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Home , Frederick Philipse, Jeremias Van Rensselaer, Johannes Schuyler, Livingston family, Livingston Manor, Patroon

The Colonial Family: Kinship nd Power Peter R. Christop State Library

ruce C. Daniels in a 1985 book review wrote: “Each There is a good deal of evidence in the literature, year since the late 1960sone or two town therefore, that in fact the New England town model may studies by professional historians have been published; not at all be the ideal form to use in studying colonial lheir collective impact has exponentially increasedour New York social structure. The real basis of society was knowledge of the day-to-day life of early America.“’ not the community at all, but the family. The late Alice One wonders why, if this is so useful an historical P. Kenney made the first step in the right direction with approach, we do not have similar town studies for New her study of the Gansevoort family.6 It is indeed the York. It is not for lack of recordsthat no attempthas been family in colonial New York that historians should be made. Nor can one credit the idea that modern profes- studying, yet few historians have followed Kenney’s sional historians, armed with computers, should feel in lead. A recent exception of note is Clare Brandt’s study any way incapable of dealing with the complexity of a of the through several generations.7 multinational, multiracial, multireligious community. However, we should note that Kenney and Brandt have restricted their attention to persons with one particular One very considerable problem for studying the surname, ignoring cousins, grandparents, and colonial period was the mobilily Qf New Yorkers, grandchildren with other family namesbut nonetheless especially the landed and merchant class. Do the certainly membersof the family. communities of New York, Albany, Schenectadyand Kingston lend themselvesto treatment discreetly, or do Americans have long been fascinated with the myth too many of the samepeople and families appearin most of the self-made man, and the enduring figures in our of those communities? fiction are such rootless characters. Most biographers would have us believe that Washington, Lincoln, In fact, the most unifying force in colonial New York Hamilton, and Franklin became great men in spite of was not the community. Thomas J. Archdeacon’s their families, rather than becauseof them. Despite the analysis of Leislerian demonstratesthe myth, the fact remains that the person whose parents existence of neighborhoods that were ethnic, economic, were healthy, wealthy and wise had a great advantage and geographic entities, and in strong opposition to each over the person whose parents were sickly, poor and other.2 Sung Bok Kim’s study of the ignorant, and despite all the rhetoric to the contrary we manors reveals the existence of a strongly divisive do in fact judge people by their families. Individuals Dutch/Yankee dichotomy throughout the valley.3 In come and go; families endure. The family is not some another study, Kim has suggestedIhat in revolutionary curious institution of the colonial past, but the most Albany County, allegiances derived from location, permanentand enduring of social institutions. One can- Rensselacrswijck tenants in most parts of the manor not possibly understandeither the individual or society siding with the and against the Crown, while at large without a good comprehensionof the family. personsoutside or on the fringes of the manor sided with the Crown and against the Patroon.4 To begin our study of the nature of the Hudson Valley’s colonial family we might take a moment to look Divisive factors which Kim did not consider were that at one prominent family on both sides of the Atlantic. Loyalist communities were largely non-Dutch and Kiliaen , the first Patroon of Rensse- Lutheran, while the parts of the Manor aligned with laerswijck, had been a small boy when his father died. revolution were mostly Dutch andReformed. In contrast Kiliaen was apprenticedto his uncle Nicolaes van Byler, tn theseethnic divisions, Patricia U. Bonomi has shown one of the wealthiest merchants in Holland. Kiliaen that political divisions were neither permanentnor along worked hard and becamea partner. Of coursehe also had party lines, but rather changedfrom issueto issueaccord- the good senseto marry his uncle’s ward, niece, and heir ing to personal and family self interest.’ Helligond van Byler. After her death he married another 111 112 SELECTED RENSSELAERSWIJCK SEMINAR PAPERS cousin, Anna van Wely, whose father Jan was also an Rensselaersmay well have been acquaintedwith Maria’s extremely wealthy merchant. The two companieswere father and we have to assumethat it was to the family merged with Van Rensselaeras principal owner, and at that Anna van Rensselaermight have raised an objec- his death his estate was valued at 250,000 guilders, not tion.