Frederick Van Cortlandt
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Frederick Van Cortlandt (1699 – February 2, 1749) was an American merchant and landowner.
Van Cortlandt was born in 1699 and christened on April 23, 1699. He was the only surviving son born to Jacobus Van Cortlandt (1658–1739) and the former Eva de Vries Philipse (b. 1660). His older sister, Margaret Van Cortlandt, was married to Abraham de Peyster, a son of Abraham de Peyster, and his younger sister, Mary Van Cortlandt, was married to Peter Jay (the brother of Van Cortlandt's wife). Mary and Peter were parents of New York State Assemblyman James Jay, and John Jay, a Governor of New York and the 1st Chief Justice of the United States. His father served as the 30th and 33rd Mayor of New York City.[1]
His paternal grandparents were Flemish born Annetje "Anna" (née Loockermans) Van Cortlandt,[2] and Dutch born Captain Olof Stevense van Cortlandt, who arrived in New Amsterdam in 1637, a soldier and bookkeeper that rose to high colonial ranks through his work with the Dutch West India Company, eventually serving many terms as burgomaster and alderman.[3] Among his extended family was uncle Stephanus van Cortlandt (who married Gertruy van Schuyler) and aunt Maria van Cortlandt (who married Jeremias van Rensselaer).[4]
His maternal grandparents were Margaret (née Hardenbroeck) de Vries and Peter Rudolphus de Vries. After his biological grandfather's death, his grandmother remarried to Frederick Philipse, the 1st Lord of Philipsborough Manor (later, Philipsburg Manor), who adopted his mother Eva and changed her last name to Philipse upon their marriage (which produced another eleven children).[5] After his maternal grandmother's death c. 1691, his adopted grandfather married his paternal aunt, Catherine (née van Cortlandt) Derval, the widow of Johannes Derval.[4]
Career
Upon his father's death in 1739, Frederick inherited all of his father's lands, known as Van Cortlandt Manor, which had been owned by his family since 1691 and expanded under his father's ownership.[1] Frederick's father had established a wheat growing and processing business which included a saw mill, grist mill, and a fleet of draft boats that carried the flour from the south end of his lake down Tibbetts Brook and out to the Harlem and Hudson Rivers to market.[6]
In 1748, Van Cortlandt began construction on a large family mansion that is today known as the Van Cortlandt House, the oldest surviving building in the Bronx.[6]
