Background

Stephen Van Rensselaer was born on November 1, 1764, in New York. He was the son of Stephen and Catherine (Livingston) Van Rensselaer, and fifth in direct descent from Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the first patroon.

Upon his father's death in 1769, which left the five-year-old child heir to a vast landed estate in Rensselaer and Albany counties.

Education

Stephen's grandfather, Philip Livingston, took charge of his education which was begun at Albany and after numerous changes due to the disturbances of wartime was completed at Harvard, where he was graduated in 1782.

In 1822, Van Rensselaer received the honorary degree of LL. D. from Yale University.

Career

By granting perpetual leases at moderate rentals in kind, Stephen brought more of his estate under cultivation than had any of his predecessors, but he refused to sell any part of his lands outright. He was elected as lieutenant-governor from 1795 to 1801. In 1801, he was the unsuccessful Federalist candidate for governor against George Clinton. He sat in the Assembly in several subsequent sessions and in the constitutional conventions of 1801 and 1821. Meanwhile, he had become a major-general in the state militia, and although without active military experience, was called upon by Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins in 1812 to take command of the entire northern frontier of the state.

Stephen set up his headquarters at Lewiston and by October 1812 had assembled some six thousand troops on the Niagara frontier, but the men lacked discipline and equipment, and their efficiency was further impaired by the refusal of Brig. -Gen. Alexander Smyth of the regular army to take orders from or cooperate with Van Rensselaer. Without the support of Smyth, who held his brigade at Buffalo, Van Rensselaer ventured to attack Queenstown (Queenston), October 13, 1812.

The advance column secured a foothold on the Canadian shore, but when the remainder of the militia refused to cross the river to their support, they were compelled to surrender, with an aggregate loss of nearly a thousand men. Modern critics hold that the possible advantages to be gained by a successful attack at this point were not sufficient to justify the risk and that Van Rensselaer was culpable for not having better ascertained the temper of his army.

After the defeat, he resigned his command and returned to Albany. In the spring of 1813, he again received the Federalist nomination for governor but was defeated by Tompkins. In 1822, he was elected to Congress to succeed his kinsman Solomon Van Rensselaer and retained his seat until 1829. In the choice of the president by the House of Representatives in 1825, he cast the deciding vote in the New York delegation and therefore in the election. He was thought to have pledged his vote to William H. Crawford, but cast it, on the first ballot, for John Quincy Adams.

Van Rensselaer explained to Van Buren that upon taking his seat, being still in doubt how to vote, he had bowed his head in prayer and upon opening his eyes had seen at his feet a ballot bearing Adams' name. The patroon's chief services to his state were neither military nor political but economic and educational. An early advocate of a canal to connect the Hudson with the Great Lakes, he was a member of the first canal commission in 1810 and of the second, instituted in 1816, of which from 1825 to his death he was president. He bore the expense of a geological survey by Amos Eaton of a belt of land following the Erie Canal across New York and thence across New England, with special reference to soil and agricultural possibilities. In 1819, he was elected to the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, of which he was chancellor from 1835 to his death.

Achievements

• In 1824, Van Rensselaer established at Troy a school primarily for the training of teachers "for instructing the sons and daughters of farmers and mechanics" in "the application of science to the common purposes of life". The school was incorporated in 1826, as Rensselaer Institute and later became Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a pioneer among schools of its kind. He also gave liberally to other educational causes. He was president of the Albany Lyceum of Natural History and of the Albany Institute. The town of Stephentown, New York is named for Stephen Van Rensselaer. In 1791, Van Rensselaer was elected as an honorary member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati. In 1998, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Alumni Hall of Fame inducted Van Rensselaer as a member.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Hierosolyma, and Milton's Dream (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Hierosolyma, and Milton's Dream And slept, ...)