* * However, what was done was done, and the Van including the colony of Rensselaerswijck. There is a Cortlandts became part of the club. Maria’s sister lesson to be learned here, because we find it repeated Catherine married of Philipsburgh throughout the colonial period in the Hudson Valley: Manor, their brother Stephanusvan Cortlandt becamea keep the money in the family.* manor lord in his own right, and married Gertrude Schuyler. Gertrude’s sister Alida married Nicolaes van We might, for instance,note someof VanRensselaer’s Rensselaer.Gertrude and Alida were already related to relatives who were appointed to important posts in the Van Rensselaersthrough their mother Margaret van America. As a major stockholder of the West India Slichtenhorst.‘2 Not that the Van Cortlandts were Company, he was able to have his nephew Wouter van dependent upon the Van Rensselaersto get rich; they Twiller appointed Director General of . managedvery well on their own, but the marriage gave In his position as owner of Rensselaerswijckthe Patroon them an increaseddegree of social respectability which appointed a cousin’s son, , to several other well-to-do settlers, such as the even wealthier offices including magistrate. After the Patroon’s death, JacobLeisler, were never able to acquire. the family chose as directors of Rensselaerswijck the Patroon’s sons, Jan Baptist, Nicolaes, and Jeremias, The English conquest in 1664 changed the roster Jeremias’ brother-in-law Stephanusvan Cortlandt, and somewhatas to who was socially acceptableand politi- Brant van Slichtenhorst who was married to a Van cally important, but did not change the fact that one Rensselaerrelative, Aeltgen van Wencom. Her relative, neededfamily connectionsto get ahead.Gneperson who Gerrit van Wencom, served the colony as onder schout was well aware of how the game was plalyedwas Robert (deputy court officer)? Livingston. Born in Scotland and raised in the Nether- lands, Livingston was comfortable in both the English This inclination to keep the operation within the fami- and Dutch languages,which gave him a great advantage ly was not a peculiarity of the Van Rensselaerfamily. in New York. After 1668 trade with Holland was for- Throughout the colonial period the Hudson Valley was bidden, which meant that most Dutch merchantsneeded controlled by no more than a dozen families including a partner with English connections. Livingston did not. the Van Rensselaers,the Van Cortlandts, the Philipses, However, there were limits as to how far he could go in the Schuylers, and the Livingstons. Most of the a society controlled by Dutch merchants. He solved the marriagescontracted by membersof thesefamilies were problem by marrying Alida Schuyler, widow of Nicolaes with other membersof the samefamilies, so that in fact van Rensselaer. Both admired and despised for his the wealth remained concentrated in a very few hands, ambition, business acumen, and political savvy, instead of becoming dispersedafter several generations. Livingston had neutralized opposition by contracting the marriage with Alida, for to spite him the Dutch families Bringing a new family into the selectcircle was a very would also have had to spite her. The:y balked at his great undertaking, which we assume could normally efforts to take control of Rensselaerswijck, but he was have occurred only after extended family discussions. mollified by the governor with a manor of his own.13 However, the Van Cortlandts joined the select group as a result of Jeremiasvan Rensselaer’sdeciding to marry After 1664 the English held the political power in the Maria van Cortlandt without having sought family colony, but power is not particularly useful unless it can approval. In fact it was not until after the wedding that be translated into something tangible, such as land or he wrote home to break the news to his brother Jan money. We find a nice example in the ‘Nicolls family. Baptist: “After giving my greetings to mother you will The first of the family here was Matthias Nicolls, who please announce to her also that I have married Maria participated in the English conquestand then served in a van Cortland.” Why had he not announced his plans number of important government offices including ahead of time? Why had he not written directly to his provincial secretary, captain of cavalry, mayor of New mother?” Obviously he was afraid of her reaction-not York, and judge of the Court of Oyer and1Terminer. His that Mother van Rensselaercould have objectedto Maria son William followed in his footsteps:Attorney General, personally, since they had never met, but the Van Queens County Clerk, member of the provincial THE COLONIAL FAMILY: KINSHIP AND POWER 443

Fig. 25. Portrait of Capt. JohannesSchuyler (1668-1747) and his wife Elizabeth Staats;ca. 1725-30; attributed to John Watson. Courtesy of The New-York Historical Society, New York City.

