Stephen van Rensselaer II

Stephen van Rensselaer II (June 2, 1742 – October 19, 1769) was the sixth and youngest child of Stephen van Rensselaer I and Elizabeth Groesbeck. He served as Lord of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck.

Stephen van Rensselaer II
8th Patroon and 5th Lord of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck
In office
1747 – 1769
Preceded byStephen van Rensselaer I
Succeeded byStephen Van Rensselaer III
Personal details
BornJune 2, 1742
Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Province of New York
DiedOctober 19, 1769 (aged 27)
Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Province of New York
Spouse
Catherine Livingston
​
​
(m. 1764)​
ChildrenStephen van Rensselaer III
Philip S. Van Rensselaer
Elizabeth Van Rensselaer
Parent(s)Stephen Van Rensselaer I
Elizabeth Groesbeck
RelativesSee Van Rensselaer family
OccupationPatroon

Early life

Van Rensselaer was born on June 2, 1742. He was the sole-surviving son born to Elizabeth (née Groesbeck) Van Rensselaer and Stephen van Rensselaer I, who became patroon in 1745 upon the death of his older brother, Jeremias Van Rensselaer, who died unmarried and without issue. Young Stephen's older sister, Elizabeth van Rensselaer, was married to Abraham Ten Broeck.[2]

His father was the second son of Maria (née Van Cortlandt) Van Rensselaer and Kiliaen van Rensselaer, who served briefly as Patroon and Lord of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck. His maternal grandparents were Stephanus Groesbeck and Elizabeth (née Lansing) Groesbeck.[3]

Career

As sole-surviving son, he inherited the Manor of Rensselaerwyck when he was 5 years old; upon his death, in 1769, the Manor was administered by his brother-in-law Abraham Ten Broeck (who also served as Mayor of Albany from 1779 to 1783 and, again, from 1796 to 1798) until his son, [Stephen van Rensselaer III], came of age, who served as the tenth Patroon of Rensselaerwyck from 1785 to 1839.Spooner, pp. 22, 23</ref> At the age of twenty, Stephen II was commissioned a captain in the Albany County Militia.[4]

Shortly after his 1764 marriage, he built the new Manor House in 1765,[5] "from where he sought to rehabilitate the manor that had lacked active leadership since the death of his father almost two decades earlier."[4]

Personal life

In January 1764, he married Catherine Livingston (1745–1810), daughter of Philip Livingston, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and his wife Christina Ten Broeck (his older brother-in-law's sister), and had the following children:[6]

Stephen Van Rensselaer II died in October 1769 at the age of twenty-seven. After his death, his widow remarried to Dutch born minister Eilardus Westerlo, with whom she had Rensselaer Westerlo, who was later elected to the United States Congress.[5]

See also

References
  1. Spooner 1907, p.17
  2. Bielinski, Stefan. "Elizabeth Van Rensselaer Ten Broeck". exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov. New York State Museum. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  3. Bielinski, Stefan. "Elizabeth Groesbeck Van Rensselaer". exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov. New York State Museum. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  4. Bielinski, Stefan. "Stephen Van Rensselaer II". exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov. New York State Museum. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  5. Livingston, Edwin Brockholst (1910). The Livingstons of Livingston Manor: Being the History of that Branch of the Scottish House of Callendar which Settled in the English Province of New York During the Reign of Charles the Second; and Also Including an Account of Robert Livingston of Albany, "The Nephew," a Settler in the Same Province and His Principal Descendants. Knickerbocker Press. p. 551. Retrieved 19 January 2018.
  6. Reynolds, Cuyler (1914). 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. New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 1158. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
  7. "The Last Patroon". New Netherland Institute. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
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