If you will look at the Ratzer map you will see that the Elliott
estate adjoined the Brevoort lands. It is today one of the most
variously important regions in town, embracing as it does both
Broadway and Fifth Avenue and including a most lively business section
and a most exclusive aristocratic quarter. Andrew Elliott was the son
of Sir. Gilbert Elliott, Lord Chief Justice, Clerk of Scotland. Andrew
was Receiver General of the Province of New York under the Crown and a
most loyal Royalist to the last. When the British rule passed he, in
common with many other English sympathisers, found himself in an
embarrassing position. The De Lanceys--close friends of his--lost
their lands outright. But Elliott, like the canny Scotchman that he
was, was determined that he would not be served the same way.
To quote Mr. J.H. Henry, who now handles that huge property: "He must
have had friends! Apparently they liked him, if they didn't like his
politics."
This is how they managed it: He transferred his entire estate to a
Quaker friend of his in Philadelphia--this was before the situation
had become too critical; then a little group of friendly New Yorkers,
among whom was Alexander Hamilton, bought it in; next it passed into
the hands of one Friedrich Charles Hans Bruno, Baron Poelnitz, who
appears to have been not much more than a figurehead.
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