Council-but he went one step further. I-Ie married a Loveridge, the hatmaker, and that because he was the Dutch girl-not just any Dutch girl, but Anna van only hatmaker in the city. His son William, Jr., was a Rensselaer,daughter of Jeremlas,widow of her cousin tavemkeeper, and Albany had plenty of tavemkeepers Kiliaen the third patroon, and sister of Kilaen the fourth without having to put up with an English one. Young patroon. William Nicolls had been a leading political Loveridge was brought to court so many times on so figure and a prominent lawyer, and now as an associate many nuisance chargesthat he finally took the hint and of the landed aristocracy, he soon becamepossessed of moved to .‘” property on , in New Jersey, and in the Hudson Valley. His son RensselaerNicolls inherited While in Albany, the younger Loveridge had pur- from his uncle Kiliaen van Rensslaerland in Bethlehem chased a large tract of land which became a valuable where young Nicolls settled, married a Dutch-English property for his daughter Temperance who married a wife, and enjoyed the comforts of being connected to Dutchman, William van Orden, and for various relatives both the English political system and the Dutch landed of Loveridge’s Huguenot wife Margaret du IVlond, aristocracy.‘4 including her sister Jannetie’s children surnamed Van Vechten. Having partially obliterated their Englishness, Albany was Dutch. It was also anti-English and anti- the Du Mends and Van Ordens moved to the Loveridge New York City. Every monopoly granted to New York, Patent, which developed into the present village of every tax grantedto New York to be collected on imports Catskill. Later generations intermarried several times and exports, every privilege of that sort was money out over with their local Van Vechten relatives and con- of the pocketsof the Albany merchants.They hatedNew trolled GreeneCounty economically and politically until York, and they hated the English with a passion.The one well into the nineteenth century.‘6 way that an Englishman could get Albany to forgive him for his nationality was to marry a Dutch woman. One of The most important position in Albany that was under the few English merchantsto makea successof business English control was the post of commandantat the fort. in Albany despite having an English wife was William Even that could be strongly influenced by the local 114 SELECTED RENSSELAERSWIJCK SEMINAR PAPERS community, and in order to be successfulin the position, and part Dutch, connected to both the English political a Dutch wife was a necessity to the incumbent. John community and the Dutch landholding society.lg Who Baker, army captain with a bad temper and an English would be a fair spousefor such a girl? Elizabeth Salis- wife, became embroiled in feuds and fights with the bury married RensselaerNicolls of Bethlehem, who as inhabitants and was eventually fired by the Governor. we have seenwas the son and grandsonof major officials His successor,Sylvester Salisbury, was just as English in the provincial government, while on h.ismother’s side but had a Dutch wife, and not only had a comfortable he was a Van Rensselaerand related to’ the Schuylers, career as a soldier, but was even elected sheriff of Van Cortlandts, and Livingstons. Nor does it end there. Albany. The first English mayor of Albany was Edward Rensselaerand Elizabeth Nicolls had a son Francis, who Holland, whose father was commandantat the fort. How married his secondcousin Margaretha van Rensselaer.20 could an Englishman appointed mayor be acceptableto Thus we see that throughout the colonial period the Albany in the eighteenth century? Among other recom- landowners and the wielders of political power married mendations,he had as his wife FrancesNicolls, daughter within the group, so that their children’s birthright and of William Nicolls and Anna van Rensselaer.English- inheritence was a ready accessto a network of kinfolk man Richard Pretty was appointed by the Governor as who could help them advance their careers, and who Albany tax collector in 1674, but he found it almost expected favors in return. impossible to collect taxes in Albany, and the govem- ment was finally forced to give the job