  • Check List of Early American Bottles and Flasks

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • A Geological and Agricultural Survey of the District Adjoining the Erie Canal in the State of New York: Taken Under the Direction of the Hon. Stephen ... Formations; Together With a Geological Profi

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • American Firearms: an histology of American gunsmiths, arms manufacturers & patentees with detailed description of their arms

    (A history of American gunsmiths, arms manufacturers & pat...)

  • Poems Of Twin Graduates Of The College Of New Jersey (1882)

    (This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of th...)

  • Early American Bottles and Flasks

    (A fantastic book for anyone interested in this subject. T...)

  • American Firemarms: An histology of American gunsmiths, arms manufacturers & patentees with detailed description of their arms

    (Firearms history; American.)

  • Early American Bottles and Flasks

    (1971 Hardcover. BOOK OFF SQUARE. No dust jacket. Minimal ...)

Politics

Van Rensselaer was elected as a Federalist to the New York Assembly in 1789 and 1790, served in the state Senate from 1791 to 1795.

Views

Van Rensselaer's correspondence shows that Stephen believed an aggressive stroke was expected by his superiors and that he was both stung and alarmed by criticism of his inaction in the army itself.

Personality

Probably the foremost man in the state in point of wealth and social prominence, Van Rensselaer was loved for his simple tastes, democratic behavior, and genial manners. As a landlord, he was lenient to a fault and he refused to subject his tenants to political pressure.

A genuine aristocrat, he was yet ready to meet the new democracy halfway. His integrity was unchallenged, and political opponents held no rancor against him. Van Buren, a member of the opposite party, wrote of him as "that good and true gentleman Patroon Van Rensselaer".

Connections

On June 6, 1783, Van Rensselaer married Margaret Schuyler, daughter of Gen. Philip Schuyler, and in 1785 went to occupy the manor house near Albany. They had three children. After the death of his wife, Van Rensselaer married, May 17, 1802, Cornelia, daughter of William Paterson. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer was one of nine children of this second marriage.

Father:

Stephen van Rensselaer, II

1742 - 19 October 1769

Mother:

Catherine Livingston Westerlo

25 August 1745 - 17 April 1810

Half-brother:

Rensselaer Westerlo

6 May 1776 - 18 April 1851

Wife:

Margarita "Peggy" Schuyler Van Rensselaer

September 19, 1758 – March 14, 1801

Wife:

Cornelia Bell Paterson Van Rensselaer

4 June 1780 - 6 August 1844

Daughter:

Catherine Van Rensselaer

1803–1874 Married Gouverneur Morris Wilkins.

Daughter:

Cornelia Paterson Van Rensselaer

1812–1890 Married Robert James Turnbull, Jr. (1807–1854), son of Robert James Turnbull.

Son:

Westerlo Van Rensselaer

1820–1844 Died aged 24.

Son:

Henry Bell Van Rensselaer

1810–1864 Was apolitician and general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, who married Elizabeth Ray King, a granddaughter of Rufus King.

Son:

Euphemia White Van Rensselaer

1816–1888 Married John Church Cruger (1807–1879).

Son:

Philip Stephen Van Rensselaer

1806–1871 Married Mary Rebecca Tallmadge (1817–1872), daughter of James Tallmadge, Jr.

Son:

William Paterson Van Rensselaer

1805–1872 Married Eliza Bayard Rogers (1811–1835), and after her death, her sister, Sarah Rogers (1810–1887), both were granddaughters of William Bayard Jr..

Son:

Alexander Van Rensselaer

1814–1878 Married Mary Howland in 1851. In 1864, he married Louisa Barnewell.

Son:

Cortlandt Van Rensselaer

1808–1860 Was a noted Presbyterian clergyman.

References

• The First Forty Years of Washington Society
• Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley : A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Building of a Nation. (3 Volumes)
• The War of 1812 on the Niagara frontier.
• A Narrative of the Affair of Queenstown: In the War of 1812 (Classic Reprint)
• A Discourse on the Life, Services and Character of Stephen Van Rensselaer: Delivered Before the Albany Institute, April 15, 1839. With an Historical ... Colony and Manor of Rensselaewyck in Appendix