Robert Van Rensselaer
Robert Van Rensselaer (December 16, 1740 – September 11, 1802) was Brigadier General during the American Revolutionary War, a member of the New York Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1777 and later a member of the New York State Assembly in the 1st, 2nd and 4th New York State Legislatures. Early life. Robert Van Rensselaer was born December 16, 1740, at Fort Crailo in Rensselaer, New York. He was the son of Johannes Van Rensselaer (1708–1793), and Engeltie "Angelica" Livingston (1698–1746/47). His older siblings were Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, the 3rd Lieutenant Governor of New York, and Catherine Van  Rensselaer, who married Philip Schuyler, who eventually became a United States Senator from New York and was also a Federalist. His paternal grandparents were Hendrick van Rensselaer (1667–1740), director of the Eastern patent of the Rensselaerswyck manor, and Catharina Van Brugh, daughter of merchant Johannes Pieterse Van Brugh (1624–1697). His paternal 2x great-grandfather was the merchant Killian Van Rensselaer, one of the original founders of the Dutch colony, New Amsterdam. His maternal grandparents were Robert Livingston the Younger and Margarita Schuyler, herself the daughter of Pieter Schuyler, the first Mayor of Albany. Career. On October 20, 1775, he was  made colonel of the 8th Albany County Regiment of militia and on June 16, 1780, he was promoted to brigadier general of the second brigade of the Albany County militia. This brigade included the Tryon County militia. He fought at Fort Ticonderoga and at the Battle of Klock's Field. From 1775 to 1777, he was a member of the New York Provincial Congress and a member of the New York State Assembly in 1777-78, 1778-79 and 1780-81. In 1780, Van Rensselaer negotiated a mediation with the chiefs of the Oneida Nation, Native Americans who had made  an alliance with the British against the American colonists during the Revolutionary War. Van Rensselaer was a Federalist presidential elector in 1796, and cast his votes for the eventual 2nd President of the United States, John Adams, and Thomas Pinckney, who lost the vice-presidency to Thomas Jefferson. Personal life. On April 23, 1765, Robert married Cornelia Rutsen (1747–1790), the daughter of Colonel Jacob Rutsen and Alida Livingston on April 23, 1765, and had the following children: Van Rensselaer died September 11, 1802, at the Van Rensselaer Lower Manor House. Descendants. Through his daughter Alida, he was the grandfather of  John Kintzing Kane (1795–1858), a noted Pennsylvania lawyer and judge who served as the Attorney General of Pennsylvania. Kane was the father of Elisha Kent Kane (1820–1857), the explorer, Thomas Leiper Kane (1822–1883), an attorney and abolitionist, and Elizabeth Kane (1830–1869), who married Charles Woodruff Shields (1825–1904) in 1861.