| He was an original Dutchman, born
in Groeningen, known widely as a fine
scholar, an eminent divine, and as
the pastor for a long period of the
Dutch Reformed Church in Albany, preaching
in the Dutch language for the first
fifteen or twenty years of his charge.
As Dominie Westerlo and his wife,
the mother of Stephen, were occupying
the Manor House, consequently the
young man brought his bride to the
mansion at the southeast corner of
North Market street (Broadway) and
North Ferry street, which had served
as an ample parsonage. When, however,
Stephen reached his majority, Dr.
Westerlo and his wife exchanged residences
with the young Patroon and his bride,
the latter couple leaving the parsonage
to occupy the manor house. The day
of his attaining his majority was
made one of great celebration, and
from miles around the tenantry and
the social set of the city flocked
to participate in his hospitality.
Mr. Van Rensselaer found it necessary
to
Page 8
look critically after the interest
of his manor, for in order to secure
good returns it was essential that
the lands should be cultivated,
and while speculators would buy
lands, the farmers, or laborious
tillers of the soil, were unwilling
to contract for the fee. By offering
leases in fees, or for long terms
at a moderate rental, he readily
succeeded in bringing a large proportion
of his lands, comprising the greater
portion of the counties of Albany
and Rensselaer, into cultivation,
thus acquiring a goodly income,
yet those who knew him have said
"he had none of that morbid
appetite for wealth which grows
ravenous by what it feeds on."
He received his first military commission,
as a major of infantry, in 1786,
when twenty-two years old, and two
years later was promoted to colonel
and given command of a regiment.
In 1801, governor John Jay directed
the cavalry of new York to be divided
from the infantry, and the cavalry
formed a single division, with two
brigades, and the command of the
whole was conferred upon Stephen
Van Rensselaer. He bore the commission
of major-general of cavalry to his
death. In 1787 he took an important
step in his career as a man of character,
when twenty-three years of age and
on the threshold of a life which
might have been one pampered with
wanton and luxurious excesses, he
deliberately chose, by a formal
profession of religious faith and
a personal; vow of religious obedience,
according to the doctrines and discipline
of the Christian church as adopted
by the Dutch reformers, to pledge
himself to a life of temperance,
simplicity, truth and purity. How
well he kept his vow is known to
all who were intimately acquainted
with the manner of his life, for
his domestic relations were the
most tender, and his character before
the world harmonious and beautiful,
as well as replete with deeds of
public service. Towards the close
of 1787 the convention sitting in
Philadelphia to frame a constitution,
terminated its labors and submitted
its work for the judgment of the
people. Mr. Van Rensselaer took
ground promptly, and was pronouncedly
in favor of the constitution. The
next spring delegates to the state
convention were to be chosen from
Albany county, and both Yates and
Lansing, who had left the Philadelphia
convention before its labors were
completed, were residents of the
same county and held great power
as anti-Federalists. It was to be
expected that their views would
prevail, yet Mr. Van Rensselaer,
urged by his party to uphold their
moral force in the controversy,
consented to stand as a candidate
for the assembly, and despite his
popularity was beaten. In the spring
of the next year, 1789, however,
Mr. Van Rensselaer was again a candidate,
and, with the previous question
settled, was elected by an enormous
majority. In the spring of 1790,
he was elected to the state senate,
and was re-elected, serving continuously
until 1795, as a faithful vigilant,
and influential member. On standing
committees, of which there were
few then, he was always an important
member. At the next gubernatorial
election, 1795, he was chosen lieutenant-governor,
with Hon. John Jay as executive,
Messrs. Yates and Floyd heading
the opposition ticket. In 1798 both
were re-nominated and elected by
handsome majorities. This time chancellor
Livingston was Mr. Jay's opponent,
while Mr. Van Rensselaer was the
candidate of both Federalists and
the antis, so universally popular
had he become. At the same time,
the plan was to attract votes for
Livingston away from Jay. In January,
1801, a convention was held at the
Tontine Coffee House in Albany,
and Mr. Van Rensselaer was unanimously
named the candidate for governor.
