Annals of the Van Rensselaers in the United States, especially as they relate to the family of Killian K. Van Rensselaer..

Front matter

SEYMOUR DURST

"When you leave, please leave this book

Because it has been said "Ever'lking comes t' him who waits

Chap. 1 1. — The End

Rjemihisi bnczs 01 Boyhood.— " Scotia." — "Cherry Hill." — "The Mount." — A Summer Ramble. — Visit of La Fayette. — Veterans of the Revolution.

Notii 1 \.

ANNALS.

CHAITKR FIRST.

EARLY FAMILY HISTORY AND THE SETTLEMENT OF

THE COLONIE.

Their patronymic proves that our ancestors were landowners in the province of Guelderland, in the Netherlands, where it is found to-day attached to three places. (Notitia B.) It signifies " Deer's lair." We .ire apt to complain at the almost universal ignorance of the orthography of the name even among the best educated ; and it is strange, considering the large place it occupies in the history of the nation, And its conspicuous position on every map of New York and even of the coast of Greenland. But it is i know that one of the marks that has distinguished it from common patronymics from the first, has been the great variety of spelling, of which we find the following specimens in ancient documents: Ranslatr ; Renzelaer; Rtntselaer; Roisclaer ; Renselare ; Rinstlart ; Renslaer; Rinselar ; Remitter; Rensalaer ; usually without the "\'an," except in signatures, under their own hands.

Kiliaen, first patroon of Rensselaerswyck, was born in Nykerk, in the province of Guelderland, and settled in Amsterdam, where he was engaged in the diamond and pearl trade carried on by the East India Company. He was fourth in descent from Hendrick Wolter Van Rensselaer. He had five sons and four daughters, all of them under age when he died in 1645, m tne flower of his age. His sons were Johannes, son of Hillegonda Van Bylant ; Jan Baptist, Jeremias, Nicolas and Rickert or Richard, by Anna Van Weely. We are descended from Jeremias, who married Maria Van Cortlandt, April 27, 1662.

They had two sons and two daughters. Kiliaen and Hendrick were the sons. We are descended from Hendrick, who married Catharine Van Bruggen, granddaughter of Anneke Janse Bogardus. They had three sons and six daughters.* The sons were Johannes, Henry and Kiliaen. We are descended from their youngest son Kiliaen, who married Ariantje, daughter of Nicholas Schuyler, son of Philip and grandson of Philip Pietersen Schuyler and Margaretta Van Schlectenhorst.

They had four sons and three daughters. The sons were Hendrick, Philip, Nicholas and Kiliaen. We are descended from Kiliaen, who married Margaretta Sanders.

They had four sons, John Sanders, William, Richard and Barent or Bernard Sanders, and one daughter, Deborah, who died in infancy. John Sanders was my father. (Notitia A.)

* From Catharine, the second daughter, who married Johannes Ten Broeck, came Major John C, Ten Broeck, their grandson ; and from Maria, the eldest, who married Samuel Ten Broeck, came his wife. Anna Van Schaick Ten Broeck, their granddaughter; the grandparents of General Thomas Hillhouse.

Thus, my children are seventh in descent from Kiliaen, the Patroon, and eleventh from the founder, Hendrick Wolter. Four hundred years embraces twelve generations. My father was descended on both his father's and his mother's side, without an exception, from the families who had been in the New Netherlands from its first settlement — Schuylers, Van Cortlandts, Van Schlectenhorsts, Jansens, Bogardus, Van Bruggens, Wendells, De Meyers, Glens, Sanders — a striking proof of the care taken in making family alliances among our forefathers.

The Patroonship of Rensselaerswyck was acquired, as all were, at command of the States General of Holland, by purchase from the Indians. It ran twenty-four miles along the Hudson river and twenty-four miles from it on either side. Subsequently it was increased by a purchase of land at Claverack, now in Columbia county. This immense tract of land was the home of savages, who lived and roamed unchecked through its boundless forests, and of whose ignorance mingled with cunning, and filthiness mixed with ferocity, the early records give vivid descriptions. Yet there is no evidence of any serious breach of the peace between them and the people of Rensselaerswyck, a marvelous contrast to the terrible experience of the lower Dutch settlements and the New England colonies. On the contrary, the Indians proved themselves many times most reliable allies to the settlers at Albany when threatened with attack by the French and Indians from Canada.

