Oliver De Lancey (British Army general)

General Oliver De Lancey (c. 1749 – 3 September 1822), also known as Oliver De Lancey Jr., was a British Army officer of French Huguenot descent, from a prominent family in colonial era New York state. His surname is sometimes written as de Lancey or DeLancey.

Oliver De Lancey Jr. was the son of Major General Oliver De Lancey (1718–1785) and Phila Franks, the eldest daughter of an early New York Jewish family. He was the nephew of James De Lancey, a celebrated New York lawyer, who was chief-justice of that colony from 1733 to 1760, and lieutenant-governor from 1753 to 1760. These two brothers were the sons of a wealthy Huguenot of Caen in Normandy, who emigrated to America on the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and bought large estates, in the British Province of New York, where they ranked, among the wealthiest and most powerful citizens, of the colony.. His brother was Stephen DeLancey, Chief Justice of the Bahamas and Governor of Tobago.

The younger Oliver De Lancey was educated in England, and entered the British Army as a cornet in the 14th Dragoons on 1 October 1766, and was promoted lieutenant on 12 December 1770, and captain into the 17th Dragoons on 16 May 1773.

When the American Revolutionary War broke out, in 1775, De Lancey was at once despatched to his native colony to make arrangements for the accommodation and remounting of his own regiment and of the royal artillery, then under orders for active service. He found on his arrival there that his father had warmly espoused the royalist cause, and in the following year the elder Oliver de Lancey raised and equipped at his own expense three battalions of loyalist Americans, which he commanded with the rank of brigadier-general. The younger Oliver de Lancey accompanied his regiment to Nova Scotia, to Staten Island in June 1776, and then in the expedition to Long Island, where he commanded the cavalry outposts in the smart action of 28 August, in which the American General Nathaniel Woodhull surrendered to him. It is agreed that Woodhull was assaulted after he had surrendered and died of his wounds. Some sources accuse De Lancey of encouraging his men to maltreat Woodhull and of using his sabre to wound Woodhull., while some other say that De Lancey tried to prevent the attack.

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