His nomination was enthusiastically
seconded in New York City and at
public meetings all over the state.
His purity, reliable judgment and
competent acquaintance with interests
and business of the state commended
him; but the parties were at such
great odds, the rancor so fearful,
that it poisoned even whole families
with hatred one for another. DeWitt
Clinton was named a his opponent.
He was also deservedly popular and
a man of great energy in affairs
of moment. In the midst of the state
campaign announcement of the election
of Thomas Jefferson was announced.
It helped in large measure to turn
the tide, and Mr. Van Rensselaer
was defeated by a majority of less
than 4,000 votes. In October, 1801,
a state convention met at Albany
to revise the constitution, and
Mr. Van Rensselaer was a member,
presiding during much of the deliberations
as chairman, although Aaron Burr
was its president, with his friend,
Abraham Van Vechten, as colleague.
In March, 1810, a commission was
chosen by the legislature, con-
Page 9
sisting of seven persons--Gouverneur
Morris, DeWitt Clinton, and Stephen
Van Rensselaer among the more important--for
exploring a route for a proposed
western canal. In the summer of
that year, accompanied by a surveyor,
he traveled by horseback inspecting
a route for the projected undertaking
which resulted in the Eire Canal,
and they gave their findings in
February, 1811. With all his enormous
energy he advocated the measure
in the assembly, thus giving the
plan an impetus very needful because
of considerable opposition. War
against Great Britain was declared
in June, 1812. This was another
crisis in his life. A requisition
was made on Governor Tompkins, of
New York, and the patriotic governor
promptly obeyed, selecting Major-General
Stephen Van Rensselaer for the command,
They were then regarded as rival
candidates for the chief magistracy.
The lines of party were distinctly
drawn, and the Federalists were
charged with being hostile to the
war as being premature and unnecessary.
General Van Rensselaer was a Federalist.
The appointment placed him in a
position of embarrassment, for,
should be decline, it would tell
against his party, and, on the other
hand, he was expected to defend
both the northern and western frontier,
with no experience in warfare, and
dealing with decidedly impracticable
material in the makeup of fighters.
He did not hesitate an instant,
but accepted the service. His country
had summoned him to the field, and
he was ready. He was not a loiterer,
for in an incredibly short time
he had thrown off the citizen surrounded
by political advisers, and had formed
his military family. In ten days
he arrived at Ogdensburgh, having
inspected Sackett's Harbor on the
way. On august 13th, he was in camp
at Lewiston, just one month from
his call, and just two months later,
on October 13th, he was engaged
in one of the most gallant and brilliant
affairs of the whole war. He carried
his American arms into the enemy's
territory and planted the flag of
the Untied States triumphantly on
the Heights of Queenstown. Although
gaining a complete victory, unfortunately
it was of brief duration, on account
of the defection of his troops.
Had they remained by him, he could
have retained the peninsula of the
upper province of Canada for the
winter, for it was originally planned
that Fort George should also be
Stormed by regular troops. Very
valuable to him had been the services
of his aide, Colonel Solomon Van
Rensselaer, who was wounded a number
of times when in the thickest of
the fight. By the shameful refusal
of his yeoman soldiery, under the
plea of constitutional scruples,
to march into the camp which had
been won for them, he should have
felt wroth; but he reported I as
an unvarnished relation of facts,
telling the truth plainly, but without
complaint or reproaches, for he
had done his full duty. The British
had lost their General Brock by
the engagement, and during the cessation
of hostilities agreed upon for six
days, both sides proceeded to humanitarian
duties of burying the dead and caring
for the wounded. General Van Rensselaer
informed his antagonist that he
should order a salute to be fired
at his camp and also at Fort Niagara
on the occasion of the funeral solemnities
of the brave and lamented Brock,
to which the stern General Sheaffe
replied: "I feel too strongly
the generous tribute which you propose
to pay for my departed friend and
chief, to be able to express the
sense I entertain of it." General
Van Rensselaer entered the gubernatorial
campaign against Daniel D. Tompkins
in the spring of 1813, but his party
was in the minority, even though
giving him a united support, and
he was defeated in the state by
3,600 votes out of the 83,000 cast
in the election. In 1816 he was
again elected tot he assembly, and
in March the canal commissioners,
with Mr. Van Rensselaer at their
head and acting as chairman, presented
their report to the legislature,
requesting that body to adopt immediate
measures for prosecuting the enterprise.
