The subject of this memoir descended from an ancient and honorable West of England family, noted for six generations for its military predilections. The first Anthony of whom we have particulars was a zealous partisan of Charles I., and left England for Virginia after the establishment of the Commonwealth; but, stopping at Bermuda, decided to remain there, where he became a member of the Government. The second Anthony returned to England and under William III. became a lieutenant-colonel and served at the battle of the Boyne. In reward for services, he was appointed a member of the King’s council, and Chief Justice of the Bermudas; an office which descended to his eldest son, Leonard, who entered the British Navy and served with distinction. The third Anthony, Leonard’s eldest son, came to New York about 1715, married a Miss Staats, and died soon afterwards, on the voyage to Bermuda. His only son, Anthony (IV.), after holding various civil offices in the State of New Jersey, entered the army and was a lieutenant-colonel in 1751. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Lewis Morris, governor of New Jersey, by whom he had the subject of our sketch, Anthony, the fifth of the name—his middle name coming from his godfather, the celebrated William Walton, of the “Walton House,” in the present Franklin Square, New York City. Anthony was born July 7, 1750, at the family residence near New Brunswick, N. J. The family aptitude for officeholding secured him, in due time, several posts of honor and profit under the Crown, and up to the outbreak of the Revolution he pursued the ordinary routine life of a country gentleman of large property; when the hereditary love of arms, and a sincere attachment to the cause of country, transformed him into the ardent patriot. In October, 1775, he was appointed an aide to Washington,[8] and in February, 1776, became Lieutenant-Colonel of the Third N. J. Battalion. In this capacity he was actively engaged in service at the North until 1780, when he was transferred to the First Regiment of Cavalry, and ordered South, to assume general command of the cavalry in that department.