" A Popular History of the United States," to which the honored name of Bryant is attached, gives the following version of the transactions of the

Patroons : " The same principle which the company was carrying out against the rest of the world, its richer and shrewder members enforced against their less fortunate fellow-shareholders. Before the charter was published some of the directors in the Amsterdam council had their preparations fully made to seize upon the benefits they knew to be in prospect." " When the action of these enterprising capitalists was revealed to their fellow-members in the Netherlands, they were indignantly denounced as having used ' the cunning tricks of merchants.' So strong was the feeling against Van Rensselaer and the rest, that they were required by the College of Nineteen to take several partners into the different proprietorships. But they easily evaded the purpose of that order, for Van Rensselaer took Godyn and Blommaert into his partnership, with John de Laet, Bissels and Moussart, other Amsterdam directors, and kept for himself two of the fifths into which he divided the estate. Godyn and Blommaert in turn took Van Rensselaer and de Laet into association with them, with Captain de Vries and several others, also directors. By this convenient arrangement the new partners gained little, and the first holders merely exchanged one property for another."

"The cunning tricks of merchants" strikes one as very excellent, coming, as it must have done, from a company of " Merchants and Traders." As the statement stands, it shows either that the Patroons had so much power in the company that they could practically set at nought its decrees ; or, which is more likely, that only they and their partners had money and courage enough to embark in an enterprise so hazardous and requiring such an amount of ready money. We have no concern with the other Patroonships, which did not last, but facts connected with the acquisition and establishment of Rensselaerswyck are directly in the teeth of these assertions, as I shall proceed to show.

It is clear from the evidence of the Holland Documents, that the attempts of the Dutch West India Company to settle and govern the New Netherlands had not been successful — " the want of success was beyond expectation." After frequent reviews of their outlays and returns, " it was finally decreed and enacted," "on the ioth March, 1628," "for the behoof of all the stockholders in the said company, by virtue of the charter, to draw up Freedoms and Exemptions, for the benefit of the General West India Company, and advantage of the Patroons, masters and private persons." These having been prepared and reported were carefully discussed and revised at several subsequent meetings ; " the proposals of certain respectable principal stockholders " were received and considered, and finally the " Freedoms and Exemptions" were enacted June 7, 1629, nearly a year and three months after the first formal step was taken. To suppose that this could have been done in ignorance of the plans of their co-directors, involves a belief in the dullness of Dutch merchants which their history does not sustain, or of a culpable negligence which the facts do not warrant. We are fairly entitled to assume from the statements of the records that the company acted with a full understanding that there were men among them who were prepared to make the venture necessary to carry out their plans. No one seems to have denied the statement of the Patroons themselves, made to the States General in their remonstrance of June, 1634, that they, "animated with new zeal to carry out their High Mightiness' intention, and hoping, in consequence, for God's blessing, preceded all the other stockholders by way of a good example, saving the aforesaid company from expenses, troubles and heavy charges, and further involved themselves by undertaking divers Patroonships, the expenses whereof, incurred and laid out to this day, amount to not far from one ton of gold, cash down ; and are yearly taxed, in addition, with at least 45,000 guilders for the support of three of their Patroonships."

Sebastiaen Jansen Crol, an officer of the company in command of Fort Orange for some years, was employed by Kiliaen Van Rensselaer to make the purchases of land from the Indians. There was no " cunning trick " in employing an agent of the Company to do this business. He " bought and paid for not only the grounds belonging to the chiefs and natives of the lands in Xcw Xetherland, but also their rights of sovereignty {jura Majestatis) and such others as they exercised within the limits of the Patroon's purchased territories. So that on the 28th November, 1630, were read at the Assembly of the Directors, the deeds of conveyance of the lands and jurisdictions purchased from the Saccimaes, the Lords of the Country, executed for the behoof of the Patroons, their successors ; and the new proprietors were accordingly thereupon congratulated. On the 2d December, in the year aforesaid, the patents sent to the Patroons from New Netherland were in like manner also again read, recorded in the Company's Register, ordered by the Assembly to be ensealed with the seal of New Netherland ; the Patroons. were again congratulated and handed their patents. 1 6th ditto. The Patroons, on resolution of the Assembly, delivered to the Company's counsel, a perfect list of their undertaken patroonships. 8th January, 1631. The Patroons' Colonies were ex supra abundanti confirmed, on submitting the question to the Assembly of the XIX., holden in Zealand." (New York Colonial Documents, Vol. i, pp. 84-5.) Thus after the lapse of a year and a half the West India Company, through its governing body, had failed to detect any " cunning tricks."

