USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. III > Part 22
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Killian Van Rensselaer-to whom I just now referred -was a large proprietor, and a director in the Amster- dam Branch of the Dutch West India Company. This company was incorporated in 1621, and was composed of an associate band of merchant-warriors and chiefs, with a chartered domain and jurisdiction as well for conquests, as for trade and colonization, extending in Africa from Cancer to the Cape, and in America from the extreme south to the frozen regions of the north, and with the right to visit and to fight in every sea where their own or a national enemy could be found. Ample powers of go- vernment also attended them every where. After they had obtained a footing in this country, a college of nine commissioners was instituted to take the superior direc- tion and charge of the affairs of New Netherland. Killian Van Rensselaer was a member of this college. This was in 1629. The same year, a liberal charter of privileges to patroons and others was obtained from the company. Colonization by the Dutch had its origin and foundation in this extraordinary instrument. The same instrument provided also for founding a landed and baronial aristoc- racy for the provinces of the Dutch in the New World. Early in the next year, with the design of establishing
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his colony under the charter, Van Rensselaer sent out an agency, when his first purchase of land was made of the Indian owners, and sanctioned by the authorities of the company at New Amsterdam. Other purchasers were made for him in subsequent years, until 1637, when, his full complement of territory having been made up-nearly identical with the manor of our day, and forming as sub- sequently defined, a tract of about twenty-four miles in breadth by forty-eight in length-Killian Van Rensselaer himself came to take charge of his colony. Many of his colonists were already here, and others were sent out to him-all at his own cost. The full complement for his colony, required by the charter, was one hundred and fifty adult, souls, to be planted within four years from the completion of his purchases.
The power of the patroon of that day was analagous to that of the old feudal barons; acknowledging the go- vernment at New Amsterdam, and the states general, as his superiors. He maintained a high military and judicial authority within his territorial limits. He had his own fortresses, planted with his own cannon, manned with his own soldiers, with his own flag waving over them. The courts of the colony were his own courts, where the gravest questions and the highest crimes were cognizable ; but with appeals in the more important cases. Justice was administered in his own name. The colonists were his immediate subjects, and took the oath of feality and al- legiance to him.
The position of the colony was one of extreme delicacy and danger. It was situated in the midst of warlike and conquering tribes of savages, which, once angered and aroused, were likely to give the proprietors as much to do in the way of defence, and in the conduct of hostile forays as were used to fall to the lot of those bold barons of the middle ages, whose castles and domains were per- petually surrounded and besieged by their hereditary and plendering enemies. Happily, however, the patroons of the period, and their directors, or governors of the colony, by a strict observance of the laws of justice, and by maintaining a cautious and guarded conduct in all things
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towards their immediate neighbors, escaped-but not without occasions of great excitement and alarm-those desolating wars and conflicts which were so common else- where among the infant colonies of the country.
While, however, they maintained, for the most part, peaceable relations with the Indian tribes around them, they were almost constantly in collision, on one subject or another, with the authorities at New Amsterdam, and those in Holland. The boundaries of rights and privi- leges between them and their feudal superiors were illy defined, and subjects of disagreement and dispute were perpetually arising. Here, at this point, was the chief mart of trade, at the time, in the province; and this trade fell naturally into the hands of the proprietors of the colony. Not a little heart-burning and jealousy, on the part of the company, was excited on this account, es- pecially when the director of the colony was found to have set up his claim to staple-right, amounting to a demand of sovereign control over the proper trade of the colony against all the world, the company alone excepted, and had made formidable preparations to enforce his right by the establishment of an island fortress, planted with can- non, and frowning over the channel and highway of the river. The little village of Beverwyck too, clustering under the guns of Fort Orange-the germ of the city of Albany-became debatable ground. The soil belonged to the colony, and was occupied with the proper colonists subjects of the patroon. The company thought fit to as- sert a claim to as much ground as would be covered by the sweep of their guns at the Fort. This was of course resisted on one side, and attempted to be enforced on the other; and so sharp did this controversy become, and so important was it deemed, that Gov. Stuyvesant, on one oc- casion, sent up from Fort Amsterdam, an armed expedi- tion, to invade the disputed territory, and aid the military force at Fort Orange in supporting the pretensions of the company-an expedition wholly unsuccessful at the time, and happily too as bloodless as it was bootless. But I can not pursue this singular history in this place.
