States
New York (state) Federalists