Weise says in his History of Albany just published that, " in order to advance more rapidly the growth of the colony, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer formed a limited partnership with Samuel Godyn, Johannes de Laet, and Samuel Blommaert, three influential members of the Amsterdam chamber of the West India Company;" they holding their respective Patroonships, while he retained his exclusive title of Patroon of Rensselaerswyck. Their respective claims on the Manor were purchased and extinguished by 1685.

" Kiliaen Van Rensselaer," says Weise " was peculiarly qualified for the duties of his Patroonship. lie was self-reliant and practical, wealthy and ambitious. His plans for the settlement of his colony and his measures for the welfare of his people evince the sound judgment and the executive ability which gave his acts no little prominence in the history of New Netherland. He built comfortable houses and ample barns for his tenants ; provided them with agricultural implements and live-stock; erected saw and grist-mills at convenient places on the larger watercourses of the manor ; and supplied his store with suitable goods to meet the common wants of the colonists."

"The governing body of the Dutch West India Company," says Mrs. Lamb, " was the College of the XIX., consisting of nineteen delegates from five chambers of managers, located in five principal Dutch cities. The Amsterdam chamber furnished eight of the nineteen delegates, and thus its relative consequence may be seen at a glance. Care was exercised in the selection of the directors for each chamber, and men only of wealth and the highest known integrity were eligible for the trust. The eight chosen men who were placed over the affairs of the Amsterdam chamber commanded, at the time, the entire confidence of the nation. One of these was Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, the founder of the Van Rensselaer manor, whose name has been handed along through every generation of men who have since had their day in New York and contributed to its progress, and is interwoven with all that is historical in city and state,"

Some idea of the dangers and sufferings involved in emigrating to the New World may be formed from the account given by Dominie Jonas Michaelius in his letter of August II, 1628, on his arrival at the Manhatas. " The voyage continued long, viz., from the 24th of January till the "th of April, when we first set our foot upon this land. Of storm and tempest we have had no lack, particularly about the

Bermudas and the rough coasts of this country, the which fell hard upon the good wife and children, not eating with us in the cabin, on account of the little room in it ; but they bore it better as regards seasickness and fear, than I had expected. Our fare was very poor and scanty in the ship, so that my blessed wife and children, not eating with us, had a worse lot than the sailors themselves, and that by reason of a wicked cook who annoyed them in every way; but especially by reason of the captain himself, who, although I frequently complained of it in the most courteous manner, did not concern himself in the least about correcting the rascal ; nor did he when they were all sick give them anything which could do them any good, although there was enough in the ship ; though he himself knew very well where to find it, in order out of meal times to fill his own belly. All the relief which he gave us consisted merely in liberal promises, with a drunken head, which promises nothing followed, when he was sober, but a sour face ; and thus has he played the brute against the officers, and kept himself constantly to the wine, both at sea and especially here in the river; so that he has navigated the ship daily with a wet sail and an empty head, coming ashore seldom to the Council, and never to the public Divine Service. We bore all with silence on board the ship; but it grieves me when I think of it on account of my wife; the more because the time was so short which she had yet to live."

Nor were the hardships ended after they had escaped the perils and privations of the voyage : "There are no horses, cows nor laborers to be obtained here for money. Every one is short in these particulars and wants more. There is here no refreshment of butter, milk, &c., to be obtained, although a very high price be offered for them ; for the people who bring them and bespeak them are suspicious of each other. So I will be compelled to pass through the winter without butter and other necessaries which the ships did not bring with them to be sold here. The rations which are given out and charged for high enough, are all stale food, as they are used to on board ship, and frequently this is not very good, and there cannot be obtained as much of it as may be desired. I began to get some strength through the grace of the Lord, but in consequence of this hard fare of beans and grey peas, which are hard enough, barley, stock fish, &c, without much change, I cannot become well as I otherwise would. The summer yields something, but what of that for any one who has no strength ? * * * We want ten or twelve farmers with horses, cows and laborers in proportion, to furnish us with bread and fresh butter, milk and cheese."