In 1664, the English conquest of the province took
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place. The colony of Rensselaerwyck fell with it. Jere- miah Van Rensselaer, the second son of Killian, was then in possession. He died in possession in 1674. The line of the eldest son of Killian, the original proprietor, be- came extinct; and in 1704, a charter from Queen Anne confirmed the estate to Killian, the eldest son of Jeremias Van Rensselaer. The subject of our present memoir was the third only in the direct line of descent, in the order of primogeniture, through the second son of this Killian Van Rensselaer-the eldest son having died without is- sue. The estate, came to him by inheritance, according to the canons of descent established by the law of Eng- land. It never passed, at any time, from one proprietor to another by will, nor was it ever entailed.
By a royal charter of 1685, the Dutch colony of Rens- selaerwyck had been converted and created into a regular lordship or manor, with all the privileges and incidents be- longing to an English estate and jurisdiction of the mano- rial kind. To the lord of the manor was expressly given authority to administer justice within his domain in both kinds, in his own court-leet and court-baron, to be held by himself or by his appointed steward. Other large privileges were conferred on him; and he had the right with the freeholders and inhabitants of the manor, to a separate representation in the colonial assembly. All these rights continued unimpared down to the revolution.
For eighty-four years immediately preceding the revolu- tion, the manor was never without its representative in the Assembly of the province-always either the propri- etor himself, or some member, or near relative, or friend of the family. Nearly the whole of this entire period was filled up with a series of hot political controversies between the assemblies and the royal governors. I have looked into the records of these contests, and I have not found an instance from the earliest time, in which the proprietor or representative of the manor was not found on the side of popular liberty. The last of the represent- atives was that stern patriot and whig Gen. Abraham; Ten Broeck. He was the uncle of the late Mr. Van Rensselaer, the last of the manorial proprietors, and his:
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guardian in his non-age, and had a right, therefore, to speak and act in the name of his ward. His official efforts, though often in a minority in the assembly, were untiring to bring the province of New York into a hearty co-ope- ration with her sister colonies in their movements towards revolution.
This brief reference to the connection of the manor, and of the family whose possession and estate it was, with the political history of the period, preceding the revolution ; may serve not only to do justice to the par- ties concerned, and thence incidentally to vindicate, if there were need of it, the conduct of the Dutch inhabit- ants of this province with reference to the progress of free principles-but also to shew that great as the change certainly was in the personal fortunes and prospects of the late Mr. Van Rensselaer between his birth and his majority yet, in truth, that change was neither sudden nor vio- lent; that it was altogether easy and natural; that the way had already been prepared; and that, though born as he was to hereditary honors and aristocratic rank, he yet, while still a youth was carried, by the strong current of the times, over the boundary-to him, at the period, but little more than an imaginary linc-between two very op- posite political systems; and found himself, at his prime of manhood, and when called to take his own part in the active scenes of life, not only a contented, but a glad and rejoicing subject and citizen of a free republic, With the history of the past before him ; in possession of an es- tate which connected him nearly with feudal times and a feudal ancestry, and which constituted himself, in his boyhood, a baronial proprietor, instead of what he now was-the mere fee-simple owner of acres, with just such political rights and privileges as belonged to his own frechold tenantry, and no other-it would not, per- haps, have been very strange, if he had, sometimes, turned his regards backwards, to contemplate the fancied charms of a life, sweetened with the use of inherited power, and gilded with baronial honors. Nothing, however, I feel warranted in saying, was ever farther from his contempla- tions. He had no regrets for the past. He was satisfied
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with his own position; and though the revolution, in giving his country independence had stript him of power and personal advantages, yet as it had raised a whole nation of men to the condition and dignity of freemen, and so to a political equality with himself, it was an event which, to a mind attuned as his always was to a liberal and enlighten- ed philanthropy, was only to be thought of with the strongest approbation and pleasure.