In April this great work was authorized,
the management committed to a board
of canal commissioners, with General
Van Rensselaer as a member. He was
president of that board for fifteen
years, succeeding DeWitt Clinton
in April 1824, and serving until
his death in 1839.
In 1819 the legislature was induced
to pass an act for the encouragement
and improvement of agriculture,
appropriating money to be divided
ratably among the counties, which
were to from county societies, with
presidents, who should form a central
board. The delegates from twenty-six
county societies met at the capitol
in January, 1820, and elected General
Van Rensselaer president. In 1819
he was elected regent of the University
of the
Page 10
State of New York, and was subsequently
the chancellor until his death.
In December, 1823, General Van Rensselaer
took his seat in congress for the
first time, and was continued in
his place by re-election for three
successive terms, retiring March
4, 1829. He held the position of
chairman of the committee on agriculture,
His report on tariff laws affecting
agriculture, made in March 1824,
was a valuable one. His ballot on
the presidency, in February, 1825,
determined the vote of his state's
delegation in favor of Mr. Adams.
On May 5, 1824, the Albany Institute
was organized for the purpose of
engaging in fields of observation
of the natural sciences, for study
of new theories and discoveries,
and the preparation of learned papers.
General Van Rensselaer was elected
its first president, having the
local prestige of being the president
of the Albany Lyceum of Natural
History. This society elected him
annually through fifteen years,
until his death. He perceived the
advantage of placing knowledge before
the people, and his first movement
was to employ Professor Eaton, with
several competent assistants, to
traverse the state near the route
of the Erie Canal, taking apparatus
and specimens to aid the delivery
of lectures before business men
and farmers in all the villages
along the line. These were given
on chemistry, natural philosophy,
and various branches of natural
history, and were given in the summer
of 1824 at his expense. The experiment
was a success. He had also been
accustomed to send his schoolmaster
among his tenants in the same capacity,
and this led him, on November 5,
1824, to provide a suitable building
in Troy, New York, for the conduct
of a school under Rev. Dr. Blatchford,
to whom he delivered a set of rules
for its government. He endowed it
with professors, and it was incorporated
in 1826 as the Rensselaer Institute.
Through the next two years, he paid
one-half of its current expenses,
and at his death he endowed it.
Not along did he institute the Rensselaer
Polytechnic, but to two colleges
he gave $5,000 each, and to a single
agent for the prosecution of scientific
research and advancement of education
no less than $30,000. His benefactions
were not only most liberal, but
wisely devoted, and in those days
these sums were considered fortunes
in themselves. He was connected
with the institution of Masonry,
having been initiated in 1786, when
twenty-two years old, and was placed
in official station, becoming successively
junior and senior warden, and then
master. In 1793 he declined further
election in Master's Lodge, but
in 1825 was installed in the highest
office of Masonry, that of grand
master, which act was conducted
by Governor DeWitt Clinton. The
funeral of General Van Rensselaer
was a most impressive one, perhaps
more so than any other at Albany
before or afterwards. The religious
service was held at the North Dutch
Church, and the body in a simple,
unadorned casket, was borne nearly
a mile to the family vault, upon
men's shoulders, the bearers frequently
relieving each other, for no hearse
was permitted to receive the hallowed
burthen. The mourners, composed
of the family, civic officials,
Masonic bodies, school societies,
the chief magistrate, and other
executive officers of the state,
members of the legislature, were
all on foot, not a carriage being
in use. The military were in citizens'
dress; all badges of office were
laid aside; no plumes nodded; no
helmets glistened; no music murmured
solemn, slow and silent, the vast
throng moved through the highway
to the north. It is of interest
to note the manner in which in those
days the intelligence of his death
was sent to New York City, where
he was well known and it being necessary
to transmit the news because of
his prominence in the state's public
life. It is recorded in Munsell's
"Notes from the Newspapers,"
as an item of news on that day,
January 26, 1839:
"All express was started
by Messrs. Baker & Walker, to
carry the intelligence of the Patroon's
death to New York. a Mr. Dimmick
left Albany 14 minutes before 6
p.m. in a sulkey. At Redhook, he
found a bridge gone, but mounted
his horse and swam the stream, drawing
the sulkey after him. At Fishkill,
the obstruction was much more formidably.
