Van Rensselaer Family of New York
Van Rensselaer Family of New York
VAN RENSSELAER FAMILY OF NEW YORK. Kiliaen van Rensselaer (1595–1644) was first patroon (lord) of Rensselaerswyck, a manor on the Hudson River around Albany that was the first and the only successful patroonship in New Netherland. His son Nicholas (1636–1678), a clergyman who came to New York in 1674, married Alida Schuyler, who, after his death in 1678, married Robert Livingston. Kiliaen's other son, Jeremias (1632–1674), married Maria, the daughter of Oloff Van Cortlandt. Their son Kiliaen (or Killian), the second lord, married his first cousin Maria Van Cortlandt (1643–1700). Their grandson was Stephen Van Rensselaer, the seventh patroon, who married Catharine Livingston, daughter of Philip Livingston, the Signer. Their son Stephen, the eighth patroon (1764–1839), married Margaret Schuyler, daughter of Major General Philip Schuyler.
SEE ALSO Livingston Family of New York; Schuyler Family of New York; Schuyler, Philip John; Van Cortlandt Family of New York.
revised by Harold E. Selesky