But I eome now to recount-which I propose to do in the plainest and simplest manner, as best according with the modesty of his own pretensions and character-those events in the life of Mr. Van Rensselaer which constitute his personal history.
He was.born on the first day of November, 1764, in the city of New York. His father was Stephen Van Rensse- laer, the proprietor of Rensselaerwyck. His mother was Catharine, daughter of Philip Livingston, Esquire, of the family of that name to which belonged the Manor of Liv- ingston. Mr. Livingston was eonspieuous among those lofty and disinterested spirits brought out by the American revolution in devotion to human liberty. He was one of the signers of that undying instrument-the Declaration of Independence. At the period of the birth of his grand- ehild, which took place in his own house, he was a member of the General Assembly, and at that time, more than ten years in advance of the revolution, in an answer to the speech of Lt. Gov. Colden, which was reported by him, he put forth and insisted, in explieit terms, on that great doetrine of "taxation only with consent," the denial of which by Great Britain finally brought on the conflict of arms.
The present Manor House of Rensselaerwyck was eom- pleted in 1765, when the subject of our memoir was a year old. It took the place of a structure, the site of which was near by, and which had answered, in its day, the uses of a fortress, as well as a dwelling. To this, the new Manor House, his father directly resorted. His oc- eupation of it, however, was short. He died in 1769, of a pulmonary disease, leaving his son, his eldest born, a few days less than five years old, and transmitting to him a
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constitutional weakness of the chest, which shewed itself in very alarming symptoms in his minority, but happily afterwards disappeared. His father left two other children, a son and daughter. The latter still survives.
On the death of his father, the care of that great landed and feudal estate, which fell exelusively to him, by the rule of primogeniture was committed to his uncle, Gen. Ten Broeck, by whom it was faithfully managed -- as far as the disturbed state of the times would allow-during the minority of his ward. For a while he remained under the control and supervision of his excellent and pious mother-long enough no doubt to receive those deep im- pressions of the value of religious faith and the beauty of holy things, which were finally wrought firmly into the texture of his character.
His first experience in school was under the labors of Mr. Jolin Waters, a professional schoolmaster, at a period when a schoolmaster was what he always should be, a man of consideration. It was before the days of Webster and printed spelling books, and when the letters and elements were studied and taught from a horn-book. And thus was he initiated into these mysteries. The school-house, with its sharp roof and gable to the front, still holds its ground in North Market street, nearly opposite the stueeoed church of the Colonie, in this city. And the blood of John Waters-the professional sehoolmaster-is still with us, and running in the veins of some of our most worthy and respectable eitizens.
But the education of the young proprietor was to be provided for in a way which required his early removal from the side and hearth of his mother. . This eare de- volved on his grand-father ; and he was first placed by Mr. Livingston at a school in Elizabethtown, in New Jersey. When the stirring and troublous times of the revolution came on, Mr. Livingston was driven with his family from the city of New York, and took refuge at Kingston. Here, fortunately, he established a elassical school, or academy, which attained no small celebrity under the direction of Mr. John Addison. Addison was a Seotchman, possessing the thorough seholarship of an
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educated man of his nation, and without any lack of the shrewdness and strong sense so apt to be found among his countrymen. He became a man of consideration in the state, and filled the office of state senator about the be- ginning of the present century. Mr. Livingston, much absent from home himself on public affairs, caused his young charge to be domesticated in his own family, for the convenience of his attendance on the instruction of Addison. He acquired the elements of a classical educa- tion at the Kingston Academy. The late venerable Abraham Van Vechten-one of the noblest specimens of humanity which it has pleased God ever to create-was his fellow-student at this school; and here was formed between the two a close and confidential intimacy and frendship which death alone was able to interrupt.
