David Van Horn, Sr.

David Van Horne

by Stefan Bielinski

David Van Horne (sometimes called David Van Horne, Jr.) seems to have been born in 1744 or 1755. Perhaps he was the only surviving son of David and Ann French Van Horne of New York who filed a will in June 1774. His seven sisters all married within the upper ranks of New York society.

At the outbreak of the war, he was counted among those who emerged as leaders of the opposition to the British.

A "David Van Horne" was an officer in the Revolutionary army. Van Horne of New York was a captain in a Continental regiment. He retired April 23, 1779. Perhaps more than one David Van Horne served.

In 1790, the household of "David Van Horne" (one white man, two females, a slave, and a free person of color) was configured on the census for the town of Brooklyn - the only DVH so identified in New York State.

His wife was Sarah Van Blarcom. The marriage produced four children but only daughter "Augusta" was alive in 1801. Curiously, Albany resident Christopher Miller was said to have been his father-in-law.

In 1793, he was one of the trustees of the New York Society Library.

By the end of the century, he had taken up residence in Albany. In 1799, his house and lot in the third ward was valued on the city assessment roll. In 1800, his third ward household included only an aged man and woman, a slightly younger woman, and a slave.

In January 1801, he was replaced as adjutant general because he had been incapacitated with a paralytic condition.

David Van Horne filed a will in January 1801. It passed probate on May 18.