Notes:

nephew of President James Monroe (and adopted son?)

James + Elizabeth (Betsy) Mary Douglas. Elizabeth (daughter of George Douglas and Margaret (Peggy) Corne) was born in 1799; died in 1852. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Of New York
The Douglas brothers were industrious Scot descents who arrived in New York during the 1760's destined to become wealthy. The Douglas fortune was mainly acquired through various businesses in New York and London, and by farming in Scotland. Of the four, two brothers returned to Scotland and acquired large tracts of land in Galloway. William Douglas built Gelston Castle and his brother James founded the town of Castle Douglas (sic). George Douglas was the only brother to permanently settle in America and eventually married Margaret Corne.

George + Margaret (Peggy) Corne. Margaret (daughter of Capt Peter Corne and Elizabeth Henderson) was born in 1767; died on 31 Dec 1829 in Liverpool; was buried in Jan 1830 in Douglas Mausoleum, Kelton, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Some sources show her name as Corrie

Margaret Corne was the daughter of Captain Peter Corne and a granddaughter of Dr. James Henderson. The royal grant was passed down to Margaret who was the first of Dr. Henderson's heirs to take an interest in the lands up in the Mohawk Valley. With her husband George Douglas, she had some land cleared and surveyed, then had a twenty-four room summer Cottage built in 1787.
Margaret and George Douglas had five children: Margaret (1787), Harriett (1790), George (1793), William (1795), and Elizabeth Mary (1799). George died of yellow fever at his wife's home at King's Ferry on the Hudson River.

Notes:

Eldest son

John + Mary Heron. Mary (daughter of James Heron and Marion Shaw) was born on 1 Oct 1718; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Some sources show his name as Corrie

Over the years, the Kennedy House in Montrose house also has been known by the names of the successive families that owned it. It has been called the Henry House, the Tate House, the Mackey House and the Johnson House.

It should properly have been called the Corne House, having been built for Peter Corne, openly a loyalist during the Revolution, probably in the 1750's. The Corne name was pronounced locally as "Cor-ney" and sometimes written with an accented final letter--the French accent aigu (?).

Born in the English port city of Hull in 1722, Corne, already "a master mariner," came to New York as a young man and entered into partnership with merchants Anthony and Isaac Van Dam. Not content with the dull routines of commerce, Corne sailed the company's ships to the West African coast. Here he bought slaves and transported them to the island of St. Eustatius in the Dutch Antilles, a center for contraband. High mortality among the workers on sugar plantations made slaves a desirable cargo. Emptied of their human freight, his ships then loaded Caribbean sugar and rum for transport to the North American colonies.

Between 1740 and 1748, during the American phase of Britain's War of the Austrian Succession, with a commission from the colony of New York, Corne became part owner of several privateers. Armed with eight cannon, his brig Nebuchadnezzar wreaked havoc on Dutch and French merchant vessels.

Peter Corne was soon wealthy. He owned town houses in New York City, a summer mansion north of the city that he called Greenwich House (it lent its name to the neighborhood) and homes on Long Island and near the King's Ferry, where he had a farm and a gristmill near Peekskill.

In 1751, he married Elizabeth Henderson, affluent in her own right. Her mother, Thysie Benson, was the daughter of Derrick Benson, a well-to-do New Jersey landowner. Her Scottish-born father, wealthy physician and merchant Dr. James Henderson, owned houses and land in New York City and extensive acreage in the Mohawk Valley.

Peter and Elizabeth Henderson Corne had three daughters. Without her father's consent, on Sunday, June 23, 1773, Letitia, the eldest, married Dennis Kennedy, "a gentleman of New York," in Manhattan's Lutheran Church. Built in 1729 on Broadway at Rector Street, the church would be gutted in the disastrous fire that consumed a third of New York after American troops evacuated he city in 1776. As the father of States Morris Dyckman's wife, Dennis Kennedy is an important figure in the Dyckman family history and the Boscobel story.

The second Corne daughter, Elizabeth, married a lieutenant of artillery and deputy quartermaster general of Hessian troops with an imposing name: Baron Charles August de Girancourt de Vourecourt. Peter Corne roundly disliked the groom. The third, Margaret, married successful New York merchant George Douglas.

A stubborn, die-hard Tory, Peter Corne's name appears frequently in records during the Revolution. British headquarters files, conspiracy committee minutes and newspapers all contain references to him, including three jail sentences served because of his "passionate allegiance to George III in the faces of Rebel committeemen."

Family legend has it that Peter Corne once took the Kennedy children to the cellar of his home. Opening a curtain covering a portrait of British King George III, he commanded them, "Down on your knees to your Master!"

His wife Elizabeth Henderson Corne died in Bushwick, Long Island, on August 30, 1780. Five years later, Peter Corne married his partner Isaac Van Dam's widow, Sara. The relationship soon soured. Toward the end of his life he promised Sara anything in return for a legal separation. Peter Corne died in New York City on July 18, 1807.

Peter married Elizabeth Henderson in 1751. Elizabeth (daughter of Dr James Henderson and Thysie Benson) was born about 1722; died on 30 Aug 1780 in Bushwick, Long Island, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

?Letitia