to Robert The changed the scope of Livingston, who as we have noted was married to Alida relationships, but not their essential nature. Thus Betsy Schuyler, and was therefore more palatable to the Schuyler married, not a local political figure, but the inhabitants. We could continue with examples, but the up-and-coming , aide-de-camp to point is obvious by now.t’ General Washington and future Secretary of the Treasury. Her cousin Elizabeth Nicolls married Richard If it were an advantage to have some Dutch connec- Sill of Connecticut, former army officer who more tions in an Albany family, it was equally an advantageto recently had read law in the office of Aaron Burr. Hudson have English connections in order to succeedwith the Valley society was becoming less parochlial, but no less colonial government. A nice example of that is provided interestedin maintaining contact among tlhewealthy and by Thomas Chambers.Prior to the English takeover in powerful?’ 1664, Chambers had been a plantation manager in Rensselaerswijck, and later one of the fist settlers of But what of the people who were not at the top rung Esopus. When the English arrived, they cast about in of the ladder? Actually, the same rules applied. They each Dutch community for trustworthy personsto serve tried not to marry beneaththeir station but rather tried to in government posts, and for the most part they did not contract a marriage with someonewho could raise them trust Dutchmen. Therefore Chambers,the only English- up through business or political connections. There man in the Dutch community of Esopus,received a series appearsto be a conundrum here: how could advancement of appointments beginning as head of the militia and depend upon an advantageousmarriage if nobody were chief magistrate,progressing to justice of the peace,and willing to marry below his station? If a fellow with good finally he became a manor lord. Despite all this his prospects but an undistinguished name were to come neighbors continued to accept him as one of their own, courting, a girl with a good name and no money would and accorded him a remarkable degree of respect, no be interested.Or an impoverished gentleman might well doubt due in part to the fact that he had married the marry a girl from a family of rich nobodies. When people widow of a Dutch Reformedminister. Chamberswas one married out of their group, it was almost always a match- of thosepeople who prospered becausehe was English ing of someonewith good connections to someonewith in court and Dutch at home.t8 either money at hand, or ability and good prospects. A careful study of marriages can indicate ro us where a Chambers adopted his wife’s son, who eventually family was at any particular moment in Ielation to the inherited Chambers’ manor lands. Another of Mrs. rest of society, even though we have no account books Chambers’ children was a girl who married Francis or social calendarsto back up our assessment. Salisbury, son of the aforementioned Sylvester Salis- bury, commandantat the fort in Albany. Francis Salis- Let us take a look at a middling family on its way up. bury and his wife had a daughter Elizabeth, part English In 1637 the brothers Albert and Andries Bratt arrived in THE COLONIAL FAMILY: KINSHIP AND POWER 115

Rensselaerswijck,Albert remaining in Bethlehem,Arent were.25 We might note for an example the family of moving eventually to Schenectady. They operated at John Radcliff. Radcliff, or Radley, was only a corporal various times a tobaccoplantation, somesawmills, a fur in the English fort and so a person of no great conse- trading business,apple orchards,cattle herds,and specu- quencein society. He did marry a Dutch girl, Rachel van lated in real estateF2 If on the one hand they had no Valkenburg, which gave him accessto somevery minor connections with the Governor and Council, or with the city offices such as city porter and rattle watch. After his Patroon’s family, on the other hand neither were they on death his Dutch wife was able to make use of her late the poor rolls at the church. Marriages contracted by husband’s English connections, such as they were, to various members of the family suggest exactly where securea meagerincome as