Henry Rutgers was American officer, landed magnate, and philanthropist. He served on the New York Board of Education Regents from 1802 to 1826.
Background
Henry Rutgers, the son of Hendrick and Catharine (de Peyster) Rutgers, was the last descendant in his direct line of the Dutch immigrant, Rutger Jacobsen Van Schoenderwoert, who came to Fort Orange in 1636, and who rose to affluence by investing the profits of prosperous breweries in merchandise and Manhattan real estate. Coming to manhood during the pre-revolutionary period of opposition to Great Britain, he joined his clan in supporting the Sons of Liberty, formidable agitators who met at the Rutgers farm.
Education
His formal education was completed on graduation from King's College with the class of 1766.
Career
Relieved from the necessity of an active business career, Henry devoted his mature life to caring for his property, a considerable tract in what was to become New York's lower East Side around Chatham Square, and performing the duties of the public-spirited citizen. These activities were prefaced by an interlude of soldiering in the Revolution, during which he was mentioned as a captain at the battle of White Plains. Military interests continued until 1795 when he resigned the command of the 16t Regiment of New York militia (manuscript letter of Mar. 3, 1795, to Gov. DeWitt Clinton in the Rutgers University Library).
His interests were manifold, ranging from local and state politics to the patronage of numerous educational and religious projects. He was a member of the state assembly in 1784 and in 1800 was again a successful candidate for that body as a member of the group formed by Aaron Burr for use in building his own and the Jeffersonian fortunes. His continued interest in local politics was evidenced by his prominence in raising a fund of $28, 000 for the construction of the first Great Wigwam of Tammany Hall in 1811.
Many educational institutions felt the benefit of his advice and support. He gave the land for the second free school, established for the city's poor, and frequently met deficits out of his own pocket. He succeeded Governor Clinton as president of the Free School Society in 1828 and served until his death. He was a regent of the University of the State of New York from 1802 to 1826, a trustee of Princeton University from 1804 to 1817, and of Queen's College from 1816 to 1821.
Four years later Queen's College petitioned the New Jersey legislature for a change of name. This move was simultaneous with the election of Philip Milledoler, pastor and personal friend of Rutgers, as president, and the name of Milledoler's erstwhile elder, now an octogenarian, was given to the struggling institution. So far his donations had not been considerable, and the honor was probably conferred in a combined desire to compliment a prominent member of the Dutch Reformed Church (he was then president of its Board of Corporation) and to share in the benefactions of one whose generosity had been proverbial and might, through gift or bequest, become perennial. The last hope was not largely realized, as his known gifts thereafter consisted of $200 for the purchase of a bell and $5, 000 in cash. He added to lifelong devoutness a rather high catholicity and generosity in matters religious.
When he broke up the Rutgers farm, called the "Bouwery, " into long-time leaseholds, he offered several lots for the building of churches, including in his tender the Baptists and Presbyterians as well as his own Dutch Reformed. He was at various times an elder in the First Presbyterian Church and in the Market Street Dutch Reformed Church, for which last he gave the site. The Rutgers Street Presbyterian Church, opened in 1798, was also built on land which he gave.
In spite of continued disbursements, so great that at his death it was asserted that "it may be questioned, whether any one individual in our country has given so much in the whole amount, to objects of general charity, " he died worth the very respectable sum of $907, 949. Gilbert Stuart's portrait of Washington hung in the Rutgers mansion for many years.