Career
He was the namesake and eighth generation descendant of the 17th century Superintendent of the Pavonia Colony. The kitchen step of his mansion was known to be the slab of marble that was originally the base of the statue of King George III at the Bowling Green in New New York After the statue had been torn down, the slab had been reused as the gravestone of a Major John Smith of the Royal Highlands Regiment.
In 1874, Van Vorst donated the stone to the New York Historical Society.
