Daniel Horsmanden (June 4, 1691 – September 28, 1778) was a chief justice of the supreme court in the

Province of New York The Province of New York (1664–1776) was a British proprietary colony and later royal colony on the northeast coast of North America. As one of the Middle Colonies, New York achieved independence and worked with the others to found the U ...

and member of the governor's executive council.

Biography

Horsmanden was born in

Goudhurst Goudhurst is a village and civil parish in the borough of Tunbridge Wells in Kent, England. It lies in the Weald, around south of Maidstone, on the crossroads of the A262 and B2079. The parish consists of three wards: Goudhurst, Kilndown and ...

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to a family of clergy and landed gentry. He was grandson to Sir Warham St. Leger who had sold

Leeds Castle Leeds Castle is a castle in Kent, England, southeast of Maidstone. It is built on islands in a lake formed by the River Len to the east of the village of Leeds. A castle has existed on the site since 857. In the 13th century, it came into th ...

to finance his cousin Sir

Walter Raleigh Sir Walter Raleigh (; – 29 October 1618) was an English statesman, soldier, writer and explorer. One of the most notable figures of the Elizabethan era, he played a leading part in English colonisation of North America, suppressed rebelli ...

's ill-fated expedition to Guiana. Horsmanden read law, but lost his inheritance to financial

speculation In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. (It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline in value.) Many ...

in the South Sea bubble which necessitated his voyage to the colonies to seek new opportunities. His cousin William Byrd, a large land owner in Virginia and a member of the Council of Virginia and the Royal Society of London smoothed his introduction into English colonial society. Horsmanden's legal talent resulted in his eventual call to the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government model, the performance of ...

on May 23, 1733. He was appointed Recorder of New York City in September 1736, and 3rd Justice of the Supreme Court in January 1737. He was dismissed from both offices in September 1747, due to political enmities. In July 1750, he was restored to the Supreme Court, and was appointed Chief Justice in March 1763. He was on the governor's executive council from 1733 to 1747 and from 1755 to 1776. He was one of the original trustees of King's College (now

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

). He was elected to the original

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 1744. He was involved in the 1735 trial of

John Peter Zenger John Peter Zenger (October 26, 1697 – July 28, 1746) was a German printer and journalist in New York City. Zenger printed ''The New York Weekly Journal''. He was accused of libel in 1734 by William Cosby, the royal governor of New York, but t ...

. He was one of the judges who tried the supposed conspirators in the

New York Slave Insurrection of 1741 The Conspiracy of 1741, also known as the Slave Insurrection of 1741, was a purported plot by slaves and poor whites in the British colony of New York in 1741 to revolt and level New York City with a series of fires. Historians disagree as to ...

. In 1766, he was one of the judges in the Prendergast case where he convicted and sentenced to death the supposed leader of the Dutchess land rebels. In 1773, he was appointed a commissioner to inquire into the Gaspee Affair, which was the burning of the king's ship ''Gaspee'' by a party of

Sons of Liberty The Sons of Liberty was a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization active in the Thirteen American Colonies founded to advance the rights of the colonists and to fight taxation by the British government. It pl ...

in the preceding year.The Gaspee Affair
at

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In 1776, along with Oliver De Lancey and about one thousand other residents of the city and county of New York, he signed an address to Lord Howe. He died in Flatbush, New York, and is buried in Trinity church yard.

Notes

Bibliography

*''The New York conspiracy trials of 1741 : Daniel Horsmanden's Journal of the proceedings with related documents'' * ''The trial of John Ury for being an ecclesiastical person, made by authority pretended from the See of Rome, and coming into and abiding in the province of New York, and with being one of the conspirators in the Negro plot to burn the city of New York, 1741'' *''The New York Conspiracy, or the History of the Negro Plot:: with the Journal of the Proceedings Against the Conspirators at New-York in the Years 1741-2: Together with Several Interesting Tables Containing the Names of the White and Black Persons Arrested on Account of the Conspiracy, the Times of Their Trials, Their Sentences, Their Executions by Burning and Hanging, Names of Those Transported, and Those Discharged: With a Variety of Other Useful and Highly Interesting Matter.'' (1741-2; republished in 1810) *''A Journal of the Proceedings in the Detection of the Conspiracy Formed by Some White People, in Conjunction With Negro and Other Slaves, for Burning the City of New-York in America and Murdering the Inhabitants'' *"Letters to Governor Clinton" (1747).

Sources

Early Encounters in North America
{{DEFAULTSORT:Horsmanden, Daniel 1691 births 1778 deaths People from Goudhurst People of the Province of New York New York City Recorders Members of the American Philosophical Society Members of the New York Executive Council