Oliver De Lancey
Nickname	Outlaw ofthe Bronx
Born	September 17, 1718 (1718-09-17) New York City,Province of New York,British North America
Died	October 27, 1785(1785-10-27) (aged 67) Beverley, Yorkshire, England
Allegiance	Kingdom of Great Britain
Branch	New York Provincial Militia (1755–1763) British Army (1776–1783)
Service years	1746–1748 1755–1766 1776–1777
Rank	Lieutenant Colonel
Unit	Rogers' Rangers DeLancey's Brigade Queen's Rangers King's Rangers
Conflicts	French and Indian War Battle of Carillon (1758) American Revolutionary War
Relations	Etienne Delancey (father) Anne Van Cortland (mother) James DeLancey (brother)

Oliver De Lancey (September 17, 1718 – October 27, 1785) was a merchant andLoyalistpolitician andsoldier during theAmerican Revolutionary War. His surname is also sometimes written asde Lancey orDelancey.

The son ofEtienne Delancey andAnne Van Cortland, De Lancey was born on September 17, 1718, inNew York City,Province of New York. The De Lancey family was ofHuguenot descent.^[1] From 1754 to 1757, De Lancey served as a New York alderman for the Out Ward and was a member of the New York assembly from New York County from 1756 to 1761.^[2]

During theFrench and Indian War, he was selected by the New York Assembly, with the support of his brotherJames, then acting Governor, to provide provisions for New York provincial units. During the war, De Lancey commanded theNew York Provincial Militia, 1755–1763, and commanded a provincial detachment in theTiconderoga campaign of 1758. In 1766, De Lancey was one of the judges in the Pendergast case, in which the alleged leader of theDutchess County land rebels was convicted and sentenced to death.^[3]

De Lancey was a member of the provincial executive council from 1760 until theAmerican Revolutionary War. In 1768, he allied himself withIsaac Sears and theSons of Liberty. De Lancey spoke out against theBoston Port Act of 1774 but did not support nonimportation. He was one of the persons responsible for the creation of theCommittee of Fifty. In 1773, he was appointed colonel in chief of the Southern Military District.

During the war, De Lancey was a senior officer in theLoyalistirregular military hierarchy. He joinedSir William Howe onStaten Island in 1776, and he and his brother raised and equipped the three battalions ofDeLancey's Brigade, consisting of fifteen hundred Loyalist volunteers from theProvince of New York. He served as the brigade's commanding officer onLong Island. His property was plundered byPatriots in November 1777 and confiscated in October 1779.

De Lancey left New York for England in 1783 and died on October 27, 1785, inBeverley,Yorkshire. He was buried inBeverley Minster, where his grave and memorial can be visited.

In the fall of 1742, Oliver De Lancey secretly married Phila Franks, the colonial-born daughter of prominent and successful London-born, New YorkAshkenazi Jewish immigrants. For six months, they kept the match secret, but in the spring of 1743, Phila announced the union and went to live with her husband. The letters ofAbigail Franks, Phila's mother, to her son Naphtali in England speak of her sense of betrayal and her pain, and she never spoke to Phila again. Phila's father, on the other hand, accepted the marriage.

Phila and Oliver de Lancey had at least two sons and two daughters:

• Stephen (1748–1798) became clerk of the city and county ofAlbany in 1765,Lieutenant Colonel of the1st New Jersey Loyal Volunteers in 1782, afterwardsChief Justice of the Bahamas, and in 1796Governor of Tobago. He married Cornelia, daughter of the Rev. H. Barclay ofTrinity Church, New York. They had several children, includingWilliam Howe De Lancey, a British staff officer mortally wounded at theBattle of Waterloo.^[4]
• Oliver (ca. 1749–1822) became a general in theBritish Army,^[5] and who also had a son calledOliver (1803–1837), who served as a British Army officer and was killed in action while fighting for theBritish Legion during theFirst Carlist War.
• Philadelphia (Phila) de Lancy (1758-1785) married Stephen Payne-Gallwey, son of the Governor and Chief Justice of St Kitts, Leeward Islands, in 1774, and they settled in West Tofts, Norfolk, England.
• Susanna De Lancey marriedWilliam Draper

De Lancey's nephewJames served inDe Lancey's Brigade.

• Bonomi, Patricia (1971).A Factious People, Politics and Society in Colonial New York. Columbia University Press.ISBN 0-231-03509-8.
• Chichester, Henry Manners (1888)."De Lancey, William Howe". InStephen, Leslie (ed.).Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 14. London:Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 304, 305.
• Stephens, Henry Morse (1888)."De Lancey, Oliver (1749-1822)". InStephen, Leslie (ed.).Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 14. London:Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 303, 304.

• Ketchum, Richard,Divided Loyalties, How the American Revolution Came to New York, 2002,ISBN 0-8050-6120-7

• The On-Line Institute for Advanced Loyalist Studies
• Re-enactor Group

• 1718 births
• 1785 deaths
• British Army major generals
• British Army personnel of the American Revolutionary War
• Huguenot participants in the American Revolution
• Members of the New York Provincial Assembly
• Members of the New York General Assembly
• Loyalists in the American Revolution from New York (state)
• Military personnel from New York City
• Schuyler family
• 18th-century American politicians
• De Lancey family
• Merchants from the Province of New York
• 18th-century American merchants
• Slave owners from New York (state)

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