JOHN LANSING (1754 - 1829)
http://www.iment.com/maida/familytree/lansing/lansing.htm

(Lansing Manor, Blenheim NY) On January 30, 1754, John
TenEyck Lansing was born in Albany, NY, to Gerrit Jacob
and Jannetje [Waters] Lansing. At age 21 Lansing had
completed his study of the law and was admitted to
practice. In 1781 he married Cornelia Ray. They had 10
children, 5 of whom died in infancy. Lansing was quite
wealthy; he owned a large estate at Lansingburg and had a
lucrative law practice. 

From 1776 to 1777 Lansing acted as military secretary to
Gen. Philip Schuyler. From the military world Lansing
turned to the political and served six terms in the New
York Assembly--1780-84, 1786, and 1788. During the last
two terms he was speaker of the assembly. In the 2-year
gap between his first four terms in the assembly and the
fifth, Lansing sat in the Confederation Congress. He
rounded out his public service by serving as Albany's
mayor between 1786 and 1790. 

Lansing went to Philadelphia as part of the New York
delegation to the Constitutional Convention. As the
convention progressed, Lansing became disillusioned
because he believed it was exceeding its instructions.
Lansing believed the delegates had gathered together
simply to amend the Articles of Confederation and was
dismayed at the movement to write an entirely new
constitution. After 6 weeks, John Lansing and fellow New
York delegate Robert Yates left the convention and
explained their departure in a joint letter to New York
Governor George Clinton. They stated that they opposed any
system that would consolidate the United States into one
government, and they had understood that the convention
would not consider any such consolidation. Furthermore,
warned Lansing and Yates, the kind of government
recommended by the convention could not "afford that
security to equal and permanent liberty which we wished to
make an invariable object of our pursuit." In 1788, as a
member of the New York ratifying convention, Lansing again
vigorously opposed the Constitution. 

Under the new federal government Lansing pursued a long
judicial career. In 1790 he began an 11-year term on the
supreme court of New York; from 1798 until 1801 he served
as its chief justice. Between 1801 and 1814 Lansing was
chancellor of the state. Retirement from that post did not
slow him down; in 1817 he accepted an appointment as a
regent of the University of the State of New York. 

Lansing's death was the most mysterious of all the
delegates to the Constitutional Convention. While on a
visit to New York City in 1829, he left his hotel to post
some letters. No trace of him was ever found, and it was
supposed that he had been murdered. Dictionary of American
Biography V p. 608 


John Lansing, Jr. by Stefan Bielinski
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/l/jolansing3755.html


John Lansing, Jr. was born in 1754 the eldest son of
Gerrit J. Lansing and Jane Waters. Coming of age at the
outbeak of hostilities with the British, his rise was more
accelerated than it might have been during more peaceful
times.

As a teenager, he clerked in the law office of Robert
Yates. He also may have clerked for James Duane in New
York City. In 1775, he was admitted to practice law.
However, a budding career was cut short by the outbreak of
war. Commissioned an ensign in the Continental army, in
1776, he served as military secretary to General Philip
Schuyler. In the years that followed, he continued to
serve the American cause - but in civil capacities -
following his patrons, the Yateses, in the politcal
revolution and then into the new State government.

Lansing was elected to the New York State Assembly at age
twenty-six. He served in the legislature in 1780-84, 1786,
and 1788-89. In 1786 and 1789, he was Assembly speaker. In
1786, he was appointed mayor of Albany - serving at City
Hall until 1790.

In 1787, Mayor Lansing was sent with Robert Yates and
Alexander Hamilton to represent New York at the
Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Unsure of their
mandate to participate in the drafting of an entirely new
form of government, Yates and Lansing returned home after
a month. A contemporary provides us with a capsule of his
personality. Like Yates, he later wrote a history of the
proceedings. At that time, he was still serving as mayor
and also building a large, new home that would become a
Market Street landmark.

John Lansing, Jr. had married Manhattan refugee Cornelia
Ray in 1781. Their ten children were born between 1783 and
1800. However, neither of his sons lived to raise a
family. Although his career was based in Albany and New
York, Lansing used his status to acquire considerable
lands across the river and deep into the Schoharie Valley
- an estate called "Lansing Manor."

He served on the New York State Supreme Court from 1790 to
1801 - the last year as chief justice following the death
of Robert Yates. In 1801, he was appointed chancellor of
New York State. He held that office until 1814 when he
reached the mandatory retirement age of sixty! In
retirement, he continued to serve a lucritive legal
clientele. In 1817 he was appointed a regent of the
University of the State of New York. As late as 1824, he
unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Albany.

Primarily an officeholder and attorney, Chancellor Lansing
was involved in numerous and diverse civic ventures
including the Albany Library, Albany Waterworks, Albany
and Deleware Turnpike Company, Albany Academy, the Albany
Lancaster School, 

On the evening of December 12, 1829, he left his Manhattan
hotel to mail a letter and never was seen again.
Chancellor Lansing was 75 years old and was presumed
drowned or murdered. A cenotaph (empty tomb) was erected
at Albany Rural Cemetery. His widow died in 1834. 

notes

Sources: The life of John Lansing, Jr. is CAP biography
number 3755. This profile is derived chiefly from family
and community-based resources. The son of Gerrit Lansing,
he was called "Junior" to prevent confusion with at least
one other John G. Lansing. A number of biographical
profiles appear online.

Fellow delegate William Pierce of Georgia provided short
character sketches of his contemporaries: "Mr. Lansing is
a practising Attorney at Albany, and Mayor of that
Corporation. He has a hesitation in his speech, that will
prevent his being an Orator of any eminence; - his legal
knowledge I am told is not extensive, nor his education a
good one. He is however a Man of good sense, plain in his
manners, and sincere in his friendships. He is about 32
years of age."

Chancellor Lansing commissioned several portraits. This
one from the earlier part of his career appeared
unattributed on an Internet website. Unfortunately, that
page has vanished!

That work is most accessible in The Delegate From New York
or Proceedings of the Federal Convention of 1787, (from
the notes of John Lansing, Jr.), edited by Joseph Reese
Strayer (Princeton, NJ, 1939).

Portrait in the collection of Union College.

Do a Google Book search for: The Records of the Federal
Convention of 1787 By United States Constitutional
Convention, David Maydole Matteson, Max Farrand

Also see: A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of
the United States of America, Against the Attack of M.
Turgot by John Adams - 1794

Also see: Shapers of the Great Debate at the
Constitutional Convention of 1787: A Biographical
Dictionary By Joseph C. Morton

Also see: Secret Proceedings and Debates of the Convention
Assembled at Philadelphia, in the Year 1787 ... By United
States Constitutional Convention, Robert Yates, John
Lansing, Luther Martin