The bridge was gone, and the road
for more than half a mile inundated.
He again mounted his horse, who
pushed gallantly into the flood
and swam, with his rider and sulkey,
over a quarter of a mile, bringing
both safely to the opposite shore.
Notwithstanding these and other
obstructions the express arrived
at the Carlton House at 20 minutes
past eight o'clock in the morning,
having rode over the distance of
about 130 miles in 14 hours and
31 minutes."
General Stephen Van Rensselaer,
the eighth Patroon, married (first)
Margaret Schuyler, daughter of General
Philip Schuyler, and Catherine Van
Rensselaer, at Schuylerville, New
York, June 6, 1783; and married
(second) Cornelia Paterson, at new
Brunswick, New Jersey, on May 17,
1802. She was born
Page 11
June 4, 1780, and died in New York
City, August 6, 1844. Her father
was Chief Justice William Paterson,
a resident of New Brunswick, New
Jersey, born at sea, December 24,
1745, and died September 9, 1800,
while on a visit at the Manor House
in Albany. He was United States
Senator in 1789; in 1791 chosen
second governor of New Jersey, and
General Washington appointed him
in 1793 a justice of the United
States supreme court, which position
he held up to the time of his death.
He married Cornelia Bell, daughter
of John bell, in 1779. Three children
were the result of the first marriage
and nine by the latter.
Children of general Stephen Van
Rensselaer and Margaret Schuyler:
1. Catherine Schuyler, born in July,
1784, baptized August 9; died at
Albany, April 26, 1797, without
issue.
2. Stephen, June 6, 1780; died 1787.
3. Stephen, (q. v.)
Children of General Stephen Van
Rensselaer and Cornelia Paterson:
4. Catharine, born at Albany; October
17, 1803; died in New York City,
November, 1784; married, 1830, Gouverneur
Morris Wilkins.
5. William Paterson, mentioned below.
6. Philip Schuyler, October 14,
1806; died June 1, 1871; married
October 17
1839, Mary Rebecca Tallmadge, born
May 16, 1817 died August 3, 1872,
and had : James Tallmadge; Philip,.
Died 1882; Cornelia; Clinton; Franklin;
Cortlandt.
7. Cortlandt, May 25, 1808; died
at Burlington, New Jersey, July
25, 1860; married, September 13,
1836, Catherine Ledyard Cogswell,
born September 22, 1811, died December
24, 1882, daughter of Mason Fitch
Cogswell, M. D., by whom: Philip
Livingston; Alice (Hodge); Elizabeth
Wadsworth (Burd-Grubb); Ledyard
Cogswell; Alexander.
8. Henry Bell, May 10, 1810; died
at Cincinnati, Ohio, march 23, 1864;
married, August 22, 1833, Elizabeth
Ray King (daughter of Governor John
Alsop King and May Ray), born August
17, 1815; by whom: Euphemia, Elizabeth
(Waddington), John King, Katherine
(Delafield), and Henry.
9. Cornelia Paterson, July 8, 1812;
married Robert Turnbull, M. D.,
February 16, 1847; by whom: Cornelia
Paterson (Turnbull) and Catherine
Euphemia (Turnbull).
