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Hendrick
Van Rensselaer
Hendrick Van Rensselaer was born in Greenbush in 1667. He was the second son of Jeremias Van Rensselaer - head of his family's extensive holdings in America. His mother was Maria Van Cortlandt - daughter of one of the most prominent Manhattan merchants. Enduring the loss of his father in 1674 and his mother fifteen years later, Hendrick was raised under a family umbrella controlled mostly by the Van Cortlandts.
Two
months after the death of his mother in 1689, Hendrick
married Catharina Van Brugh - whose father also was
a prosperous New York businessman. Following the
birth of their first child that same year, the couple
relocated to Albany where their last ten children
were baptized in the Albany Dutch church. Almost
immediately, Hendrick became a church mainstay -
sponsoring more than two dozen baptisms, serving
as an elder, and auditing the church's books.
Over
the next decade, these Van Rensselaers were mainline
Albany residents in every sense of the word. Standing
in the shadow of his older brother, Kiliaen - who
became lord of Rensselaerswyck, Hendrick was known
as an Albany merchant, storekeeper, and part owner
of a ship that traded in the West Indies. In 1695,
twenty-eight-year-old Hendrick was elected to the
Albany city council as an alderman for the first
ward. Four the next five years, he sat on the council
and city court. In 1698, he purchased land at Schaghticoke
from the Indians on Albany's behalf. In 1707, he
sold that patent to the city.
In
1704, his life changed when Rensselaerswyck was partitioned
with the southern and eastern portions known as the "Lower Manor" going to Hendrick. Before long, Hendrick Van Rensselaer and his family left Albany - setting down roots across the river in a new home called "Crailo."
In
1705, Hendrick Van Rensselaer was elected to represent
Rensselaerswyck in the New York General Assembly.
Re-elected four times, he served until 1715. During
that time (from 1706 thru 1734), he was listed on
the roster of the Commissioners of Indian Affairs.
As
time passed, he retreated to his country home - leaving
the active development of the "Lower Manor" to his sons, Johannes and Hendrick. Hendrick Van Rensselaer died at his Greenbush home in July 1740 at age seventy-four. He was buried from the Albany Dutch church.
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Notes: The
life of Hendrick Van Rensselaer is CAP biography
number 5053. This profile is derived chiefly from
family and community-based resources. Although
based on substantial existing genealogical resources
for this most prominent New Netherland family, the
online genealogical pages of Walter Gilbert have
been valuable in articulating our work on the Albany
Van Rensselaers. Chief among the printed works on
the family is Florence Van Rensselaer, The
Van Rensselaers in Holland and in America (New York, 1956).
This
information comes from a profile of Van Rensselaer's
business in Sung Bok Kim, Landlord
and Tenant in Colonial New York: Manorial Society,
1664-1775 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1978), 145-46.
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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