To supply these wants by establishing colonies of permanent settlers, was the great aim of the Patroons. To accomplish such a design it was necessary to transport families as well as separate individuals to their manors. Having incurred the expenditure and risks involved in this, and after their colonies were begun, they suddenly found their enterprises endangered and secretly undermined on the 30th October, 163 1, when new articles were proposed, "whereby the previous Freedoms and Exemptions were no longer attainable ; the Patroons particularly commanded to perform things which experience taught them were impracticable : Yea, all the Exemptions were drawn into dispute." To this attempt the Patroons replied by an earnest and dignified remonstrance addressed to the States General, together with a " Pretension and Claim," June 16, 1634, in which they assert " that the Freedoms and Exemptions promised and granted to the Patroons and their people " "are to be holden as a mutual contract, binding on both sides, whereby the Patroons were invited to send their people and goods thither; in consequence whereof they claim to enjoy inviolate the privileges contained therein." So disturbed were they by these attacks that they stated in a reply to the West India Company that " they shall have conjointly to determine upon the continuation or abandonment of their Colonies."

February 5, 1641. " Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, Patroon of his Colonic called Rensselaerswyck," petitioned their High Mightinesses the States General for a Veniam Ttstandi, "in crder to enable him to dispose by last will, according to his pleasure, of the aforesaid manor or feudal estate." This was granted the same day, and it shows that the partnership did not affect the fee of the Manor, and that there was no law of entail originally attached to it.

There is no authentic proof that the first Patroon ever visited Rensselaerswyck, although my grandfather used to tell of a report that he had inhabited a house near Fort Orange, which probably referred to his son Jan Baptist, sometime Director of the Manor. Another tradition placed his house at the north end of Castle Island opposite Cherry Hill. But his affairs were so extensive, and his family so young,

1 1 that, although he might have visited his Colonie, it is hardly probable that he remained in it for a long time, especially as he could serve it to greater advantage in Amsterdam. His death in 1645 was undoubtedly a great set-back to its prosperity, as well as an irreparable loss to his family and the nation. He was an ardent patriot and a sincere and generous promoter of religion. None of his sons were old enough to succeed him, the eldest, Johan, being under age and having as guardians his kinsmen, Johan Van Weely and Wouter Van Twiller. These petitioned the States General, October 21, 1648, for " Letters of Investiture " to their ward " of High, Middle and Low Jurisdiction over the Colonie situate in New Netherland and called Rensselaerswyck.'' There was a delay in granting this, pending the settlement of a claim made by Samuel Blommaert and Johannes de Laet. co-directors, against the guardians ; but from a resolution of the Assembly of the States General, 13th November, 1649, >t would seem to have been passed soon afterwards.* In confirming the judgment in favor of Blommaert and de Laet, June 14, 1650, the States General voted that " when the fief shall be taken up in the name of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer's son and his successors, it be well and faithfully expressed in the patent, that to the aforesaid Kiliaen Van Rensselaer's son and his successors, belongs no greater superiority and authority than to the aforesaid plaintiffs, his equals and partners in the aforesaid Colonie, except simply the title of Patroon " ; with two votes out of four in the management. All these partners were bought

• It was granted April 7, 1650. Holland Document, I, 3S3. 12 out by 1685, under the grandson of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer.

At first the Colonie was managed by Commissaries, the most famous of whom, ArendtVan Curler, gained such influence over the Mohawks by his kind and just treatment that ever afterwards they expressed their highest respect for the Governors of New York by giving them the name of " Corlaer." I le was succeeded in 1647 by Brandt Arent Van Slechtenhorst, famous for his dispute with Governor Stuvvesant about the land around Fort Orange, which he claimed for the Patroon, and Stuvvesant for the West India Company; and also about the manorial jurisdiction. Stuvvesant resorted to force to carry his designs into effect, and caused Van Slechtenhorst to be an and imprisoned, 165 1, at New Amsterdam. Hut the Governor was entirely wrong, as usual with him. as the commission appointed by the Duke of York to decide on the Van Rensselaer title, of which John Churchill, afterwards the famous Duke of Marlborough, was one, decided in [678, restoring to the Manor the fee of all the land taken by Stuvvesant around the fort. By the marriage of his daughter Margaretta with Philip Pictersen Schuyler, Christmastide, 1650, Van Slechtenhorst became the great-grand fat h< my grandfather's maternal grandfather, Nicholas Schuyler, and the ancestor of General Philip Schuyler and the Schuvlers of Watervliet.

