{{Short description|English-American merchant and socialite (1748–1824)}} {{Infobox person | image = John Delafield.webp | caption = Delafield, {{circa|1780–1800}} | birth_date = {{birth date|1748|3|16}} | birth_place = Cripplegate, Middlesex, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1824|7|3|1748|3|16}} | death_place = New York City, New York, U.S. | occupation = Merchant | spouse = Ann Hallett | children = {{hlist|Joseph Delafield|Richard Delafield|Edward Delafield|Rufus King Delafield}} | relatives = Thomas Arnold (nephew) }} '''John Delafield''' (March 16, 1748 – July 3, 1824) was an English-American businessman and diplomat. Known for his 1783 delivery of the Treaty of Paris, Delafield would settle in New York City, achieving further financial prosperity there.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=admin |date=2024-05-24 |title=Revolutionary War Biographies |url=https://www.green-wood.com/2024/revolutionary-war-biographies/ |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=Green-Wood |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=John Delafield (1748-1824) - American Aristocracy |url=https://americanaristocracy.com/people/john-delafield |access-date=2024-10-07 |website=americanaristocracy.com}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last1=Greene |first1=Richard Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0pUyAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA91 |title=The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record |last2=Stiles |first2=Henry Reed |last3=Dwight |first3=Melatiah Everett |last4=Morrison |first4=George Austin |last5=Totten |first5=John Reynolds |last6=Mott |first6=Hopper Striker |last7=Ditmas |first7=Charles Andrew |last8=Pitman |first8=Harold Minot |last9=Forest |first9=Louis Effingham De |date=1876 |publisher=New York Genealogical and Biographical Society |language=en}}</ref>

== Early life== Delafield was born in England on March 16, 1748, in Cripplegate, London. He was the son of John Delafield (1714–1763), an affluent cheese merchant, and Martha ({{nee}} Dell) Delafield (1719–1761). Among his siblings were Joseph Delafield, Martha Delafield (wife of William Arnold and mother of Dr. Thomas Arnold),<ref name="Sinclair1896">{{cite book |last1=Sinclair |first1=William Macdonald |title=Leaders of Thought in the English Church |date=1896 |publisher=Hodder and Stoughton |page=301 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bx1JAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA301 |access-date=21 November 2024 |language=en}}</ref> and William Unsworth Delafield (who died in West Bengal, India in 1771), among others.<ref name="Delafield1945"/>

His paternal grandparents were John Delafield and Sarah ({{nee}} Goodwin) Delafield.<ref name="Delafield1945">{{cite book |last1=Delafield |first1=John Ross |title=Delafield, The Family History, by Brig. Gen. John Ross Delafield |date=1945 |publisher=Private Printing |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/delafieldfamilyh00dela |access-date=21 November 2024}}</ref> His maternal grandparents were John Dell and Susannah ({{nee}} Farnborough) Dell.<ref name="Wilson1926">{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=James Grant |last2=Fiske |first2=John |last3=Dick |first3=Charles |last4=Homans |first4=James Edward |last5=Fay |first5=John William |last6=Linen |first6=Herbert M. |last7=Dearborn |first7=L. E. |title=The Cyclopædia of American Biography |date=1926 |publisher=Press association compilers, Incorporated |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SJmdsje6DakC&pg=PA329-IA1 |access-date=21 November 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

==Career== Delafield was among the first Englishmen to settle in America as the Revolutionary War came to a close. Arriving in New York City in the spring of 1783, while it was still under British control, he brought with him the first copy of the provisional treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />

He was said to have arrived with significant wealth, holding the title of “Count of the Holy Roman Empire” by descent, and by the turn of the century, had become one of New York's wealthiest individuals, earning the title "one of the fathers of Wall Street." His mansion, located across the East River from New York City, was a grand estate where he lived with his wife, Ann Hallett—herself from a notable Revolutionary family—and their eleven children. He was an original director of the Mutual Insurance Company of New York, established by Alexander Hamilton in 1787, and later became president of the United Insurance Company.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

==Personal life== thumb|right|250px|Photograph of members of his family, {{Circa|1870}} Delafield was married to Ann Hallett (1766–1839), a daughter of Joseph Hallett III and Elizabeth ({{nee}} Hazard) Hallett. Among her siblings was Maria Hallett, the second wife of U.S. Representative Benjamin Tallmadge. Together, they lived at 16 Wall Street in New York City, and were the parents of eleven children, including:<ref name="Browning1891">{{cite book |last1=Browning |first1=Charles Henry |title=Americans of Royal Descent: A Collection of Genealogies of American Families Whose Lineage is Traced to the Legitimate Issue of Kings |date=1891 |publisher=Porter & Costes |page=171 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dIUaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA171 |access-date=21 November 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