bell ringer and cleaning lady they stoodin the great rangebetween the wealthy and the at the Anglican Church. Certainly we are dealing here poor. with a classof citizen below the Bratts and Slingerlands, and far from the Van Rensselaersand Schuylers. It is The best positions in Rensselaerswijck not held by therefore not surprising that we find no particular pattern membersof the Patroon’s family were colonial secretary in the marriagescontracted by the children of John and and vice-director. Arent Bratt married the daughter of Rachel Radley. There were at least three Dutch spouses, vice-director Andries de Vos. Albert Bratt’s daughter Lambert Huyck, Anna van Zandt, and Eilletje Hoogen- Eva married colonial secretaryAnthony de Hooges,and boom, one who was half Dutch and half English, Celia after De Hooges’s death she married Esopus schout Yates, and two from recently arrived French (possibly Roelof Swartwout. Others of the family married into Roman Catholic) families, Catharine Bovie [Beaufils] local families of merchantsand public officials, tying the and Martha Benoit. One daughter, Margarita, married Bratts to the Slingerlands, Lansings, Van Schaicks, her cousin Jacobusvan Valkenburg. What we have here Glens and GansevoortsT3These families intermarried, is a mixture of nationalities, of incomes from middling cousins married cousins, and again we have a pattern of to poor, and about all that they have in common is that a group holding its position in society by restricting theseare people out on the fringes. Somebranches of the family membershipto those of a certain class.The class family moved up during the next couple of generations, in this case is that group of merchants, plantation others stayedabout where they had started out.26 managers,and middle level public officials just below the top rank, all looking for the chance to move up if Beginning in 1710 greatnumbers of Palatine Germans someoneslipped. It is perhapsnot surprising that it is in poured into the Hudson Valley, and while most of them this group that we find some sentiment for the radical eventually improved their status, in the early years the change in social structure offered during the Leisler majority were desperately poor, many of them on the rebellion. Richard Pretty during the Leisler regime public relief rolls. In 1714 a German widow, Anna regained his former office as Albany County sheriff; BarbaraAsmer, married PeterChristiaan, the slave of Jan former Esopusschout Roeloff Swartwout was appointed van Loon. Two years later she died, and Christ&m a justice of the peaceF4As George Orwell noted in his married another Palatine woman, Elizabeth novel, 1984, revolutions do not affect the welfare of the Brandemoes.27One has to assumethat whatever security poor; they only exchange the relative positions of the there was in a slave household, the situation was upper and middle classes. preferable to the lot of an unattachedGerman woman in the Hudson Valley. The earliest families in Albany clustered together in the area from Fort Orange to State Street. The next We have placed a great emphasisso far upon political generation of those families, together with newcomers, and economic considerations of marriage. There are, of settled in neighborhoods around the core. A half century course, other factors (other than such impondcrablesas later the wealthy lived on country estates,while in the actual affection) which go into making a choice. To city the upper middle class was in the downtown area, selectjust one we might pick church membership,which the lower middle classes in the encircling neighbor- can be readily documented.While the Dutch Reformed hoods, and on the fringes against the city palisadeswere Church predominated in the Hudson Valley throughout the next generation and the very late comers, including the colonial period, there were a few others, but the only such foreign elementsas English, French, and Germans. other denomination with any considerable number of Out on the fringes there was little value in a tight family parishioners was the Lutheran Church. It would appear structure; people wanted to move up, not stay where they that the Lutherans were shut out of the top level of 