Jane Lansing Westerlo

by

Jane Lansing was born in late January 1785. She was the daughter of John Lansing, Jr. and his wife, Cornelia Ray Lansing. This eldest daughter grew up in a large family of mostly girls in the Market Street home of a preeminent Albany lawyer, official, and jurist.

In May 1805, Jane was but twenty she she married thirty-year-old Rensselaer Westerlo, son of a renowned minister and himself an up-and-coming attorney and local leader. However, none of their six children appear to have raised families of their own.

Over several decades, these Westerlos made their home at 72 Pearl Street. They also bought and sold real estate in Albany and beyond.

Jane's famous father disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1829. Considered a widow afterwards, Cornelia Ray Lansing passed on in 1834.

Rensselaer Westerlo died in 1851 at the age of seventy-one. Jane Lansing Westerlo, "the widow of Rensselaer Westerlo," died in June 1871. Her grave is marked today in a family plot at the Albany Rural Cemetery. This Albany girl was in her eighty-seventh year.


biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Jane Lansing Westerlo has no CAP biography number. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.

Real Estate: During the 1800s, Jane's name also appeared on real-estate transactions with that of her husband, a non uncommon practice of the time.





first posted 9/15/13; revised 4/3/14