In 165] Jan P.iptiste, the third son of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, arrived at Fort Orange, being the first of the family who came to this continent, as far as we can ascertain. Me brought with him his youngest brother, Richard, then a child. He arrived in the midst of the dispute with Governor Stuyvesant and seems to have taken a lively interest in it. A witticism of his during one of the outbreaks arising from it, reported by Weise, (page 96), has a family flavor about it, and may be taken as authentic. He became Director of Rensselaerswick May 8, 1652. A memorial of him is preserved in a pane of glass belonging to the old Dutch church once standing at the foot of State street, built 1656, containing the family coat of arms, but wanting the three star fish in the right-hand quartering, as we have it, and inscribed, " Jan Baptist Van Rensselaer, Directeur Der Colony, Rensselaerswyck, 1656." A ferry had been established previously to his arrival to maintain connection between the two shores of the river. After an administration of about six years, Jan Baptist returned to Holland and became a leading merchant in Amsterdam, where we find his name attached to public documents during the years 1667, 1674 and 1677.

Chapter Second

JEREMIAS, SON OF KILIAEN VAN RENSSELAER, SUC- CEEDS HIS BROTHER JAN BAPTISTE AS DIRECTEUR OF RENSSELAERSWYCK — HIS MARRIAGE WITH MARIA VAN CORTLANDT — THEIR CHILDREN.

Jan Baptiste was succeeded by his brother Jeremias, who was the first of the family to take up his residence permanently in America. He married, April 27, 1662, Maria Van Cortlandt, daughter of Oloff Stevanus Van Cortlandt, and from this pair all the Van Rensselaers now living under the name are descended.

The first erection at Albany was, as we have seen, Fort Orange. The site of it was called from the first "The Fuyck," or net, from its peculiar adaptedncss to "catch " the Indian trade from the west and north. It kept its reputation as such for man)- generations, and in fact till there was nothing left for the Indians to fetch, and few Indians left to come for anything but subsidies. In that exposed frontier the traders and settlers naturally congregated around the fort for security, and the village, or " dorp," that arose there was called " Beverswyck." Here was established the first church, of which " Church street " is the memorial. It was built 1C46, four years after the arrival of Dominie Megapolensis. The land of Beverswyck was claimed by the Manor, but Governor Stuyvesant enforced the removal of all the buildings as far as the present Hudson avenue. This proceeding in 1655 required the erection of a new church, which was built at the foot of State street in 1656. North of Foxen creek was the " Colonie," as it was called even in my day, extending to the Manor House, which was originally a modest building of brick brought from Holland, by the side of the present Troy road (which was not in existence then) opposite the present Manor House, built in 1765. On the capture of New Netherlands by the British in 1664 the name Albany was given to it after the Duke of York and Albany, the graceless brother of the graceless Charles II., who had given it away to him before he owned it. So matters remained for nine years until, in 1673, Commodores Evertsen and Binckes suddenly appeared in the harbor of New York, and reconquered the province for the Prince of Orange and the Dutch. Albany became Willemstadt and the fort Fort Nassau, the Colonie having always kept its title. New York was changed to " New Orange," in honor of the Prince. Again there came a change, and this time a final one, when the States General restored the province to the English, and the discarded names were restored.