116 SELECTED RENSSELAERSWIJCK SEMINAR PAPERS society, but otherwise ran through the full gamut of social, economic, and political class to which the family society from upper middle class to slave. What we find belonged.A high incidence of interfaith marriages,noted is a structure very much like that of society at large, with but not studied, may suggestthat social distinctions were certain groups of families within the church inter- of greater significance than religious or ethnic ones.28 marrying and excluding other families. We find a number of interfaith marriages, particularly between We must conclude that in the colonial Hudson Valley membersof the Reformed and Lutheran churches.How- the family servedmany of the purposesla.ter assumed by ever, for analysis we choseto look at only thosedie-hard labor unions, chambers of commerce, political parties, Lutherans who married other Lutherans, recorded in the and lobbyists. The family provided jobs lo its members, Athens church records. exerted political pressure,and causedthe writing of laws favorable to the interests of the family. Bonds of kinship Half of the marriages that we examined included at encouraged people to work together for their mutual least one member of four leading families, the Van benefit, even when there was considerable personal Loons, Van Hoesens, Hallenbecks, and Evertses. All animosity, as, for instance, between Maria van four families had certain characteristicsin common: they Rensselaer and Robert Livingston. They might have had fairly large landholdings, and they held a number of fought within the family, but against outside pressures positions on the church council. We were not surprised they were united. Politics and religion were secondary to find that the well-to-do families held the power in the factors which might help to strengthen the bonds within church. What was of further interest was the fact that the the family in the struggle to rise above other families, but marriages that included at least one person from these they seem not to have been nearly as important as families, in fact included two. Not only did they marry economic considerations. Lutherans but they married Lutherans within their own social class. More surprising is the fact that of the mar- The techniques that we have used to develop these riages in which both people came from these four thesesare the traditional ones used by the genealogical families, half the time they had the samelast name. Out researcher. Were the genealogist and the historian to of thirty sevenmarriages, there were sevenbetween Van make better use of each other’s skills and research, the Loons, eight between Hallenbecks, and four between work of eachwould be enhanced,with the result a clearer Van Hoesens.While further researchneeds to be done to understanding of the role of the family in the historical determine whether this was a representativesample, the development of society. If not, this promlising perspec- evidence so far seemsto confirm what we noted earlier: tive of colonial New York must remain unfulfilled. that families tried to keep the wealth within the family with much marrying of cousins, or at least within the IAL FAMILY: KINSHIP AND POWER 1'17

Notes

IBruce C. Daniels, “A Review of Christine Leigh “Jeremias marries Maria in A.J.F. van Laer, tr. and ed., Heyrman’s Cormnerce and Culture,” The American The Correspondence of (Al- HistoricalReview, 90, no. 5 (Dec. 1985): 1264. bany, The University of the State of New York, 1932), 2Thomas J. Archdeacon, I?ew York City, 1664-1710: 296-97,300-L Conquest and Change. (Ithaca: Cornell Univ., 1976). “Maria’s grandparents and great-grandparents lived 3Sung Bok Kim, Landlord and Tenant in Colonial New next door to a Jacob van Byler family, and the Van York: Manorial Society, 1664-I 775 (Chapel Hill: Rensselaers had relatives named Van Byler. See University of North Carolina for the Institute of Early Hoffman, “An Armory of American Families of Dutch Ameriean History and Culture, 1978).Resistance to this Descent,“NYG&B,LXV (July 1935): 3. important work has come from historians comfortable ‘%or Frederick Philipse see Dumas Malone, ed., with the radical and populist work written during or Dictionary of American Biography (New York Charles shortly after the Great Depression,and from descendants Scribner’s Sons, 1943), 14: 538. For the others see of Anti-Rent rioters who generally ascribe worthy, and Florence A. Christoph, The Schuyler Genealogy, I (Al- even noble, motives to their forebears. bany: Friends of , 1987). 