Cortlandt Van Rensselaer
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Rev. Cortlandt Van Rensselaer | |
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| Born | May 26, 1808 Albany, New York, US |
| Died | July 25, 1860 (aged 52) |
| Alma mater | Yale University Union Theological Seminary Princeton Theological Seminary |
| Spouse | Catherine Ledyard |
| Children | 6, including Alexander |
| Parent(s) | Stephen Van Rensselaer III Cornelia Paterson |
| Relatives | See Van Rensselaer family |
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Cortlandt Van Rensselaer (May 26, 1808 – July 25, 1860) was a Presbyterian clergyman from the United States.
Cortlandt Van Rensselaer was born in Albany, New York, a son of General Stephen Van Rensselaer and Cornelia Bell Paterson, his father's second wife. He graduated from Yale in 1827, and then studied at Union Theological Seminary, Prince Edward County, Virginia, (now Union Presbyterian Seminary) and at Princeton Theological Seminary.[1]
Career
He was a missionary to the slaves in Virginia 1833–1835. He was ordained in 1835, and became pastor of the Presbyterian church in Burlington, New Jersey, in 1837, of the 2nd Presbyterian Church, Washington, D.C., in 1841, and agent of Princeton Theological Seminary in 1844, raising $100,000 for its endowment. He was secretary of the Presbyterian board of education 1846–1860, and founded and edited the Presbyterian Magazine and The Home, the School, and the Church.
The New York University gave him the degree of D.D. in 1845. Much of his large fortune was devoted to benevolent objects and to the religious enterprises of the Presbyterian church. After his death, selections from his published writings appeared under the title of Miscellaneous Sermons, Essays, and Addresses, edited by his son, Cortlandt Van Rensselaer (Philadelphia, 1861).[2]
