Rensselaerswyck, Manor of
Substate | Defunct
1630 CE to 1839 CE
The Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Manor Rensselaerswyck, Van Rensselaer Manor, or just simply Rensselaerswyck, is the name of a colonial estate—specifically, a Dutch patroonship and later an English manor—owned by the van Rensselaer family that is located in what is now mainly the Capital District of New York in the United States.
The estate is originally deeded by the Dutch West India Company in 1630 to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a Dutch merchant and one of the company's original directors.
Rensselaerswyck extends for miles on each side of the Hudson River near present-day Albany. It includes most of what are now the present New York counties of Albany and Rensselaer, as well as parts of Columbia and Greene counties.
Under the terms of the patroonship, the patroon has nearly total jurisdictional authority, establishing civil and criminal law, villages, a church (in part to record vital records, which will not be done by the state until the late nineteenth century).
Tenant farmers are allowed to work on the land, but have to pay rent to the owners, and have no rights to property. In addition, the Rensselaers harvest timber from the property.
The patroonship is maintained intact by Rensselaer descendants for more than two centuries
It is split up after the death of Stephen van Rensselaer III in 1839
His son Stephen Van Rensselaer IV, the 10th and last patroon, receives the bulk of his holdings; son William receives some lands east of the Hudson.
At his death, Steven van Rensselaer III's land holdings made him the tenth-richest American in history to date.
Under his sons tenant farmers begin protesting the manor system, part of a sweeping challenge in New York State.
Under financial, judicial, and political pressure from this anti-rent movement Stephen IV and William sell off most of their land, ending the patroonship in the 1840s.
For length of operations, it is the most successful patroonship established under the West India Company system.
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Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a pearl and diamond merchant of Amsterdam, is one of the original directors of the West India Company and one of the first to take advantage of the new settlement charter.
On January 13, 1629, van Rensselaer had sent notification to the Directors of the Company that he, in conjunction with fellow Company members Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert, had sent Gillis Houset and Jacob Jansz Cuyper to determine satisfactory locations for settlement
This had taken place even before the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions was ratified, but had been done in agreement with a draft of the Charter from March 28, 1628.
A representative for van Rensselaer purchases a large tract of land from its native owners adjacent to Fort Orange, on the west side of the Hudson River, on April 8, 1630.
It extends from Beeren Island north to Smack's Island and extends "two day's journey into the interior."
In the meantime, van Rensselaer has made vigorous preparations to send out tenants.
Early in the spring, several emigrants, with their farm implements and cattle, are sent out from the Netherlands under Wolfert Gerritson, who had been designated the overseer of farms.
These pioneers of the manor had embarked at the island of Texel in the ship Eendragt, or Unity, under Captain John Brouwer.
In a few weeks, they arrive at Fort Orange and begin the development and settlement of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck.
A few weeks after the arrival of the first colonists, the patroon's special agent, Gillis Hassett, secures a grant of land from the natives, lying mostly to the north of Fort Orange and extending up the river to an native structure called Monemins Castle.
This is situated on Haver Island at the confluence of the Mohawk and Hudson rivers.
This and the earlier purchase complete the bounds of the manor on the west side of the Hudson River.
Each tenant is required to swear an oath of loyalty to the patroon, without question.
Fort Orange and the land immediately around its walls still remain under the exclusive jurisdiction of the West India Company.
It will eventually develop as the city of Albany, which will never be under the direct dominion of the patroon.
A force of united "tribes" attacks the homesteads at Pavonia on October 1, 1643.
Many settlers are killed and Pavonia, most of which is burned to the ground, is evacuated.
Those who survive are ordered to the relative safety of New Amsterdam.
Escalating attacks and retaliations by the natives and the Dutch West India Company soldiers during the next two years become known as Kieft's War and lead to a near devastation of the New Netherland settlements at Pavonia and ...
...on Staten Island, and ...
...Long Island.
Rensselaerswyck, a patroonship outside the territory of the Lenape, is unscathed, and profits from the conflict.
The Dutch see important farming potential along the Rondout Creek and return to the area once more: the first recorded permanent settler in what will become the city of Kingston is Thomas Chambers, who comes from the area of Rensselaerswyck to the north in 1653.
The new settlement is called Esopus after the local Lenape people.