10. Alexander, November 5, 1814;
died, 1878; married, 1851, Mary
Howland; (second), 1864, Louisa
Barnewell, and had: Samuel Howland,
Mary Louisa Baylies, Mabel and Alice.
11. Euphemia White, September 25,
1816; died May 27, 1888; married,
may 2, 1843, John Church Cruger;
by whom: Stephen Van Rensselaer
(Cruger), Cornelia (Cruger), and
Catherine (Cruger).
12. Westerlo, born at Albany, March
14, 1820; died at Albany, July 8,
1844.
(VII) William Paterson, third son
of General Stephen (3) Van Rensselaer,
and child of his second wife, Cornelia
Paterson, was born March 6, 1805,
in Albany, and died November 13,
1872, in New York City. He married
(first), in New York City, March,
1833, Eliza Rogers, born there in
1812, died in Cuba, March, 1836,
leaving one child. He married (second),
in New York City, April 4, 1839,
Sarah Rogers, born October 29, 1810,
in New York, died November 19, 1887,
in Rye, New York, daughter of Benjamin
Woolsey and Susan (Bayard) Rogers.
Children of second marriage:
1. William Paterson, born January
1835, died in his nineteenth year.
2. Susan Bayard, January 31, 1840,
died in her twenty-fourth year.
3. Cornelia, September 22, 1841,
in Albany, married, April 22, 1862,
John Erving;
4. Walter Stephen, November 2, 1843;
died in his twenty-second year,
in Rye.
5. Captain Kiliaen, mentioned below.
6. Sarah Elizabeth, January 18,
1847, died in Rye, at the age of
twelve years.
7. Arthur, September 28, 1848, died
in New York, in his twenty-first
year.
8. Catherine Goodhue, 1850, in Norwalk,
Connecticut, married June 11, 1891,
Rev. Anson Phelps Atterbury.
9. Eleanor Cecilia, November 1853,
in Rye, married there, June 1, 1887,
Hamilton R. Fairfax.
(VIII) Captain Kiliaen (3) Van
Rensselaer, third son of William
P. and Sarah
(Rogers) Van Rensselaer, was born
February 14, 1845, in Albany, and
soon after his father settled in
New York, in which city the son
was educated. At the beginning of
the civil war he was but sixteen
years of age, but before the close
of the conflict he entered the army
and became captain of Company I,
in the thirty-ninth Regiment New
York Volunteers, which served under
Generals Grant and Hancock, and
he participated in some fourteen
different engagements. After the
close of the war he traveled extensively
abroad, and subsequently engaged
in the brokerage business in New
York. He died, November 26, 1905,
in New York City. Captain Van Rensselaer
was active in many societies of
religious and phil-
Page 12
anthropic character, as well as
others. He was a director of the
American Tract Society, of the City
Missions, president of the Grand
Army Mission, and of the Sanitary
Aid Society. He took great interest
in the work and prosperity of the
New York Presbyterian Church, in
which he was an elder and gave much
of his time to the cause of similar
organizations. He was a member of
the Holland, St. Nicholas, and Huguenot
societies, of the Loyal Legion,
and the Grand Army of the Republic.
Politically he was a Republican.
He married, December 13, 1870,
Olivia Atterbury, of New York, a
granddaughter of Anson G. Phelps,
the noted merchant and philanthropist.
He was a lineal descendent of the
celebrated Bishop Atterbury of England,
and was a great-great-niece of Elias
Boudinot, first president of the
congress of the United States. Captain
and Olivia (Atterbury) Van Rensselaer
were the parents of seven children:
1. Olive, married Lewis B. Gawtry,
and resides in New York.
2. Sarah Elizabeth, married Benjamin
W. Arnold, and lives in Albany,
New York.
