Geertruy Schuyler was born in February 1654. She was the first daughter and second child of New Netherland pioneers Philip Pieterse and Margarita Van Slichtenhorst Schuyler. Her family soon stood in the first rank in Albany business and landholding.

In September 1671, she married Stephanus Van Cortlandt at the New York City Dutch church. She moved to New York to become the wife of one of the colony's most successful merchants. Thus their marriage had united two of the colony's foremost families. By 1698, fourteen of their children were baptized in Manhattan.

Van Cortlandt held many public offices including that of mayor of New York City. He also acquired extensive acreage in Westchester County that became known as Van Cortlandt Manor. His family only visited there - living instead in Manhattan and Brooklyn. Stephanus Van Corltandt died in 1700 and Geertruy became executor of his vast estate.

At some time after the summer of 1707, she was one of eight siblings named in the will filed by her mother.

Geertruy Schuyler Van Cortlandt died in New York in 1723.

Sources: The life of Geertruy Schuyler Van Cortlandt is CAP biography number 1726. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.