Kiliaen van Rensselaer (colonel)
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Catharina Van Brugh
Kiliaen van Rensselaer | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 27, 1717 |
| Died | December 28, 1781 (aged 64) Albany, New York, US |
| Spouses | Harriet Schuyler
(m. 1742; died 1763)Maria Low
(m. 1769) |
| Parent(s) | Hendrick van Rensselaer Catharina Van Brugh |
| Relatives | Johannes Pieterse Van Brugh (grandfather) Solomon Van Rensselaer (grandson) |
Colonel Kiliaen van Rensselaer (December 27, 1717 – December 28, 1781) was a colonial American soldier and politician who was a member of the prominent Van Rensselaer family.
Kiliaen was born on December 27, 1717, around Albany in the Province of New York. He was the youngest of eleven children born to Hendrick van Rensselaer of Fort Crailo by Catharina (née Van Brugh) Van Rensselaer.[1] Among his older siblings were Johannes Van Rensselaer. His father was director of the Eastern patent of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck which covered roughly 62,000 acres of land in what is now Columbia County.[2]
His paternal grandparents were Maria van Cortlandt van Rensselaer (sister of New York City mayors Stephanus and Jacobus Van Cortlandt) and Jeremias van Rensselaer, the acting Patroon of Rensselaerswyck from 1658 to 1674 (who was a son of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, one of the founders and directors of the Dutch West India Company). Among his nephews were Brig. Gen. Robert Van Rensselaer. In describing the Van Rensselaer family, historian author William L. Stone stated: "They consisted of eighteen males in 1776. During the war every adult, except two old men, and all minors, except four boys, bore arms in one or more battles during the Revolutionary struggle." George W. Schuyler later wrote in his Colonial New York, "... of the eighteen males, sixteen belonged to Hendrick Van Rensselaer's branch, and of these, five were of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer's family."[3] His maternal grandparents were the former Catharine Roeloffe Jans and merchant Johannes Pieterse Van Brugh. His uncle, Pieter Van Brugh, served as the mayor of Albany from 1699 to 1700 and from 1721 to 1723.[2]