Manor of Rensselaerswyck - Sustaining The Manor

Sustaining The Manor

List of Patroons Kiliaen van Rensselaer Johan van Rensselaer Jan Baptist van Rensselaer Jeremias van Rensselaer Kiliaen van Rensselaer Kiliaen van Rensselaer Jeremias van Rensselaer Stephen van Rensselaer Stephen van Rensselaer II Abraham Ten Broeck Stephen van Rensselaer III

History is almost certain that Kiliaen van Rensselaer never actually visited his land in New Netherland. The Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, a collection of translated primary documents from the time, state that, "The present letters show beyond the possibility of doubt that Kiliaen van Rensselaer did not visit his colony in person between 1630 and 1643, and the records preserved among the Rensselaerswyck manuscripts make it equally certain that he did not do so between the last named date and his death…" Upon van Rensselaer's death in the 1640s, the estate was passed on to his eldest son Jan Baptist, who acquired the title of patroon. He died in 1658 and his younger brother Jeremias van Rensselaer became patroon. Acknowledging the surrender of New Amsterdam and Fort Orange to England in 1664 following a surprise incursion by the English during a time of peace (which led to the Second Anglo–Dutch War), Jeremias took the oath of allegiance to the King of England that October. In 1666, he also built the original Manor House, located north of Fort Orange, which was the seat of the patroonship and the home of the patroon until 1765.

Jeremias died in 1674 and the estate was passed on to his oldest son, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, grandson to the first patroon, who shared his name. At the time of his father's death, Kiliaen was eleven and did not acquire the title of Lord of the Manor until he was twenty-one. In 1683, one year before Kiliaen became Lord of the Manor, New York Governor Thomas Dongan established Albany County, one of the original twelve counties in New York. The county was to "containe the Towns of Albany, the Collony Renslaerwyck, Schonecteda, and all the villages, neighborhoods, and Christian Plantacons on the east side of Hudson River from Roelof Jansen's Creeke, and on the west side from Sawyer's Creeke to the Sarraghtoga." In 1685, Governor Dongan granted a patent for Rensselaerswyck, making it a legal entity. The patent included a detailed description of its boundaries, stating:

...the banks of Hudsons River... beginning att the south end... or Berrent Island on Hudsons River and extending northwards up along both sides of the said Hudsons River unto A place heretofore Called the Kahoos or the Great Falls of the said River & extending itselfe east and west all along from each side of the said river backwards into the woods twenty fouer english miles As Also A Certaine tract of land situate lyeing and being on the east side of Hudsons River beginning at the Creeke by Major Abraham States and soe Along the said River southward to the south side of Vastrix Island by a creek called Waghankasigh stretching from thence with an easterly line into the woods twenty fouer english miles to a place called Wawanaquaisick And from thence northward to the head of the said Creeke by Major Abrahams States as Aforesaid.

One year later in 1686, Albany was chartered as a city care of the Dongan Charter, authored by Governor Dongan. During Kiliaen's tenure as patroon, he served in many positions in Albany including assessor, justice, and supervisor, and represented Rensselaerswyck in the New York General Assembly. In 1704, Kiliaen split Rensselaerswyck into two portions, the southern portion, or "Lower Manor" (comprising Greenbush and Claverack), placed under the eye of Kiliaen's brother Hendrick. The northern portion retained the title Rensselaerswyck. Hendrick lived in Albany until a year after receiving the Lower Manor, representing Rensselaerswyck in the General Assembly from 1705 until 1715, just as his brother had from 1693 to 1704.

Kiliaen died in 1719 and the patroonship passed on to his oldest son Jeremias. Jeremias died in 1745 and the estate passed on to his brother Stephen. Stephen, sickly upon receiving the estate, died in 1747 at the age of forty. The estate was then passed on to his son, Stephen van Rensselaer II, who was five when his father died. Stephen II was active in the Albany County Militia and active in restructuring loose land leases created by his predecessors. One land deal made in the eastern region of Rensselaerswyck led to the name of the town Stephentown in southeastern Rensselaer County. He also rebuilt the Manor House in 1765.

Stephen II died in 1769 at the age of 27 as one of the richest men in the region. The Manor passed on to his eldest son Stephen van Rensselaer III, who was five at the time of his father's death. The estate was controlled by Abraham Ten Broeck until Stephen III's twenty-fifth birthday. Stephen III attended school in Albany and then New Jersey and Kingston during the Revolution. He graduated from Harvard College in 1782. Stephen III is well known throughout history for many achievements. In 1825, he was elected Grand Master of the New York State Grand Masonic Lodge. He was elected to the New York State Assembly in 1789 and remained there until elected to the New York State Senate in 1791. In 1795 he was elected Lieutenant Governor of New York and he served in the United States House of Representatives from 1822 to 1829. He was also commissioned a Lieutenant General in the New York State Militia, and led an unsuccessful invasion of Canada at Niagara in the War of 1812. His most lasting achievement was to found, with Amos Eaton, the Rensselaer School, which developed into the present-day Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.