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Philip
S. Van Rensselaer
 Philip S. Van Rensselaer was born n in April 1766. He was the second of three children born to Stephen II and his wife Catharina Livingston Van Rensselaer. His older brother was Stephen Van Rensselaer and his sister, Elizabeth furthered the Van Rensselaer name with marriages into the Schuyler and Ten Eyck families.
Losing
his father in 1769, the boy grew up at the Manor
House supported by an extensive and advantaged family.
His mother re-married in 1775 - bringing her new
husband, Dominie Eilardus Westerlo, into Philip's
young life.
While
his older brother assumed the tile of lord of Rensselaerswyck,
Philip became a merchant and was headquartered in
Albany. He was able to use his legacies to invest
in a number of business ventures and was a prominent
member and officer of a number of banking, insurance,
transportation, and civic improvement organizations.
In 1787, he married Westchester native Anne De Peyster Van Corltandt - daughter
of the state's first lieutenant governor. Anticipating
a large family, Philip built a grand home on upper
State Street. However, the union produced no children.
As early as 1790, his large home at 87 State was
attended by five slaves. 
He
entered city government in 1793 as an alderman for
the first ward. In 1798, he was appointed mayor of
Albany. He was re-appointed annually until 1816 when
he was replaced by newcomer Elisha Jenkins in a politically
motivated move. However, he was mayor again from
1819 to 1821. Over his long tenure, Albany underwent
a dramatic transformation. With roots set deeply
into Albany's past, as an important member of the
post-revolutionary business community, and well-connected
across a range of social and cultural institutions,
Philip S. Van Rensselaer understood these diverse
and potentially conflicting imperatives and was able
to help orchestrate the city's development over two
key decades.
He
owned a number of storehouses, space along the Albany
waterfront, and a flour and plaster mill along the
Normanskill - both of which were destroyed by fire
in 1820.
His
long public and business careers were substantial
and complex. But both are largely beyond the scope
of our basic inquiry!
Mayor
of Albany for almost twenty years, Philip S. Van
Rensselaer died on September 25, 1824 at age fifty-eight.
This city father was buried from his residence at
State and Chapel Streets.
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Notes: The
life of Philip S. Van Rensselaer is CAP biography
number 5106. The historical record often refers
to him as "Philip Schuyler Van Rensselaer." This
profile is derived chiefly from family and community-based
resources. As with all mayors of the city, the life
and tenure of Philip S. Van Rensselaer has been profiled
by Cuyler Reynolds in his Albany Chronicles, pp.
388-400.
Portrait by an unknown artist. Printed in Albany Chonicles.
Other likenesses of him are known to exist.
Detail
from a painting looking down State Street by James
Eights. Print copy in Graphics Archive of the CAP.
Slaves: With six slaves counted in his household on the census
of 1800, records show that over the next decade he
manumitted at least eight of them - although two
were freed "on
condition they move out of Albany County."
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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