Rensselaer Schuyler

Rensselaer Schuyler was born in January 1773. He was the son of Philip and Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler. He grew up in Albany and on the upper Hudson as a middle child and longest lived son in the large family of Albany's pre-eminent Revolutionary-era figure.

In February 1793, he married Elizabeth Ten Broeck (eldest surviving daughter of Abraham Ten Broeck) in Philadelphia. The marriage was said to have been childless.

Following his marriage, he seems to have set out on his own and away from Albany.

Perhaps he was the Rensselaer Schuyler who sold a slave in Bath, NY in 1795.

In 1800, he was appointed calvary major in the Rensselaer County militia.

In June 1803, he was named co-executor of his father's will. He was slated to inherit a lot within the Saratoga Patent - where he then was living as well as a proportional share of his father's overall estate.

Traditional sources tell us the he was among those who invested in the initial development of Stillwater in 1812 when he built a mill. At that time, he was called "a man of wealth and enterprise" and has been credited with stimulating the development of the community. The site of his home on Hudson Avenue (Route 4) is recalled by a historic marker.

He is believed to have been a landlord of some note collecting rents from the Schuyler estate in Saratoga and Washington Counties.

Albany native Rensselaer Schuyler died in December 1847 and was buried in the Presbyterian cemetery in the town of Stillwater. He was a month shy of his seventy-fifth birthday.

Sources: The life of Rensselaer Schuyler is CAP biography number 1761. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. This individual has not been followed in CSG beyond basic demographics.