Kiliaen van Rensselaer
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| New Netherland series | |
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| The Patroon System |
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| Directors-General of New Netherland: Cornelius Jacobsen Mey (1620-1625) |
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| Influential people Adriaen van der Donck |
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Kiliaen van Rensselaer (c. 1585 – 7 October 1643 (buried)), was a Dutch merchant who was heavily involved in the Colonial American trade market.
He was born near Hasselt (Overijssel), the son of Hendrick van Rensselaer and Maria Pafraet, both from Amsterdam. His father was a captain who died in January 1602 during the Siege of Ostend. Kiliaen married Hillegonda van Bijler (1598-1626) in 1616 and Anna van Wely (1601-1670) in 1627, both times in Amsterdam, where he died.
He was originally a diamond and pearl merchant, and became the director and one of the founders and major investors in the Dutch West India Company, founded in 1621. In return for his investment, Van Rensselaer acquired land in the New Netherland Colony of America as the first American patroon in 1630. [1] Rensselaerwyck was the largest and only successful patroonship in the colony. Van Rensselaer never visited his holdings himself, but rather sent his cousin, Arent van Curler, to act as commissary-general (or superintendent). Van Rensselaer's second son of his second marriage, Jeremias van Rensselaer, did come to the New World and settled in Rensselaerswyck, and the prominent New York State family ultimately descends from him.
Rensselaerswyck covered most of modern-day Albany and Rensselaer Counties, and parts of modern-day Columbia and Greene Counties in New York State.
Both Rensselaer County and the City of Rensselaer are named after Van Rensselaer.
