James Duane

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James Duane (February 6, 1733 – February 1, 1797) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, and judge from New York. Born in New York City, he studied law and started a private practice in 1754. He later held several colonial and Revolutionary-era positions, including acting attorney general of the Province of New York in 1767 and a boundary commissioner.

Duane played a major role in the fight for independence. He was a delegate to the First Continental Congress (1774) and the Second Continental Congress, and he served in the Congress of the Confederation (1781–1783). He signed the Continental Association, which urged boycotts of British goods, and he also signed the Articles of Confederation. He was involved in New York’s postwar constitutions and served in the New York State Senate (1782–1785; 1788–1790).

As the first postwar mayor of New York City, Duane served from 1784 to 1789 and worked to revive the city after the war. In 1789, President George Washington appointed him to a new seat on the United States District Court for the District of New York, where he served as judge until resigning for ill health in 1794.

A member of the Federalist Party, Duane helped found the New York Manumission Society to promote abolition. He owned land and lived at Gramercy Seat in Manhattan, with a country estate near Schenectady (Duanesburg). He supported Trinity Church and Kings College. He died in 1797 and was buried in Duanesburg. Duane Street in Manhattan and the town of Duanesburg are named after him.