The Social Club Editorial Note
The Social Club
Among the many clubs that flourished in New York City was the Social Club, referred to in the letters from Philip Schuyler and Samuel Kissam to John Jay as the “old Club.”1 Unlike the Debating Society or the Moot, the Social Club had a purpose that was strictly reflected in its name, and its members were drawn from the elite of New York society. It held its entertainments in wintertime on Saturday evenings, usually at the Queen’s Head Tavern, near the Royal Exchange at the end of Broad Street, or other establishments, such as that owned by Walter Heyer on the corner of King (now Pine) and Nassau Streets, and in summer at Kip’s Bay, where it had built a clubhouse.2 Family, education, and business ties bound the members. However, the increasing gravity of the political situation, and the differences of opinion between the members, forced the final gathering of the club in December 1775.
A list prepared in 1820 by John Moore, a royal customs official, with his own commentary, although incomplete (Philip Schuyler, for example, is not listed), gives some sense of the nature of the club’s membership.3 John Jay is listed as “disaffected, became a member of Congress, a President, Minister to Spain, commissioner to make Peace, Chief Justice, Minister to England, and on his return Governor of N. York—good and amiable man.” Other “disaffected” members include Gouverneur Morris, Robert R. Livingston, Egbert Benson, Morgan Lewis,4 Giulian Verplanck,5 John Livingston,6 Henry Livingston,7 James Seagrove,8 John Stevens,9 and Francis Lewis.10 “Doubtfuls” include John Watts,11 Leonard Lispenard,12 and Anthony Lispenard.13 “Loyals” include Richard Harison,14 John Hay, Peter Van Schaack (spelled by Moore as “Van Schaick”), Daniel Ludlow,15 Dr. Samuel Bard,16 George Ludlow,17 William Ludlow,18 William Imlay (described as “doubtful” after 1777),19 Henry Kelly, and Stephen Rapalje.20 Moore describes John Reade as “Pro and Con, would have proved loyal no doubt, if his wife’s family been otherwise.”
1. See below. For a discussion of the importance of club life in Anglo-American life, see , chapter 6. For the relationship between clubs and taverns, see Sharon V. Salinger, Taverns and Drinking in Early America (Baltimore, Md., 2002), 76–80.
2. , 248. John Moore lists the meetings as taking place at “Sam Francis’s.” Francis, or Fraunces, as he is more commonly known, owned the building the Queen’s Head occupied and took over running the tavern in 1770. In an advertisement for the tavern, Fraunces boasted that “the best Clubs, and the greatest Entertainments in this City, were at the above Tavern.” New-York Journal, 13 Sept. 1770. Later advertisements made special note that it provided “the usual genteel accommodation for set CLUBS.” New York Gazette, 4 Oct. 1773. For Walter Heyer’s tavern, see below, Philip Schuyler to JJ, 1772.
3. AD, NHi. “Copied May 1857 by Tho. W.C. Moore,” with the following notation: “Copy Of a Ms. found among my Father, John Moore’s papers. Written during the Revolutionary War; with Explanatory remarks, made by him, in the Year 1820. List of members of the Social Club to which he belonged.”
4. Morgan Lewis (1754–1844), son of Francis Lewis (1713–1802), retired merchant member of the Second Continental Congress and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Morgan Lewis graduated from Princeton in 1773 and clerked for JJ. He joined the Patriot side in 1775 and rose to the rank of assistant quartermaster general.
5. Gulian Verplanck (Ver Planck; 1751–99).
6. John Livingston (1749–1822), son of Robert Livingston, third proprietor of Livingston Manor.
7. Henry Livingston (1752–1823), son of Robert Livingston, third proprietor of Livingston Manor.
8. James Seagrove (c. 1740–post 1808), after a period as a merchant in Philadelphia, moved to St. Mary’s, Georgia, where he was a merchant and a landowner. He served as a state legislator, as a delegate to the Georgia ratifying convention for the Constitution in 1788, as collector of customs at St. Mary’s during the 1790s, as superintendent of Indian affairs for the Southern Department, negotiating with the Creek Nation, as delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1798, and subsequently as a judge and state senator. He died after 1808. See Daniel M. Smith, “James Seagrove and the Mission to Tuckaubatchee, 1793,” Ga. Historical Quarterly 14 (1960): 41–55.
9. John Stevens (1749–1838), a member of the class of 1768 of King’s College and brother of Robert R. Livingston Jr.’s wife, Mary.
10. Probably Francis Lewis Jr. (b. 1750), not his father. Son of Francis Lewis and brother of Morgan Lewis. His wife, Elizabeth Ludlow, was the daughter of Gabriel Ludlow and the niece of George Duncan Ludlow, both active Loyalists. In August 1778, Francis Lewis Jr. was appointed signer of the Continental Bills of Credit. Member of the New York State Assembly, 1787–88.
11. John Watts Jr. (1749–1836), last royal recorder of the City of New York, 1774–77; member of the New York State Assembly, 1788–91; U.S. congressman, 1793–95; and New York state court judge for Westchester, 1802–7.
12. Leonard Lispenard (b. 1743), King’s College class of 1762, merchant.
13. Anthony Lispenard (1742–1806), King’s College class of 1761, merchant, brewer.
14. For Richard Harison, see above, Account of the King’s College Commencement, 28 May 1764. Because of his Loyalist views, Harison’s license to practice law was revoked in 1779 and not reinstated until 1786. He was a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention, a member of the New York Assembly, U.S. district attorney for New York, and recorder for New York City. Harison’s second wife, Frances, was George Duncan Ludlow’s daughter.
15. Daniel Ludlow (1750–1814), merchant, insurer, and banker. He was the half brother of George Duncan Ludlow. A Loyalist during the war, he remained in New York and eventually founded the Manhattan Company (a precursor to Chase Bank and the city’s first water company) with Aaron Burr.
16. Samuel Bard (1742–1821), physician and educator. Bard received his B.A. from King’s College in 1763 and studied medicine in London and at Edinburgh University. Upon returning to New York, he was instrumental in founding the medical college at King’s, the second in the colonies, in 1767. A mild Loyalist during the Revolution, he became President Washington’s personal physician. In 1785 he was named dean of Columbia College medical school, and in 1813, the first president of the combined Columbia/College of Physicians and Surgeons.
17. George Ludlow (b. 1738), merchant, cousin of Daniel Ludlow and George Duncan Ludlow.
18. William Ludlow (b. 1742), merchant, brother of George Ludlow, cousin of Daniel Ludlow and George Duncan Ludlow.
19. William Imlay (1742–1807), originally from New Jersey, moved to New York in 1769. He transferred to Connecticut during the occupation of New York City and served as commissioner of the Continental loan office, a position he retained through the reorganization of the government until his death.
20. Stephen Rapalje (Rapalye, Rapelje) (c. 1726–1812), a New York merchant, was accused in 1777 of acting as a guide for the British in Long Island, a charge he denied. He took the oath of allegiance. , 1: 122–23, 167–68. See also JJ to Stephen Rapalje, 15 Sept. 1775, below.