Kiliaen Van Rensselaer (merchant)

Kiliaen Van Rensselaer (merchant)

Kiliaen van Rensselaer (early 1586, Hasselt, Overijssel – buried 7 October 1643, Amsterdam) was a Dutch diamond and pearl merchant from Amsterdam who was one of the founders and directors of the Dutch West India Company and was instrumental in the establishment of New Netherland. He became one of the first patroons and ended up being the only successful one, having founded the Manor of Rensselaerswyck in what is now mainly New York's Capital District. His estate lasted as a legal entity until the 1840s, having lived through Dutch and British colonial times, the American Revolution, and eventually coming to an end during the Anti-Rent War.

Van Rensselaer was born in the province of Overijssel to Hendrick Kiliaensz van Rensselaer, in 1584 a soldier from Nijkerk in the States army of the duke of Upper Saxony, and Maria Alberts Pafraet, daughter of a printer in Hasselt. To keep him from risking his life in the army like his father, he apprenticed under his uncle, a successful Amsterdam jeweler. He too became a successful jeweler and was one of the first subscribers to the Dutch West India Company upon its conception. He may very well be the source of the idea of patroonships and was probably the leading proponent of the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, the document that established the patroon system.

His patroonship became the most successful to exist, with van Rensselaer making full use of his business tactics and advantages, such as his connection to the Director of New Netherland, his confidantes at the West India Company, and his extended family members that were more than happy to emigrate to a better place to farm. He was married twice and had at least eleven children, two of whom succeeded him as patroons of Rensselaerswyck. Van Rensselaer died sometime after 1642.

Van Rensselaer's effect on the history of the United States cannot be underestimated: the American van Rensselaers all descend from Kiliaen's son Jeremias and the subsequent family is noted for being a very powerful and wealthy influence in the history of New York and the Northeastern United States producing multiple State Legislators, Congressmen, and two Lieutenant Governors in New York.