Biography

"Descendents of the LeRoy family published the family genealogy in 2003. The book is well researched and provides footnotes for the sources of the information. So the first step in starting the research will be to examine all of the footnotes. What we know about Jacob is that he was born on November 27, 1794 and was the fourth child of Herman and Hannah Cornell LeRoy and that he was born into a wealthy New York City family. He attended Yale University for three years and in 1815, following the War of 1812, he traveled to India aboard one of his father's ships to open contracts for commerce.

He married Charlotte Downes Otis on May 20, 1822 at Grace Church in New York City. Charlotte was born in Boston on October 15, 1800, and her father was a prominent businessman. Her mother died in France before Charlotte was married. We have very little information about Charlotte. Some accounts say she was educated in France, but there is no substantiation. Her sister, Helen, was also married to a Jacob (Rutgers) LeRoy, which only points out how easy it is to confuse the Jacob LeRoys - and there are a lot of them - - cousins and uncles!

In 1835, Jacob LeRoy and Herman Redfield were negotiating for the purchase of all the remaining unsold property of the Holland Purchase in Orleans, Niagara, Genesee and Erie Counties. The land was to be purchased at $2 per acre and the contracts, bonds and mortgages were to be purchased at 20% to 23% discount. One fourth to one half of the purchase price was to be paid within one year and the rest in six annual installments.


Redfield and LeRoy represented the Farmers Loan & Trust Company. (The Farmers & Loan Company was originally chartered in 1822 as the Farmers Fire Insurance and Loan Company. It was merged and bought out several times and exists now as Citibank.) The Farmers and Loan Company wanted to overtake its major rival, the New York Life Insurance & Trust Company. The latter had been linked with the Holland Land Company and they had been denounced in the political campaign in 1834. The New York Life Insurance Company was blamed for crushing the economy with ramifications that trickled down to a lot of small businessmen and farmers. There was concern that the state legislature would curtail business transactions of the large loan companies. (Does any of this sound familiar?)

LeRoy and Redfield, on behalf of the Farmers Loan and Trust had to work in a hurry and accepted a counter. The new terms were 50% of the purchase in cash and the remainder in two years. The contract was signed December 25, 1835 for $2,282,382.63. Most of this was for contracts and outstanding mortgages....

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