Janvier says that the marriage did not take place until 1744, but other authorities place it at thirteen years earlier.  It is much more probable that Peter got married at twenty-eight than at forty-one; I scarcely think that he could have escaped so long!

Susanna’s father was Monsieur Etienne de Lancey, a Huguenot refugee, who had fled from Catholic France to the more liberal Colonies, and settled here.  He soon changed the Etienne to Stephen, married the daughter of one of the old Dutch houses (Van Cortlandt) and went into business.  Just what his occupation was is not clear, but later he acted as agent for Captain Warren in the disposal of his war prizes.  His sons, James and Oliver, were intimate friends of Peter’s through life, and, as will be seen, they worked together most zestfully when in later years the captain’s boundless energies took a turn at politics.

So gallant Irish-English Peter and lovely French-Dutch Susanna were married and, we believe, lived happily ever after.  They lived in New York town proper, but I conceive that, like other young lovers, they made many a trip out into the country, and that it was their dream to live there one day when they should be rich.  Certain it is that as soon as our hero did get a little money at last he could hardly wait to buy the farm land far out of town on the river.  But that time was not yet.

Needless to say, Peter’s married life, happy as it was, could not keep him long on shore.  We keep finding his name and the names of his ships in the delicious old newspapers of his day:  Captain Warren has just arrived; Captain Warren’s ship has “gone upon the careen” (i.e., is being repaired); Captain Warren is sailing next week, and so on, and so on.  The New York Gazette for May 31, 1736, states that:  “On Saturday last, Captain Warren in His Majesty’s ship the Squirrel arrived here in eight weeks from England.”  One perceives that this was record time, and worth a journalistic paragraph!

Troubles becoming more rife with Spain in 1739, Peter begged for active service and got it.  This probably was the beginning of his great prosperity, though his wealth did not become sensational until nearly five years later.  Fortunes were constantly being made in prize ships in those days, and you may be sure that our enterprising sea-fighter was not behind other men in this or in anything else calling for initiative and daring!  At all events the records seem to show that he bought his lands in the Green Village,—­Greenwich,—­about 1740, when he was thirty-seven.  Whether he built his house at that early date is not clear, but he probably didn’t have money enough yet, for when he did build, it was on a magnificent scale.  In 1744, however, came his golden harvest time!