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Catherine
Van Rensselaer Schuyler
 Catherine Van Rensselaer was born 1734. She was the eldest daughter of John Van Rensselaer and his wife Engeltie Livingston. Her father was lord of the lower or Claverack Van Rensselaer Manor.
"Kitty" Van Rensselaer grew into a young "lady of great beauty, shape, and gentility." She was a frequent visitor to the Van Rensselaer homes in Albany and down the valley to New York where she was introduced to the sons of New York's most important families. Daughter of a landed aristocrat, this "dark and slender beauty" would be a fitting mate for a number of up-and-coming and appropriate young men.
She
had known Albany's Philip Schuyler for several years
when they came together in a relationship that culminated
in their marriage in September 1755 at the Albany
Dutch Church. Approaching her twenty-first birthday,
Kitty would give birth to the first of her fifteen
children just five months later. At that time, her
husband was an officer in the provincial army and
she had moved to Albany and into the life of its
most prominent native son.
By
end of 1761, her family now included four children.
These Schuylers had removed from Albany's busiest
location to a large and newly built mansion located
on a hill south of and overlooking the core city.
This would be Catherine Schuyler's lifelong home.
For the next forty years, she would be the grand
dame of Albany's most regal location where dignitaries
from Baron Dieskau to George Washington were frequent
visitors.
As
Philip Schuyler's business, military, and political
careers often took him away from his growing family,
Kitty and the children were frequent guests at the
Patroon's and at the Schuyler estate at the Flats.
She also formed a special relationship with Colonel
John Bradstreet, her husband's mentor and their houseguest.
Twenty years her senior, their friendship has been
the subject of contemporary and historical speculation.
Kitty's son was named John Bradstreet Schuyler and
both mother and son were left substantial bequests
following Colonel Bradstreet's death in 1774.
Reaching
her fortieth birthday in 1774, Kitty gave birth
to three more children before 1781. Despite the stress
occasioned by the War for Independence, the Schuylers
spent time at both their Albany and Saratoga estates.
After the marriage of John Bradstreet Schuyler
in 1787, his parents fell back on their Albany home.
Catharine
Van Rensselaer Schuyler died in March 1803 at age
sixty-nine. Philip Schuyler died in 1804.
Notes: The life of Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler is
CAP biography number 5070. This summary profile is
derived chiefly from family and community-based
resources. Her life is further embellished in a
biographical work published in a series on "Women
of Colonial and Revolutionary Times:" Mary
Gay Humphreys, Catherine
Schuyler (New York, 1897).
This romanticized work was reprinted in 1968 and
is basic to further development of Kitty Schuyler's
story.
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). Comments
on her appearance and character are drawn largely
from Don Gerlach's two biographies of her husband.
Detail
from a portrait of Catherine Schuyler attributed
to Thomas Mc Ilworth (c. 1760s). Copy show here appears
in Mary Gay Humphreys, Catherine
Schuyler. Original
in the collection of the New-York Historical Society.
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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