Peter Lansing was born in August 1721. He was the son of Johannes and Geertruy Schuyler Lansing. He was named for his mother's father, Pieter Schuyler. He grew up in a large family in the second ward home of Albany mainline residents

About 1745, he married Elizabeth Wendell. Between 1746 and 1758, eight children were baptized in the Albany Dutch church where both parents were occasional baptism sponsors and where Peter later served on the Board of Consistory.

These Lansings quickly became Albany mainstays. They set up their home in Albany's first ward where Peter served as firemaster, assistant, and was elected alderman from 1761 to 1771. He was a moderately successful merchant who was a frequent contractor of the city government. In 1763, his name appeared on a list of Albany freeholders. In 1747, he was among those named in the will of a childless neighbor. In 1748, he received a bequest from the estate of his uncle.

He held land in the Manor and was an agent for land sales in Hoosick. He probably should not be confused with Peter Lansing who built a house in old Saratoga in 1773.

In his fifties at the outbreak of hostilities, he appears to have lived through the War for Independence without incident. He was not accorded a bounty right, did not reappear as a civic leader, and seems to have been absent from Albany-based business activities during the 1780s.

After living in the heart of the first ward business district for many decades, by 1799, his residence was moved to Pearl Street where Peter, Elizabeth, a younger woman, and five slaves were counted on the census of 1800. A decade earlier, his slaves were baptized in the Albany Lutheran church.

Peter Lansing lost his wife in 1801. He died in May 1807 at the age of eighty-six.

Sources: The life of Peter Lansing is CAP biography number 3642. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. However, the exploits of the Saratoga Peter Lansing would account for the paucity of Albany-based information for the 1770s and 80s!