But the time soon came when it was necessary to supply the growing student with more ample advantages. The celebrated Dr. Witherspoon-scholar, divine, patriot, and statesman-had arrived in this country a few years before the revolution, and, taking charge of the college of New Jersey at Princeton as president, had raised the reputation of that Institution to a very high pitch. The revolution dispersed the students and broke up the college, and the learned and ardent Witherspoon, driven from academic shades, plunged into the business of the war. He, too, was a signer of the declaration. He was still in congress in 1779; but he had determined to retire at the close of that year, and resuscitate his beloved college. In the summer of that year congress instituted a commission, the members of which were to proceed northward to investi- gate, on the spot, the troubles to which the country was then subjected by the inhabitants of the New Hampshire grants. The doctor was in the North on this commission, and on his return, took, by arrangement, young Van Rensselaer with him, to make one of the few who should be gathered, in the autumn, under the wing of the re- animated college. Gen. Washington's Head Quarters were then in the Highlands, at New Windsor. Stony Point had just fallen into the hands of the enemy, who had also a footing in New Jersey. The worthy commissioner
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and his charge, received from the General the protection which the times required. Our student passed on his way to his first essay in college life, under a military escort. He was placed in the family of the Rev. Dr. Samuel Smith, the son-in-law of Dr. Witherspoon, and vice-presi- dent of the college, to whom the immediate care of conduct- ing the instruction of the institution was now committed. But New Jersey was not yet safe from the incursions of the enemy ; Princeton was still too near the seat of war; and the next year it was thought advisable to remove the young collegian to the university at Cambridge, then, as now, a distinguished and leading school of the higher kind in the United States. Here, in 1782, in the nineteenth year of his age, with respectable attainments in the classical and other learning of the time, he took his first degree in letters as a bachelor of arts. It may be added, in this connection, that in 1825, he received from Yale College, a diploma con- ferring upon him the honorary degree of doctor of laws.
The war of the revolution was ended in 1782, though peace was not proclaimed till the next year. Mr. Van Rensselaer was now at home, still two years under age, too late escaped from the university to put on armor for his country, without any motive to apply himself to the acquisition of professional learning of any sort, his estate yet under the guardianship and properly cared for ; and what was he to do? The natural refuge of a young man thus situated, and no doubt as safe as any which he would be likely to take, was in matrimony. He was married, before he was twenty, at Saratoga, to Margaret, the third daughter of Gen. Philip Schuyler; and thus was he con- nected, by a near relationship, and one as it proved, of great confidence and affection, with another of those ex- traordinary men whose names so crowd and illumine the pages of our revolutionary history.
His excellent mother, a discreet and exemplary Chris- tian, had, in 1775, united herself in marriage with the Rev. Dr. Eilardus Westerlo, an original Dutchman, a fine scholar, an eminent divine, and, at the time, and long be- fore and long after, the installed pastor of the Dutch Church in this city, where he preached in the Dutch lan-
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guage for the first fifteen or twenty years of his ministry. The mother of Mr. Van Rensselaer still resided with her husband at the Manor House, at the time of his marriage ; but the ample Parsonage of the good Dominie in Northi Market street, was then unoccupied, and there he bestowed his bride, to await the period when, having attained his legal majority, he should take possession of his inherit- ance. When that time came, the proper exchange of domi- ciles took place between him and his mother.
The occasion of his reaching the important age of twenty-one was celebrated with much of that kind of rousing observance, which, without being inappropriate, would have fitted more perfectly, perhaps, his relations as a landlord, if the event had transpired ten years earlier. But as it was, and changed as the political relations had become within that time, they were not to be re- strained from offering, on this event, the testimony of their joy, and their affection for his person, as if he was still, instead of being simply a contracting party with them in regard to their lands, as much their patroon and feudal superior, as his ancestor was of their fathers in the time of Petrus Stuyvesant. The tenantry were cer- tainly not as numerous, by any means, as they have since become; but such as they were, they poured in upon him from the extremes of the broad territory, nor did they leave him till they had done ample justice to the liberal cheer which he had provided for their entertainment.
