Daniel McCormick (1739/40 – 1834) was an Irish-born businessman who lived most of his life in New York City, where he was a founding director of the Bank of New York. He was a partner in Macomb's Purchase, in which about one-tenth of the land in the state of New York was acquired. Early life McCormick was born in Ballybeen, a town in County Down in present-day Northern Ireland, in either 1739 or 1740. He had a brother named Edward, a sea captain in the East Indian trade, who married Joanna Hamilton, possibly a distant Scottish cousin of Alexander Hamilton. McCormick arrived in the United States in 1766. During the Revolutionary War, he served as a lieutenant in a patriot militia unit, until the British occupation of New York City. As a recognized neutral during the occupation, he escaped confiscation of his property. After the occupation ended, McCormack worked for an auctioneering company named Moore, Lynsen and Company and made a fortune in the sale of prizes during the Revolutionary War. By 1784, he had won election to the newly formed New York Chamber of Commerce. Life on Wall Street McCormick became well known among New York social circles that included Hamilton, John Jay, John Adams, and the artist Gilbert Stuart. His business offices at 39 Wall Street were close to Federal Hall, the meeting place for the Continental Congress between 1785 and 1789 under the Articles of Confederation. His home at 57 Wall Street became a social hub for acquaintances including Hamilton, whose law office in 1789 was in a neighboring building at 58 Wall Street. Life at McCormick's house in 1789–90 was described as follows: Little went on in Federal Hall without his comment, if not his knowledge. And when Congress dismissed for the day, and statesmen and socialites took their Wall Street airing, Mr. McCormick and his cronies had a word about each. Let the Secretary of War lumber past that observatory stoop, and the latest quip would be whispered concerning General Knox's unfortunate bulk – "Mrs John Adams' daughter says 'he is not half so fat as he was'; she means before he wore stays". And when chubby John Adams himself strutted by "like a monkey just put into breeches", the stoop recalled how Senator Izard proposed that the Vice-President be titled "His Rotundity". Bank of New York The Bank of New York was founded as