* John Delafield III (1786–1853), who married Harriet Wadsworth Tallmadge, a daughter of his uncle, Benjamin Tallmadge, from his first marriage to Mary Floyd (a daughter of signer William Floyd).<ref>{{cite web |title=Harriet Tallmadge Delafield |url=https://ledger.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org/ledger/students/6561 |website=ledger.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org |publisher=Litchfield Ledger |access-date=21 November 2024}}</ref> * Joseph Delafield (1790–1875), who married Julia Livingston, a daughter of Maturin Livingston and Margaret Lewis Livingston (only daughter and heiress of Gov. Morgan Lewis).<ref name="StNick1905">{{cite book |title=The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: History, Customs, Record of Events, Constitution, Certain Genealogies, and Other Matters of Interest. V. 1- |date=1905 |publisher=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York |page=45 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U8kpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA45 |access-date=21 November 2024 |language=en}}</ref> * William Delafield (1792–1853), a merchant.<ref name="Pelletreau1907">{{cite book |last1=Pelletreau |first1=William Smith |title=Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Family History of New York |date=1907 |publisher=Lewis Publishing Company |page=273 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5WxoOvnQgMQC&pg=PA273 |access-date=21 November 2024 |language=en}}</ref> * Henry Delafield (1792–1875), a merchant who married Mary ({{nee}} Parish) Monson, a daughter of Penn Parish and widow of Judge Levinus Monson, in 1865.<ref name="Pelletreau1907"/> * Edward Delafield (1794–1875), a doctor who married Elinor Elizabeth Elwyn, a daughter of Thomas Elwyn. After her death in 1834, he married Julia Floyd, a daughter of Nicoll Floyd (and granddaughter of William Floyd).<ref name="communitylibrary">{{cite web |title=Celebrating our Local History… Through the Eyes of Julia Floyd Delafield – Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library |url=https://www.communitylibrary.org/blog/2021/03/04/celebrating-our-local-history-through-the-eyes-of-julia-floyd-delafield/ |website=www.communitylibrary.org |publisher=Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library |access-date=21 November 2024}}</ref> * Richard Delafield (1798–1873), who married Harriet Baldwin Covington, a daughter of Gen. Elijah Moorman Covington, in 1833.<ref name="Baldwin1889">{{cite book |last1=Baldwin |first1=Charles Candee |title=The Baldwin Genealogy Supplement |date=1889 |publisher=Cleveland leader. print |page=1056 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IbowAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1056 |access-date=21 November 2024 |language=en}}</ref> * Rufus King Delafield (1802–1874), who married Eliza Bard, the daughter of William Bard, in 1836.<ref name="Helffenstein1911">{{cite book |last1=Helffenstein |first1=Abraham Ernest |title=Pierre Fauconnier and His Descendants: With Some Account of the Allied Valleaux |date=1911 |publisher=Press of S. H. Burbank & Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/pierrefauconnie00helfgoog/page/n139 95] |url=https://archive.org/details/pierrefauconnie00helfgoog |accessdate=12 August 2019 |language=en}}</ref> * Susan Maria Delafield (1805–1861), who married merchant Henry Parish, a son of Jacob Parish and brother to Daniel Parish.<ref name="americanaristocracy">{{cite web |title=Henry Parish (1788-1856) |url=https://americanaristocracy.com/people/henry-parish |website=americanaristocracy.com |publisher=American Aristocracy |access-date=21 November 2024}}</ref>

His summer residence, on 140-acres, built in 1791 on the East River opposite Blackwell's Island, was known as" Sunswick" and was one of the largest and best appointed private houses near New York.<ref name="TalmadgeBook">{{cite book|last1=Talmadge|first1=Arthur White|title=The Talmadge, Tallmadge and Talmage genealogy; being the descendants of Thomas Talmadge of Lynn, Massachusetts, with an appendix including other families|date=1909|publisher=The Grafton press|location=New York|url=https://archive.org/details/talmadgetallmadg00intalm |accessdate=November 10, 2016}}</ref>

He died on July 3, 1824, at the age of 76.<ref name=":2" />

== References == {{reflist|30em}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Delafield, John}} Category:1748 births Category:1824 deaths John Category:British emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies Category:18th-century American merchants