ABSTRACT
When after the French withdrawal from Canada the Western Lands of New York Colony were first opened up to speculators and settlers, they were usually bought by land companies or wealthy individuals, who alone could afford to develop them. No wonder then that one of the most ardent Federalists in the heartland of Federalism was William Cooper, a man who in spite of early poverty and poor education had, not long after the Revolution, become the founder and proprietor of one of the most thriving new settlements in the state. It was almost as much a matter of course that Cooper should campaign for John Jay and Alexander Hamilton as that he should build himself a splendid manor house and make sure that his village was named Cooperstown. If the Coopers were upstarts and the Jays were more than respectable, the De Lanceys had been one of the great families of New York.
