Richard [Nicholls] Harison / Harrison - Onondaga and Oswego ...

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Leonard Lispenard, merchant, born in New York city in 1716; died there, 15 February, 1790. He was the grandson of Anthony
Lispenard, a Huguenot refugee, who came to New York about the middle of the 17th century and became a merchant there. In 1741
he married Alice, daughter of Anthony Rutgers, who inherited one third of the extensive grant that was made by George II. to her
father, and subsequently Mr. Lispenard acquired by purchase the remainder of the land, which has since been known as the
Lispenard meadows. His country mansion was on Lispenard hill, an elevation overlooking what later was called St. John's park. Mr.
Lispenard was assistant alderman from the north ward in 1750-'5, and alderman in 1756-'62, and member of the provincial
assembly in 1765-'7. He was an active member of the Stamp-act congress in New York in 1765, of the committee of one hundred
that was elected to control all general affairs in May, 1775, and of the first provincial congress in May, 1775. He was also treasurer
of King's (now Columbia) college, one of the original members of the Society of the New York hospital, and one of its governors in
1770-'7.--His two Sons, LEONARD and ANTHONY, were well-known men at, that time. The three streets, Leonard, Anthony (now
Worth), and Thomas, were named after the sons of Anthony, and Bathe street (now spelled Beach) after his son-in-law, Paul Bathe,
while Lispenard street was named in honor of the family, and Barclay street after Reverend Thomas Barclay who married his wife's
sister.
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Selections from the correspondence of Thomas Barclay: formerly British ...,” by Thomas Barclay, page 109.
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TO MRS. MARGARET DE LANCEY, BATH, ENGLAND.
New York 8th Novr 1800. MY DEAR MADAM:
I wrote you a hasty line by the Lady Arabella Packet, being at that time very unwell with an intermitting fever, from which I am now
happily recovered, though much reduced. In that letter I acknowledged the receipt of your favor covering the letter of Attorney, and
my readiness to render you any Service in my power. I at the same time Stated to you my having retained Mr Harison 2 as your
Council, and acquainted you that Mr Hoffman being the Attorney General of this State rendered it improper for him to act for you. I
took the liberty at the same time to give you my opinion respecting the mode of obtaining your dower or compensation in lieu of it;
and Mr Harisons opinion on the same subject. I shall repeat these, least by an accident to the Lady Arabella you may be deprived of
my former letter.
1 Margaret De Lancey was the widow of the James De Lancey who was Agent of the American Loyalists in England. She was the
daughter of Chief Justice William Allen of Pennsylvania, the friend of Benjamin West and Benjamin Franklin. James De Lancey
died at Bath, 1799. He had been attainted by the Act of 1779, and his property in the city of New-York had been sold at various
times prior to February, 1787. A full account of these sales will be found in Mr. E. F. De Lancey's notes to Jones's Hist. of NY,
Vol. II, pp. 540-559. His widow of course, became entitled to dower was in all the lands sold.
2 Richard Harison was born in New-York, January 23, 1748, and died in the same city, December 7, 1829. He was graduated
from Kings College in 1764. He married first, Catharine, daughter of Dr. Jones of Long Island; second, Frances, daughter of
George Duncan Ludlow, one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the Province of New-York, and afterward the first Chief
Justice of New Brunswick. Harison was inclined to the Tory side, but in 1789 he was chosen one of the delegates from the city of
New-York to the Poughkeepsie Convention that ratified the Federal Constitution, his colleagues being John Jay, Richard Morris,
John Sloss Hobart, Alexander Hamilton, Robert R. Livingston, Isaac Roosevelt, James Duane, and Nicholas Low. He was for
many years one of the leaders of the New-York bar, and counsel in a large proportion of the more important cases, reported in
the early New-York reports. Upon the organization of the Federal Government he was appointed by General Washington U. S.
District Attorney. From 1798 to 1799 he was Recorder of the city. For forty-one years —1788 to 1829 — he was one of the
Trustees of Columbia College, and in 1823 was Chairman of the Board. He also held the office of Comptroller of the Trinity
Church Corporation.
Having fully considered your claim of dower,—the very great number of Tenants of the freehold who must be sued— the probable
delay before you will be put in possession. The forcible reasons why the Major part of the Proprietors will prefer your having the
actual possession of one third of the Lots and houses. The enormous expense attending a litigation, where there will probably be
not less than three or four hundred Suits, your own costs of which, you must defray. The immense number of vacant lots, which
altho' they are valued at about £100 this Currency each, do not, nor would they at any future period in your hands, produce any
annual rent. The precarious tenor of life—The loss your Children would sustain by your dying at the earliest within fifteen years. The
length of time it would require to make the rents issues and profits of your third part of this Estate, after deducting six hundred per
annum as Interest for the Capital, net you a clear principal of £10,000 this Currency. The impossibility of your renting unimproved
lots and parts of Lots, from the uncertainty of your Life — The difficulty of obtaining tenants, to occupy a third part of a house,
containing not more than two small rooms on each floor and those houses generally not more than two Stories. The defalcations in
rents, where Tenants are poor and the expense of employing an Agent to take care of the Property and receive the rents— With
numberless other serious objections; I say after having maturely weighed all these, it was my decided opinion that you had better
take up with a compensation from the State of New York, attended with but little expense and which you would almost immediately
receive, than to involve yourself in Litigation, and place a very handsome Sum on the casual Event of your Life admitting, as I
consider it, to be, equal to that of any other person for fifteen years to come. It would take up too much time, and tire your patience
was I to give you at length my reasons, on each of the objections mentioned. I shall therefore only say they are admitted as natural
by Mr. Harison.
A combination or conspiracy very probably may also be entered into by the Proprietors to dissuade persons from becoming your
Tenants, and to threaten them with innumerable unpleasant incidents in case they do it. Their side of the Question, however
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