In 1794-5, he was a member of the Assembly (17th session) from Dutchess county.

On the 23d of February, 1796, he was chosen by the Council of Appointment to the office of Assistant Attorney-General. Mr. Radcliff's district was composed of the counties of Orange, Dutchess and Ulster.'

On the 27th of December, 1798, Mr. Radcliff was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, in place of John Cozine, who died shortly after his appointment.

In 1799, Judge Radcliff removed from Poughkeepsie to Albany. By an act of April 8th, 1801, he was appointed, in conjunction with James Kent (then an Associate Justice), to revise the laws of the State.

In 1802, he removed to the city of New York, where he subsequently resided until his removal, in the latter part of his life, to Brooklyn.

In January, 1804, he resigned the office of Supreme Court Justice, and resumed the practice of the law, devoting himself to Chancery business.

On the 13th of February, 1810, he was appointed by the Council of Appointment to the Mayoralty of the city of New York, and on the 10th of July, 1815, was reappointed; both times in place of De Witt Clinton.

In 1821, he was a member, from the city and county of New York, of the State Convention which formed the Constitution of that year.

On the 4th of January, 1842, he was appointed, by the United States Circuit and District Courts, a commissioner under the General Bankrupt Act, passed at the first session (1841) of the twenty-seventh Congress, but on the twentieth of May in the above year he died at Troy, New York (while on a visit from his residence at Brooklyn), in the eighty-first year of his age.

Mr. Radcliff was an excellent Chancery lawyer. In the latter portion of his life, when engaged in preparing bills or answers in Chancery, or other legal papers, he was in the habit of dictating

1 On the 27th of January, 1798, Coenrad E. Elmendorph was also appointed for the same district.

to an amanuensis, and such was his accuracy, there was seldom any occasion to alter a word or sentence of what he had dictated.'

He was of remarkably handsome, dignified presence, over six feet in height, erect in person, with light eyes and complexion, and a mild, highly intellectual countenance. His manners were quiet and affable.

He was married, in 1786, to Julia, daughter of the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith, and granddaughter to the celebrated Cotton Mather. He left children.

Mr. Radcliff, while he sat upon the bench of the Supreme Court, viz., during the period from 1799 to 1803, made notes of the decisions of the court for publication, but the labors attendant upon his profession (which he had resumed after the resignation of his Judgeship) prevented him from completing his work. He, however, allowed William Johnson, the subsequent reporter, the use of his manuscripts of which Mr. Johnson availed himself in connection with his own notes and those of others, in his "Johnson's Cases."

HENRY BROCKHOLST LIVINGSTON,

SON OF WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, GOVERNOR OF NEW JERSEY, Was born in the city of New York on the 26th of November, 1757.

In 1774, he graduated at Princeton College, New Jersey. Early in the summer of 1776, he entered the military service of his country as a Captain, and was one of the aids, with the rank of Major, of General Schuyler then commander of the northern department of New York.

He then became aid to General St. Clair, acting in that capacity at the investment of Ticonderoga, by Burgoyne, in the beginning of July, 1777, and witnessed the retreat of Colonel Warner's troops from Hubbarton. Attached, in the following September, once

'Letter of Lemuel Jenkins, Esq., of Albany, to the writer.

more to the military family of General Schuyler, he, while his commander was absent at Albany, joined General Arnold on the ninth of that month, and as a volunteer, participated on the nineteenth, in the first conflict of Gates with Burgoyne, at Bemis Heights.

In 1779, Mr. Livingston became the private secretary of John Jay, minister plenipotentiary to Spain; left with him in the frigate Confederacy on the twentieth October of that year, and remained about three years abroad. On his homeward voyage, in 1782, he was captured by a British cruiser and carried to the city of New York, but was liberated on the arrival of Sir Guy Carleton in May, 1783. Soon after, he went to Albany, studied law with Peter W. Yates, and in November, 1783, after the evacuation of New York by the British, commenced practice in the latter city.'

In 1784, by the act of May 1st, granting additional powers to King's College, Mr. Livingston was made one of the first Regents in the University, named, to the number of twenty-four, in the

act.

After the above year, he dropped the name of Henry and became known as Brockholst Livingston.

He was a member of the New York Assembly, in the twelfth session of 1788-9, from the city and county of New York; also in the twenty-fourth session of 1800-1; and was elected to the twenty-fifth session of 1802.

On the 8th of January, 1802, he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

In November, 1806, he was made a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; and in January, 1807, he resigned his Supreme Court Justiceship of New York.

He continued in the office of United States Justice till his death, which occurred during the sittings of the Court at Wash ington, on the 18th of March, 1823, in the sixty-sixth year of his age.

Mr. Livingston was slender in person, with light eyes and complexion, and marked features. His manners were cheerful and pleasing. He was fluent in conversation and accessible to all.

'See "Holgate's American Genealogy," p. 191.

At the bar he was powerful and eloquent, and was possessed of literary tastes and scholastic acquirements.

Mr. Livingston was thrice married; his first wife was Catharine Keteltas, by whom he had four daughters and a son. His second was Ann N. Ludlow, by whom he had two daughters and a son, and his third Mrs. John Kortwright, by whom he had two sons and a daughter.

He was one of the founders of the New York Historical Society and the second named in the act of incorporation.

SMITH THOMPSON,

Appointed on the 8th of January, 1802, in place of Egbert Benson, resigned on his appointment as Chief Judge in the second circuit of the United States Court. On the 25th of February, 1814, appointed Chief Justice. (See Biography.)

AMBROSE SPENCER,

Appointed on the 3d of February, 1804, in place of Jacob Radcliff, resigned. On the 9th of February, 1819, appointed Chief Justice. (See Biography.)

DANIEL D. TOMPKINS,

Appointed on the 2d of July, 1804, in place of James Kent, Chief Justice. Resigned, on his election as Governor, in April, 1807. (See Biography.)

WILLIAM W. VAN NESS,

SON OF WILLIAM VAN NESS,

Was born at Claverack, Columbia county, New York, in 1776. He did not receive a collegiate education.

He pursued his legal studies in the office of John Bay, of Claverack, and also in the city of New York; was admitted to the bar as an attorney, in 1797, and followed his profession in Claverack, until his admission in 1800, as a Counselor. He then removed to Hudson, in the above named county, which elected him a momber of the New York Assembly, at the twenty-eighth session, 1804-5, and also at the twenty-ninth session, 1806.

On the 9th of June, 1807, he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York; and in 1821, was a member from Columbia county of the State Convention.

He continued as Justice until the 31st day of December, 1822, when his commission expired by the Constitution formed by the above Convention taking effect from that day.

He then opened a law office in the city of New York, but died at Charleston, South Carolina, on the 27th February, 1823, in the forty-eighth year of his age.

He was married in 1796 to Jane, daughter of John Bay, and had five children, three sons and two daughters.

Mr. Van Ness was large and portly in person, with light complexion, fine blue eyes and high forehead. He possessed great suavity of manner, displayed much imagination and eloquence at the bar and in conversation, and was very easy of approach.

JOSEPH C. YATES,

Appointed on the 8th of February, 1808, in place of Brockholst Livingston, resigned by reason of his appointment as Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Resigned on his election as Governor, in November, 1822. (See Biography.)