AUDAX
THE LAST PATROON
From Rich Was Better (Wynwood Press, 1990): Philip Van Rensselaer at his party for Duchess D’Uzes (left); Van Rensselaer was dropped from the Social Register
VAN RENSSELAER MANOR, or just simply Rensselaerswyck, was the name of a colonial estate—a Dutch patroonship—owned by the Van Rensselaer family that was located upstate, largely in the Albany Capital District. The estate was originally deeded by the Dutch West India Company in 1630 to Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a Dutch merchant and one of the company's original directors. Rensselaerswyck extended for 24 by 48 miles on each side of the Hudson River. Under the terms of the patroonship, the patroon had near-total jurisdictional authority, establishing civil and criminal 62 QUEST
law, villages, and a church. Tenant farmers were allowed to work on the land, but had to pay rent to the owners, and had no rights to property. In addition, the Rensselaers harvested timber from the property. The patroonship was maintained intact by Rensselaer descendants for more than two centuries. It was split up after the death of its last patroon, Stephen Van Rensselaer III in 1839. His mother was a Livingston, his wife a Schuyler, and his brother-in-law was Alexander Hamilton, now the celebrated idol of the Broadway stage. At the time of Stephen’s birth in 1764,
the manor was predominantly uninhabited wilderness; by 1840, it was estimated that there were approximately 50,000 residents, many of whom had migrated west from New England. Like his predecessors, Stephen rarely sold land outright; instead, tenants were granted lifetime leases. This rent system, known as leases-in-perpetuity, was widely criticized as feudalistic by a burgeoning Republican movement that, as historian Gordon Wood wrote, “struck directly at the ties of blood, kinship, and dependency that lay at the heart of a monarchical society.” Many Republicans saw this rent system as the embodiment
R I C H WA S B E T T E R
after his association with Barbara Hutton (right).