Margaret Sanders Van Rensselaer

by


Margaret Sanders was born in June 1764. She was the last (of eleven) child born to the marriage of John and Debora Glen Sanders. Her father was a prominent Schenectady merchant and developer who raised their family in homes in Schenectady and across the Mohawk in Scotia. He also owned property in Albany that eventually would devolve to youngest child Margaret in his will which passed probate in 1783.

She married aspiring attorney Kiliaen K. Van Rensselaer at the Dutch church in Schenectady in 1791. By 1801, five children had been christened in Albany.

These Van Rensselaers lived on upper State Street in a grand home Van Rensselaer built on the property once owned by Margaret's father.

Margaret's husband was a five-term Congressman who afterwards returned to his 116 State Street address where they lived out their days in comfort.

A letter to her sister from 1829 can be read online.

Margaret Sanders Van Rensselaer died in April 1830 at the age of sixty-six. Her husband died in 1845.


biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Margaret Sanders Van Rensselaer is CAP biography number 1870. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.





first posted: 2/25/08