OF JTEW YORK CITY.                     379
 

CHAPTER XXXVIIL

I !:ave had frequent occasion In this work to speak of
an old mercantile family In New York of the name of
Woolsey. There have been great merchants of that
name In this city, from the time of Its first foundation
to the present hour. George Woolsey came to this city
in 1623, with the first Dutch emigrants ; probablv he
was a boy 13 years old at the time. Nine years later he
became a merchant, or trader, as was the more proper
designation In the early years of this city, when It was
called New Amsterdam. George kept In business in
this city until 1647, when he retired, having bought a
country place on Long Island, where he died In 1698,
aged 86. He was not a Dutch boy, but was English,
and a relative of the great Thomas Woolsey, of massive
intellect and ambition, who was Prime Minister to King
Henry the Eighth. The grandfather of George was
named Thomas, after the Cardinal His grandson, Ben¬
jamin, was exiled to Holland In 1610, when he had the
son George born to him, who afterwards became a dls-
tir.guished New York merchant, as above stated* This
George had a son, also named George, who was born in
this city in 1650, and Is mentioned In the patent of Gov¬
ernor Dongan of 1686. He died in 1741, aged 90.
He had a son Benjamin, who was born in 1687 and died