4SungBok Kim, “Impact of ClassRelations and Warfare 131bid.,for the marriage. There is a large literature on in the American Revolution: The New York Livingston the merchant: see in particular Lawrence H. Experience”, Journal of American History, 69 (1982), Leder, Robert Livingston, 1654-l 728, and the Politics no. 2: 326-46. of Colonial New York (Chapel Hill: University of North ‘Patricia U. Bonomi, A Factious People: Politics and Carolina for the Institute of Early American History and Society in Colonial New York (New York: Columbia Culture, 1961). Livingston’s attemptsto take control of University Press,1971). Rensselaerswijck are discussed by Nissenson, The Patroon’s Domain, 293-302; his principal opposition 6Alice M. Kenney, The Gansevoorts of Albany: Dutch came from Maria (van Cortlandt) van Rensselaer,who Patricians in the Upper Hudson Valley (Syracuse: expressedherself often on the subject of Livingston; for SyracuseUniversity Press,1969). examples see van Laer, Correspondence of Maria van ‘Glare Brandt, An American Aristocracy: The Rensselaer, 126-28, 135-36, 168. Sung Bok Kim Livingstons (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1986). discussesthe granting of in Landlord ‘The patroon’s family in Holland and his part in the and Tenant in Colonial New York, 3940. founding of the West India Company is discussedby ‘here are no reliable biographical articles on either Nicolaas de Roever, “Kiliaen van Rensselaer and his Matthias or William Nicolls. The entries for them in the colony of Rensselaerswijck,”translated by Mrs. Alan H. Dictionary of American Biography provide adequate Strong, 42-49, A.J.F. van Laer, tr. and ed., Van summariesof their careers,except that dates and other Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts (Albany: University of information derived from family tradition are consis- the State of New York, 1909); hereafter cited as VRI)M. tently wrong. There is nothing in print worth mentioning The value of the estateat Kiliaen’s death is examined by concerning Rensselaer Nicolls. Nissenson, The S&G,Nissenson, The Patroon’s Domain (New York, Patroon’s Domain, 386-87, analyzes the economics of Octagon Books, 1973 [reprint of the 1937 ed.]. family relations up to the Van Rensselaers’estate settle- ‘For Van Twiller and Van Curler see De Roever, ment in 1695. “Kiliaen van Renssaelaer,” VRBIW,60, 78. The “An important study of ethnic relations is by Donna genealogical relationship of Van Curler and the Van Merwick, “Becoming English: Anglo-Dutch Conflict in Wencoms to Kiliaen is demonstrated by William 9. the 1670s in Albany, New York”, New York History, Hoffman, “An Armory of American Families of Dutch IXII, no. 4 (October 1981): 389-414. References to Descent”, The New York Genealogical andBiographical young Loveridge’s problems appear in Edmund B. Record, (hereafter abbreviated iVYG&B), LXIII (July O’Callaghan, Calendar of British Historical 1933): 244; LXX (April 1940): 135. Brief biographical Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State, notes on the earlier directors are in VRBM, 838,843,846; Albany, New York, 1664-1776 (Gregg Press, for Nicolaes van Rensselaerand Van Cortlandt seeA.J.F. Ridgewood, N.J., 1968; reprint of 1866 ed.), 45, 49, van Laer, tr. and ed., Correspondence of Maria van 63-4, 67-9, 73; Van Laer, tr. and ed., Minutes of the Rensselaer, 1669-1689 (Albany, The University of the Court of Albany, Rensselaerswyck and Schenectady, State of New York, 1935), 4. (Albany, The University of the State of New York, 3 v., 118 SELECTED RENSSELAERSWIJCKSEMINARPAPERS