3. Katherine Boudinot, died young.
4. Edith, died young.
5. Kiliaen, mentioned below.
6. Melissa, died young.
7. William Stephen
(IX) Kilian (4), senior son of
Kiliaen (3) and Olivia (Atterbury)
Van
Rensselaer was born May 21, 1879,
at Seabright, New Jersey. He attended
the Lawrenceville school, and entered
Princeton University, but did not
complete the course, going out as
a soldier in the Spanish War in
1898. He was a member of the Twelfth
New York Regiment, which was stationed
at Chickamauga, Georgia, Lexington,
Kentucky, Americus, Georgia, and
Mantanza, Cuba. After the close
of this service he settled in New
York City, where he became an investment
broker, and now resides in that
city. He was a member of Squadron
A, National Guard, State of New
York, from 1900 to 1905. He is a
member of the Union and Racket and
Tennis Clubs of new York, in religious
faith a Presbyterian, and politically
a consistent Republican.
He married, in New York, November
23, 1905, Dorothea Manson, daughter
of Thomas L. and May (Groot) Manson.
They have a daughter, Barbara, born
April 13, 1908, in New York.
VAN RENSSELAER.
(VII) general Stephen (4) Van Rensselaer
, son of General Stephen (3)Van
Rensselaer, the eighth Patroon,
and Margaret Schuyler, was born
in the Manor house at Albany, March
29, 1789, and died in the same place,
May 25, 1868. He was given a thorough
education, and enjoyed the benefits
of culture acquired by travel abroad
and by continuous association with
people of refinement. In social
and public life he was greatly respected,
and in his family much beloved.
A leading event in his life, as
it affected him and his family,
was the anti-rent feud. Anti-rentism
had its origin in Albany county.
Its existence dated from the death
of General Van Rensselaer in 1839,
the last holder of the Manor of
Rensselaerwyck under the British
crown and its regulations. He was
known to that generation as "the
Patroon," was sometimes styled
the "good Patroon." Primogeniture
was the law of inheritance in England,
so it had been to some extent in
the British colonies, and, as the
eldest son, Stephen Van Rensselaer
had inherited the Manor. But the
revolution and subsequent laws changed
the rule of inheritance, giving
alike to all the children if no
will was made. In order to break
the force of this radical change,
and so as to continue this vast
landed interests in the hands of
his two eldest sons, Stephen and
William Paterson Van Rensselaer,
General Van Rensselaer (1764-1839),
on reaching his majority, had adopted
the system of selling lands, in
fee, reserving to himself in the
conveyances , and to his heirs and
assigns, all mines and minerals,
all streams of water for mill purposes,
and beyond this, certain old-time
feudal returns, denominated rents,
payable annually at his Manor House,
usually specified as so many bushels
of good, clean merchantable winter
wheat, four fat fowl, and one day's
service with carriage and horses;
finally, the reservation or exaction
of one-quarter of the purchase price
on every vendition of the land.
In other words, one condition alone
provided an income to him every
time the purchaser of land should
resell it. It is said that the mind
of Alexander Hamilton conceived
and framed this form of lease or
conveyance for Van Rensselaer's
especial benefit. Under such peculiar
conditions the land of the Patroon
in
Page 13
Albany and Rensselaer counties
was sold to unnumerable purchasers
for farms. The system operated successfully
during the life of the Patroon;
but when his son Stephen (born in
1789), inherited the land by his
father's death in 1839, a new and
serious trouble arose. The first
purchasers did not object, for they
had bought with the definite understanding
clearly before them, but on the
death of the Patroon and also of
the purchaser, the successors of
the latter, as new owners, began
to grow restive under the burdens
imposed, and when either Stephen
or William P. Van Rensselaer pressed
for payments of the money due as
reserved in the deeds the owners
of the land began to question the
legality of the reservation. To
Stephen Van Rensselaer and his younger
brother, William Paterson Van Rensselaer,
the Patroon, General Stephen Van
Rensselaer, had devised by his will,
drawn on April 18, 1837, all interest
in the lands thus sold by him in
fee, with the reservations of rents--in
other words, they believed that
they owned or retained the soil.