The Directorship of Jeremias Van Rensselaer was a busy one, involving Indian depredations and the English subjugation in 1664. Stuyvesant, having succeeded in having the houses around Fort Orange cleared away, had become quiet, and the most amicable relations seem to have been established between him and the Rensselaerswyck authorities. Jeremias Van Rensselaer presided over a council convened in New Amsterdam in the early part of 1664 to deliberate on the unprotected state of the Province. Promises of help from Rensselaerswyck and Beverswyck had been made to the Director General at this Landtsdagh, and when rumors came of the sailing of the

English fleet the Governor addressed an urgent letter July 8, 1664, to his " Honorable and most Dear" La Montagne and Van Rensselaer, asking for the fulfilment of it. But in the meantime the Mahikanders had been on the war-path and had slain nine head of cattle on the Director's bouwerie at Greenbush, and burnt Abraham Staets' bouwerie with the farmer, carrying off his wife and one negro ; and so they felt compelled to decline to send the guns and powder requested by the " Right Honorable General," and the " Loan of 5,000 or 6,000 guilders in Wampum for the Honorable Company " was entirely beyond their means. Accordingly, Petrus Stuvvesant made what seems from the published records to have been his first and only peaceful visit to Fort Orange in August, 1664. But this visit brought great trouble upon him afterwards. It was made at an unfortunate time, and he tarried too long enjoying the hospitalities of the Manor. The British fleet was approaching Sandy Hook, and no steps had been taken for the defence of Xew Amsterdam. Within a week after his return they were summoning him to surrender, and the burghers declared themselves '• obliged, before and the world, to protest against and call down on your Honors (the Governor and Council) the vengeance of Heaven for all the innocent blood which shall be shed in consequence of your Honors' obstinacy" in delaying to surrender to the British commander. They enforced it with a homily, which shows the moulding hand of Domine t|>. .lensis : " We trust your I lonors will not question that to God who seeks not the death of a sinner, belongs obedience, rather than to man.

We feel certain, therefore, that your Honors will exhibit yourselves, in this pressing exigency and sorrowful season, as men and Christians, and conclude, with God's help, an honorable and reasonable capitulation, which may the Lord our God, in His great mercy, be pleased to grant us ! Amen." All fight seemed to have been eradicated from the fiery old warrior. He had been fooled into believing that the enemy were four times as many as they actually were, and he stood looking on from the fort while two of the British vessels defiantly sailed up the North river under his guns. Van Sletchtenhorst was avenged when his old foe surrendered the New Netherlands without firing a shot, and the West India Company, when they presented their reply to the Governor's report to their High Mightinesses the States General, concluded by saying: " That the sole cause and reason for the loss of the aforesaid place, were these : The Authorities (Regcnten) and the chief officer, being very deeply interested in lands, bouweries and buildings, were unwilling to offer any opposition, first, at the time of the English encroachments, in order thereby not to afford any pretext for firing and destroying their properties ; and, having always paid more attention to their particular affairs than to the Company's interests. New Amsterdam was found, on the arrival of the English frigates, as if an enemy was never to be expected. And, finally, that the Director, first following the example of heedless interested parties, gave himself no other concern than about the prosperity of his bouweries, and, when the pinch came, allowed himself to be rode over by clergymen, women and cowards, in order to surrender to the English what he could defend with reputation, for the sake of thus saving their private properties." In this event Diederick Knickerbocker's veracious History of New York found its appropriate inspiration.

Jeremias Van Rensselaer took the inevitable oath of allegiance to the authority of the Duke of York. He was left undisturbed in the government of the Colonie, but an English officer was put in command of Fort Albany, as Orange was now called. Colonel Nicolls, the English commander, declined to admit "the Towne of Albany to be part of Renzelaerwick," or " a succession to his brother Baptista as of right belonging to " Jeremias Van Rensselaer, without the express decision of the Duke, " making answer in a Latine verse which in some sort you (Jeremias) may apply," it being probably all the " Latine" that the Colonel had at hand : " Filius ante diem Patrios inqnirit in annos.'' Whether our ancestor's love of letters made him relish the rebuff the better because it was conveyed in " Latine " is not recorded, but perforce he was obliged to remain content with this reply of his " affte freind " till he could get a better one from his superior. This occurred in 1666. When Lvertsen and Binckes recaptured New York in 1673, he petitioned for a " confirmation of the previous privileges granted by their " High Mightis to the Colonie Rensselaerswyck," which they would only grant for one year, " within which time the aforenamed Rensselaer shall be bound to obtain new privileges from their High Mightinesses, &c. ; or, failing the same, he shall be occluded from said privileges." " This day Mr. Rensselaer took the oath of allegiance before the Council." But the next