Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1889, volume 6).djvu/266

He was subsequently a member of the New York assembly and senate, and one of the commissioners of forfeitures for the southern district of New York. He sat in congress for the Westchester dis- trict from 1793 till 1809. He was for many years treas- urer of the state Society of the Cin- cinnati, and ac- companied Lafay- ette on his travels through the Unit- ed States during his visit in 1824. He lies buried in the family ceme- tery near the Cortlandt manor- house at Croton. — Pierre, soldier, second son of Lieut.-Gov. Pierre,

b. in Cortlandt

manor, 29 Aug., 1762 ; d. there in July, 1848, was a leading man in Westchester county, its repre- sentative in congress in 1811— '12, and major-gen- eral of the militia, one of his aides being James Penimore Cooper. He was graduated at Rutgers college in 1783, and in 1843 was given the degree of LL. D. by that institution. He studied law with Alexander Hamilton, but did not practise long, giving his attention to politics and to his estate. He was a presidential elector for Jeffer- son in 1800 and for Gen. William H. Harrison in 1840, and a candidate on the defeated Henry Clay ticket in 1844. From 1833 till his death he was president of the Westchester county bank. He married first, in 1801. Catharine, daughter of Gov. George Clinton and widow of Capt. John Taylor, of the British army, and secondly, in 1813, Ann, daughter of John Stevenson and Magdalen Douw, of Albany, by whom he had one child, Col. Pierre Van Cortlandt (1815-84). — Jacobus, merchant, b. in New York, 7 July, 1658; d. there in 1739, was the younger of the two sons of Oloff, first above named, and ancestor of the Yonkers branch. His estate at Yonkers, continuously held by his de- scendants to this day, has been purchased by the city of New York for its new " Van Cortlandt park" of about 800 acres. He was one of the most eminent men of his time and one of the aldermen of the city. He sat in the first assembly of William and Mary in 1691, for New York city, and also in the two suc- ceeding as- semblies. He again sat for the city from 1702 till 1709,

and from 1710

till 1715. In 1719 he was mayor of the city of New York. He was a large land-holder in W est- chester county, notably in the town of Bedford, where a large part of his property came by de- scent and wills of relatives to his grandson (through his daughter Mary), Chief-Justice John Jay, who built thereon the residence in which he died, and which now belongs to the latter's grandson, John Jay. (See illustration.) Jacobus Van Cortlandt was an officer and member of the Hutch church. He married Eve Philipse, the step-daughter of the first Col. Frederick Philipse, whose wife, by birth Mai'garet Hardenbrook, was the widow of Peter Rudolph de Vries, by whom she had one daughter, who, after her mother's marriage to Frederick Philipse, was adopted by him and called by his name. His only son by this marriage, Frederick (1698-1749), who married, in 1724, Frances Jay, was the father of James, and Augustus, of Yonkers. The latter (1728-1824) was for many years prior to the Revolution clerk of the common council of New York city, and to his unflinching loyalty to his trust, as well as to his king, is due the preser- vation of the ancient city records of New York, for of his own motion and on his own responsibility, in 1775, he placed them in chests, in a vault built at his own expense, in his own garden, " made," as he informed the Provincial congress, " for that purpose of stone and brick, well arched, and exceedingly dry," and kept them till after the peace of 1783.

VANCOUVER, George, English navigator, b. in 1758 ; d. near London, England, 10 May, 1798. He entered the British navy, joining the " Resolu- tion," under Capt. Cook, in 1771, and served as midshipman in Cook's second voyage (1772-'5), and on his third voyage (1776-"80), when that com- mander lost his life. In December of that year he was made lieutenant, and appointed to the sloop " Martin," on board which he continued till he was removed to the " Fame," one of Lord Rodney's fleet, in the West Indies. In 1784 he was ap- pointed to the station in Jamaica, sailed in the "Europe," and was there till the vessel returned to England in September, 1789. Vancouver, in 1791, was appointed to command a squadron and sent to the northwest coast of North America, with instructions first to visit the Sandwich islands, then go to Nootka, where, in 1792, with mutual concessions on the part of the Spanish government and the court of St. James, a matter in dispute was amicably arranged ; and, further, to make an accurate survey of the coast from the 30th degree of north latitude northward, in order to find if there were any waterways, by inlets, rivers, or lakes, between that coast and Canada, or any pas- sage from the North Pacific to the Atlantic ocean. His careful survey occupied the summers of 1792-'3, the intervening winter being spent in completing the examination of the Sandwich group. In 1794 he returned to the American coast and surveyed it as far as Cook's inlet, on the completion of which he was promoted to post-captain. Then he sailed along the western coast of South America, doubled Cape Horn, and returned to Britain, reaching the Shannon in September, 1795. The greater part of the surveys was performed in boats, but his con- stitution was undermined by the service. His training, under Capt. Cook manifested itself in the same enforcement of discipline and in the same care for the health and comfort of his crew that had characterized that great commander. Vancouver's island was named in his honor. From that time till his death he was occupied in the preparation of his journals for publication. All the charts were completed, the narrative printed aVid corrected almost to the end of the third vol- ume, and what little remained was prepared for the press by his brother John. The " Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean and Round the World " was published by the government (3 vols., London, 1798), with an atlas.