Robert Van Rensselaer (December 16, 1740 – September 11, 1802) was Brigadier General during the American Revolutionary War, a member of the New York Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1777 and later a member of the New York State Assembly in the 1st, 2nd and 4th New York State Legislatures. [1]
Robert Van Rensselaer was born December 16, 1740, at Fort Crailo in Rensselaer, Province of New York. He was the son of Johannes Van Rensselaer (1708–1793), and Engeltie "Angelica" Livingston (1698–1746/47), descendants of ethnic Dutch and English colonists. His older siblings were Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, who became the 3rd Lieutenant Governor of New York, and Catherine Van Rensselaer, who married Philip Schuyler. [2] Schuyler, a Federalist, was elected as a United States senator from New York. [3]
Van Rensselaer's paternal grandparents were Hendrick van Rensselaer (1667–1740), director of the Eastern patent of the Rensselaerswyck manor, and Catharina Van Brugh, daughter of merchant Johannes Pieterse Van Brugh (1624–1697). [4] His paternal 2x great-grandfather was the merchant Killian Van Rensselaer, one of the original founders of the Dutch colony, New Amsterdam. His maternal grandparents were Robert Livingston the Younger and Margarita Schuyler, the daughter of Pieter Schuyler, the first Mayor of Albany. [5] [6]
On October 20, 1775, he was made colonel of the 8th Albany County Regiment of militia and on June 16, 1780, he was promoted to brigadier general of the second brigade of the Albany County militia. [7] This brigade included the Tryon County militia. He fought at Fort Ticonderoga and at the Battle of Klock's Field. [8]
From 1775 to 1777, he was a member of the New York Provincial Congress and a member of the New York State Assembly in 1777-78, 1778-79 and 1780-81. [1] In 1780, Van Rensselaer negotiated a mediation with the chiefs of the Oneida Nation, Native Americans who had been allied with the American colonists against the British. One of their members had been found with a war wampum belt indicating alliance with the British against the colonists. Van Rensselaer was trying to discover if there was a spy in their midst. [9] The Mohawk Nation, led by Joseph Brant in military action, was among the Iroquois nations allied with the British. [10]
After the United States gained independence, Van Rensselaer was a Federalist presidential elector in 1796. He cast his votes for the eventual 2nd President of the United States, John Adams, and Thomas Pinckney. The latter lost the vice-presidency to Thomas Jefferson. [1] The men's differences made governing more difficult. After this, candidates for president and vice-president were required to be elected together on a ticket from the same political party.
On April 23, 1765, Robert married Cornelia Rutsen (1747–1790), [11] the daughter of Colonel Jacob Rutsen and Alida Livingston on April 23, 1765, and had the following children: [12] [3] [13]
Van Rensselaer died September 11, 1802, at the Van Rensselaer Lower Manor House. [3] [15]
Through his daughter Alida, he was the grandfather of John Kintzing Kane (1795–1858), a noted Pennsylvania lawyer and judge who served as the Attorney General of Pennsylvania. Kane was the father of Elisha Kent Kane (1820–1857), the explorer, Thomas Leiper Kane (1822–1883), an attorney and abolitionist, and Elizabeth Kane (1830–1869), who married Charles Woodruff Shields (1825–1904) in 1861. [3]
Robert Livingston was the third and final Lord of Livingston Manor and a member of the assembly for the manor from 1737 to 1790.
Charles Holker Carroll was an American farmer and politician from New York who was a descendant of the Carrolls of Carrollton and married into the Van Rensselaer family.
Peter Van Brugh Livingston was a Patriot during the American Revolution who was a wealthy merchant and who served as the 1st New York State Treasurer from 1776 to 1778.
Walter Livingston was an American merchant, lawyer and politician.
Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, from the prominent Van Rensselaer family, was the lieutenant governor of New York and a member of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing New York in the 1st United States Congress.
William Denning was a merchant and United States Representative from New York.
The Schuyler family was a prominent Dutch family in New York and New Jersey in the 18th and 19th centuries, whose descendants played a critical role in the formation of the United States, in leading government and business in North America and served as leaders in business, military, politics, and society. The other two most influential New York dynasties of the 18th and 19th centuries were the Livingston family and the Clinton family.
The Van Cortlandt family was an influential political dynasty from the seventeenth-century Dutch origins of New York through its period as an English colony, then after it became a state, and into the nineteenth century. It rose to great prominence with the award of a Royal Charter to Van Cortlandt Manor, an 86,000-acre (35,000 ha) tract in today's Westchester County sprawling from the Hudson River to the Connecticut state line granted as a Patent to Stephanus Van Cortlandt in 1697 by King William III.
The Livingston family of New York is a prominent family that migrated from Scotland to the Dutch Republic, and then to the Province of New York in the 17th century. Descended from the 4th Lord Livingston, its members included signers of the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Several members were Lords of Livingston Manor and Clermont Manor, located along the Hudson River in 18th-century eastern New York.
Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer was an American lawyer and Federalist politician who served as Speaker of the New York State Assembly from 1812 to 1813, and Secretary of State of New York, from 1813 to 1815.
Hendrick van Rensselaer was director of the Eastern patent of the Rensselaerswyck manor. The estate was composed of land in Columbia County, New York, and land opposite Albany, New York, on the Hudson River, named Greenbush.
Colonel Kiliaen van Rensselaer was a colonial American soldier and politician who was a member of the prominent Van Rensselaer family.
Johannes Pieterse van Brugh (1624–1697) was one of the early settlers of New Netherland and is the progenitor of the Van Brugh family in the United States. He was prominently connected with the Dutch West India Company as a fur and timber trader in both Rensselaerswyck and New Amsterdam.
The Van Rensselaer family is a family of Dutch descent that was prominent during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries in the area now known as the state of New York. Members of this family played a critical role in the formation of the United States and served as leaders in business, politics and society.
Alida van Rensselaer Livingston was a Dutch businesswoman in Dutch Colonial America who exerted a considerable influence in the life of the colony.
Volkert Petrus Douw was a merchant and politician from Albany, New York, who was prominent both during colonial times and after the United States was established.
Johannes Van Rensselaer was a member of the prominent colonial Van Rensselaer family.
Lt.-Col. Hubertus "Gilbert" Livingston was a younger son of Robert Livingston the Elder who was a lawyer and politician in colonial New York.
Maj. Robert Gilbert Livingston was an American merchant and a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War.
Col. Peter Robert Livingston was an American landowner, soldier and politician.