This event fairly disposed of, Mr. Van Rensselaer found it necessary to look somewhat critically after his interests in the manor. He was in possession of a very large landed interest, but one which could not be managed without great expense, and from which he found the returns not only moderate, but small. The interests of the country too, as well as his own, required that these lands should be cultivated. Comparatively few of them had yet been converted into farms. The revolution had just closed, and left the country poor. Speculators would buy lands -as they always will-but farmers, the laborious tillers of the soil, were unable, or unwilling, to contract for the fee. By offering leases in fee, or for long terms, at a very
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moderate rent-sometimes hardly more than nominal- Mr. Van Rensselaer succeeded readily, in bringing a large proportion of his lands, comprising the greater part of the present counties of Albany and Rensselaer, into cultiva- tion ; and thus securing to himself a valuable and compe- tent income. This policy once adopted by him, was never changed. Nor did he ever attempt, as he might easily have done, greatly to increase his current means derived from this source. The net returns from his lands never exceeded, probably, two, if they did one, per cent upon them, considered as a capital at a very moderate valua- tion. But finding himself in the receipt of a current in- come, large enough for his simple and unostentatious habits, and those of his family, with something liberal to spare for his charities, he was not only not desirous of adding to his wealth by enhancing his receipts, but he was positively and strenuously averse to such a course. He had none of that morbid appetite for wealth which grows ravenous by what it feeds on. And this it was, I have no doubt-the strong disinclination to cumber himself with useless accumulations-which led him to neglect improvements, suggested often by the interests of others, and on account of which, because he could not bring himself to feel and indulge that passion for profit and gain which consumed those around him, he was some- times subjected to heavy censures.
Mr. Van Rensselaer received his first military commis- sion, as a major of infantry, in 1786; then at the age of twenty-two; and he was promoted to the command of a regiment two years afterwards. In 1801, Gov. Jay directed the cavalry of the state to be formed into a sepa- rate corps, divided from the infantry to which the horse had before been attached. The cavalry formned a single division, with two brigades, and the command of the whole was conferred on Mr. Van Rensselaer. This com- mission of major general of cavalry he bore to his death.
In presenting, as nearly as may be in the order of time, the events of this good man's life, I must not omit to mention one in this place, certainly of no inconsiderable, importance, if only considered as affecting our right judg-
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ment of his character. It was in the spring of 1787, when he was short of twenty-three years of age, in the vigor of manhood, just on the threshold of mature life, which sparkled brightly before him, with large posses- sions, and wealth enough to lay the world under contribu- tion for whatever it can afford to pamper appetite and passion, and supply the means of wanton and luxurious indulgenee; it was then, and under such eireumstanees, that he deliberately chose, by a formal profession of re- ligious faith, and a personal vow of religious obedience, according to the doetrines and discipline of the Christian church as adopted by the Dutch reformers, to pledge him- self to a life of temperanee, simplicity, truth and purity. How well he kept his vow, is known to all who had oeea- sion to observe him; and how eminently he was blest in keeping it, was seen in all those quarters, where, I think the Christian is wont to look for the promise of the life that now is-in the ealm and quiet of a peaceful existence, in domestie relations of the most tender, harmonious and beautiful character, and in a resigned, appropriate and happy death.
Towards the close of the year 1787, the convention which sat at Philadelphia to frame the Federal Constitu- tion, terminated its labors, and submitted its work to the judgment of the people. All over the country & despe- rate confliet arose, and, no doubt, the fate of the republie was suspended on the issue. Mr. Van Rensselaer took ground promptly and decidedly in favor of the constitu- tion. In the spring of 1788, delegates to the state eon- vention, which was to pass sentenec of condemnation, or approval, on the constitution, in the name of New York, were to be chosen from the county of Albany. The anti- federal party, strong throughout the state, was partieu- larly formidable here. This was the residenee of YATES and LANSING, both popular and influential, and both of whom, having acted as delegates, had left the convention at Philadelphia before its labors were finished, and pub- lished a joint letter to the governor, setting forth their reasons for refusing to put their names to the constitution. That their counsels, and the counsels of those with whom
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