Stephen, the oldest son, was to
receive the rents in Albany county,
and William P. Van Rensselaer those
of Rensselaer county. The rents
of this time came in more sparingly
and were paid more reluctantly than
they had been tot he father, who
had been noted as one of the most
gentle, kind-hearted and benevolent
of men, often generously reducing
the rents and in many ways calling
forth the love and gratitude of
the land-holders. The only course
open for his son was to sue in the
courts, and it was not long before
a strong hostility developed. The
legal contests of a quarter of a
century might have been avoided
if the lawyers had perceived that
the deeds of the Patroon, being
absolute conveyances of al interests
in the lands, the reservations were,
for that reason, invalid as encumbrances,
made so by the English statute,
known as the statute of quia emptores,
which rendered it impossible for
a British subject, on a conveyance
I fee of his land, to make, or if
made, to enforce by re-entry or
forfeiture, such feudal reservations.
That was right remaining in and
belonging to the crown alone. It
is probably that Hamilton assumed
that that statute was never in force
in the colonies, for it was adopted
back in the reign of Edward I, and
later lawyers might have dismissed
the consideration of it on the assumption
it was not the law of either colony
or state.
In the spring of 1839 the anti-renters
held their preliminary meeting,
numerously attended by al the farmers
living the Helderberg towns. They
appointed a committee to wait on
Mr. Van Rensselaer to ascertain
whether a compromise might not be
effected. On May 22, the committee
visited the office of Mr. Van Rensselaer,
but he refused to recognize them
and instructed his agent, Douw B.
Lansing, to inform them that he
would communicate in writing. He
did so, informing them that he considered
it would be an injustice to himself
and his family to consent to their
claims. From that time on his agents
had much difficulty in collecting
rents, and frequently, when attempting
to do so, were held off by shotguns.
In December, Sheriff Archer was
obliged to call to his aid, in serving
process, the posse comitatis, or
power of the county. Politicians
were alive to bring the landholders
into line, and urged the press to
take the matter up. After many years
the question was allowed to drop
from politics and the court of appeals
rendered decisions in special cases
in 1852, 1859, and finally in 1863,
after which the matter rested.
The large area of the once famous
"Lumber District" extending
along the river front from North
Ferry street northward for a mile,
and real estate in or close to the
city, were not encumbered by perpetual
leases, and remained as a source
of income for members of the three
generations following. Among the
papers p[reserved by the family
is the account-book of General Abraham
Ten Broeck, the guardian during
the minority of Stephen, and under
the entry of a "charge for
beef and liquor consumed in a diner
to the tenantry on this your glorious
twenty-first birthday," is
a brief mention of a transaction
which many years later took from
the Van Rensselaers many of their
acres. On that day the Patroon sold
in fee, with warranty of title,
his farming lands, in Albany and
Rensselaer counties, and no less
than nine hundred farms of 150 acres
each, or more then 207 square miles,
were leased on that day.
When Stephen (4) Van Rensselaer
died, may 25, 1868, he left behind
him an enviable reputation for the
sterling virtues which had distinguished
the line from which he had descended.
He was liberal in his benefactions
Page 14
and dispensed wealth freely to
all charitable object and church.
On his death, about 2,500 acres
between Troy and Shaker roads, north
of the Manor House, and in which
he had a life estate, reverted to
his half-brother, William Paterson
Van Rensselaer.
General Stephen (4) Van Rensselaer
and harried Elizabeth Bayard were
married in new York City, by bishop
Hobart, of the Episcopal church,
January 2, 1817. She was born in
New York city, February 12, 1799,
and died in the Manor House at Albany,
June 19, 1875. She was the daughter
of William Bayard, who died September
18, m 1826, who married, October
4, 1783, Elizabeth Cornell, born
1794, died at the Manor House, Albany,
January 17, 1854. William Bayard
was the son of Colonel William Bayard
and Catherine McEvers.
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