1928-32),2: 127,191-92,288-90,321,326;P.R. Chris- 2*Reynolds, Dutch Houses, 90-l. Note that Elizabeth toph and F.A. Christoph, Records of the Court of Assizes (and others of the family) dropped the final s in Nicolls. for the Colony of New York, 1665-1682 (Baltimore: 22Brief biographical notices of the brothers appear in Genealogical Publishing Co., 1983), 199,202-3; Chris- VRBM,809- 10. toph and Christoph, The Andros Papers, 1674-1676 2!For De Vos, seePearson, A History of the Schenectady (Syracuse:Syracuse University Press,1989). Patent in the Dutch and English Times, ed. by J. W. Mac ‘%he New York StateLibrary has severalcollections of Murray (Albany: Joel Munsell’s Sons, 1883); see De Van Orden and Van Vechten family papers which Hooges in Van Laer, VRBM, 825-26. For Eva Bratt see provide good insights into the families’ economic Pearson, tr., Early Records of the City and County of infrastructure over several generations, Albany, and Colony of Rensselaerswyck, 16561675 17Baker’sproblems can be studied in P.R. Christoph, ed., (Albany: J. Munsell, 1869),49-50. For the relationships Administrative Papersof GovernorsRichardNicollsand among these families see Pearson’s above-mentioned Francis Lovelace, 1664-1673 (Baltimore: Genealogical First Settlers of Albany, and his Contributions for the Publishing Co., 1980), 103-18. Pretty’s difficulties can Genealogies of the Descendants of the First Settlers of be seenthroughout volumes 2 and 3 of Van Laer, Minutes the Patent and City of Schenectady, from 1662 to 1800 of the Court of Albany, Rensselaerswyck and Schenec- (Albany: J. Munsell, 1873). The reader is cautioned that tady. Information on the Holland family can be found in Pearson intended his work to assist the researcher and JonathanPearson, Contributions for the Genealogies of not to serve as final arbiter. the First Settlers of the Ancient County of Albany from 24Swartwout’scommission is describedin O’Callaghan, 1630 to I800 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Calendar, 188, Pretty’s on 189. 1978), 63. Much confusion has been causedby Frances’ 25DonnaMerwick, “Dutch Townsmen and Land Use: A tombstone in the Nicoll-Sill cemetery in Cedar Hill, Spatial Perspective on Seventeenth-Century Albany, obviouslv erected about a century after her death and New York”, The William and Mary Quarterly, 3d series, giving the dates of her niece Frances, daughter of XXXVII, no. 1 (January 1980), p. 53-78. RensselaerNicolls, instead of her own: F. Christoph and P. R. Christoph, eds., Records of the People of the Town 26For gen ealogical data on the various families of Bethlehem (Selkirk: Bethlehem Historical Associa- mentioned, seePearson’s two volumes cited in note 23. tion, 1982), 159. For Radley as corporal see “Colonial Muster Rolls”, Third Annual Report of the State Histori’an of the State 18ForChambers at Rensselaerswijcksee van Laer, VRBM, of New York, 1897 [published 18981,456;as rattle watch 835; aspublic official seeDingman Versteegand Samuel and city porter, “The City Records,” ‘The Annals of Oppenheim, trs., Kingston Papers, 2 ~01s..ed. by Peter Albany 10 v., (Albany: J. Munsell, 1850-59), 2:101, R. Christoph, Kenneth Scott and Kenn Stryker-Rodda 3:28-29; for Rachel as bellringer, “The City Records,” (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1976), in the lo:18 and Joseph Hooper, A History of Saint Peter’s indices 2: 769, 793-95; for his marriage see Gustave Church in the City ofAlbany (Albany,Fort OrangePress, Anjou, Ulster County, N.Y. Probate Records, In the 1900), 62. The Bovie (Beaufils) and Benoit families OfBceof the Surrogate, and in the County Clerk’s Office seemto have been among the fur traderswho moved into at Kingston, N.Y. (Rhinebeck, N.Y.: Palatine the Saratoga area from Canada before 1680, none of Transcripts, Arthur C. M. Kelly, 1980; reprint of 1906 which are in the membership roles of the Reformed ed.) 1: 190. Church at Albany. “See Chambers’ will in Anjou, Ulster County, 2: 107-8; 27JohnP. Dem, ed., The Albany Protocol (Ann Arbor: Salisbury genealogy in J.B. Beers, History of Greene John P. Dem. 1971), 545-46. County, New York (Comwallville: Hope Farm Press, 1983; reprint of 1884 ed.), 436-37. 2sRecordsof Zion’s Evangelical Lutheran Church at Athens, Greene Couny, New York, 1704-1872, 2cPearson,First Settlers of..Albany, 83, 130; Helen photostat,New York StateLibrary, 1935. Wilkinson Reynolds, Dutch Houses in the Hudson Valley before 1776 (New York: Dover Publications, 1965: reprint of the 1929 ed.), 89.