Rensselaerswyck

Rensselaerswyck
Patroonship, Manor
Seal
Map of Rensselaerswyck, c. 1632
Rensselaerswyck Location of Rensselaerswyck in New York state
Coordinates: 42°41′37″N 73°42′29″W / 42.69361°N 73.70806°W / 42.69361; -73.70806
Country	Netherlands
Colony	New Netherland
Rensselaerswyck	1630
Government
• Type	Feudal patroonship, Proprietary colony
Population  (1839)
• Total	About 3,000

Rensselaerswyck^[a] was a Dutch colonial patroonship and later an English manor owned by the van Rensselaer family located in the present-day Capital District of New York in the United States.

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 miles on each side of the Hudson River. It included most of the land that would later become the New York counties of Albany and Rensselaer, as well as parts of Columbia and Greene counties.

Under the terms of the patroonship, the patroon had nearly total jurisdictional authority, establishing civil and criminal law, villages, and a church (in part to record vital records, which were not kept by the state until the late 19th century). Tenant farmers were allowed to work on the land. During the late 18th century and early 19th century, farmers purchased the land. However, by the conditions of the deed, they had to pay rent and the patroon had rights to natural resources. If the farm was sold, the patroon was entitled to 25% of the sale price.

The patroonship was maintained intact by van Rensselaer descendants for more than two centuries. At the time of his death in 1839, Steven van Rensselaer III's land holdings made him the tenth-richest American in history.^[1] His son Stephen Van Rensselaer IV, the 10th and last patroon, received the bulk of his holdings; son William received some lands east of the Hudson. Following the death of Steven van Rensselaer III, tenant farmers began protesting the manor system. Under financial, judicial, and political pressure from this anti-rent movement, Stephen IV and William van Rensselaer sold off most of their land, ending the patroonship in the 1840s. For length of operations, the van Rensselaer patroonship was the most successful patroonship established under the West India Company system.^[2]

New Netherland series
Exploration
Fortifications:
Fort Amsterdam Fort Nassau (North) Fort Orange Fort Nassau (South) Fort Goede Hoop De Wal Fort Casimir Fort Altena Fort Wilhelmus Fort Beversreede Fort Nya Korsholm De Rondout
Settlements:
Noten Eylandt Nieuw Amsterdam Rensselaerswijck Nieuw Haarlem Beverwijck Wiltwijk Bergen Pavonia Vriessendael Achter Col Vlissingen Oude Dorpe Colen Donck Greenwich Heemstede Rustdorp Gravesende Breuckelen Nieuw Amersfoort Midwout Nieuw Utrecht Boswijk Swaanendael Nieuw Amstel Nieuw Dorp
The Patroon System
Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions
Cornelius Jacobsen May (1620–25) Willem Verhulst (1625–26) Peter Minuit (1626–32) Sebastiaen Jansen Krol (1632–33) Wouter van Twiller (1633–38) Willem Kieft (1638–47) Peter Stuyvesant (1647–64)
People of New Netherland
New Netherlander Twelve Men Eight Men Nine Men
Flushing Remonstrance
v t e

Rensselaerswyck series
Dutch West India Company
The Patroon System
Map of Rensselaerswyck
Patroons of Rensselaerswyck: Kiliaen van Rensselaer (1630–1640s) Various (1640s–1652) Jan Baptist van Rensselaer (1652–1658) Jeremias van Rensselaer (1658–1674) Kiliaen van Rensselaer (1674–1687) Kiliaen van Rensselaer (1687–1719)[3] Jeremias van Rensselaer (1719–1745) Stephen van Rensselaer I (1745–1747) Stephen van Rensselaer II (1747–1769) Abraham Ten Broeck (1769–1784, de facto) Stephen van Rensselaer III (1784–1839)

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