Craft Masonry in Westchester and Putnam Counties, New York

In 1787, he married Westchester native Anne De Peyster Van Corltandt - daughter of the state's first lieutenant governor.
Anticipating a large family, Philip built a grand home on upper State Street. However, the union produced no children. As early as
1790, his large home at 87 State was attended by five slaves.
He entered city government in 1793 as an alderman for the first ward. In 1798, he was appointed mayor of Albany. He was reappointed
annually until 1816 when he was replaced by relative newcomer Elisha Jenkins in a politically motivated move. However,
he was mayor again from 1819 to 1821. Over his long tenure, Albany underwent a dramatic transformation. With roots set deeply
into Albany's past, as an important member of the post-revolutionary business community, and well-connected across a range of
social and cultural institutions, Philip S. Van Rensselaer understood these diverse and potentially conflicting imperatives and was
able to help orchestrate the city's development over two key decades.
He owned a number of storehouses, space along the Albany waterfront, and a flour and plaster mill along the Normanskill - both of
which were destroyed by fire in 1820.
His long public and business careers were substantial and complex. Mayor of Albany for almost twenty years, Philip S. Van
Rensselaer died 25 Sep 1824 at age 58 at 85 State Street, Albany, NY. This city father was buried from his residence at State and
Chapel Streets.
*
http://www.sewellgenealogy.com/p213.htm#i13920
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Van_Rensselaer_III
Stephen Van Rensselaer ,Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York, 1825-29, was Lieutenant Governor of New
York as well as a statesman, soldier, and land-owner, the heir to one of the greatest estates in the New York region at the
time. He was the father of Henry Bell Van Rensselaer, who was a politician and general in the Union Army during the
American Civil War.
Van Rensselaer was born in New York City, the eldest child of Stephen Van Rensselaer II {a great-grandson of Mayor of
New York Stephanus Van Cortlandt} and Catharina Livingston {daughter of Philip Livingston}. His family was very wealthy,
and the Van Rensselaer Manor House was a rich childhood environment for the young boy to grow up in. However, his
father died in 1769, when Van Rensselaer was only five, and the heir to his father's estate.
Van Rensselaer was raised by his uncle, Abraham Ten Broeck, who administered the Van Rensselaer estate after Van
Rensselaer II's untimely death. At an early age, Van Rensselaer III was raised to succeed his father as lord of the manor,
and the remarriage of his mother to Dominie Westerlo in 1775 did nothing to change this. To this end he was sent off to
school, and in 1782, Van Rensselaer graduated from Harvard University. One year later, he married Margarita Schuyler, the
daughter of renowned Revolutionary War general Philip Schuyler. Van Rensselaer was only nineteen years old, but
Margarita's death in 1801 would cause him to enter into his second marriage one year later with Cornelia Paterson, daughter
of former New Jersey Governor William Paterson.
On his 21st birthday, Van Rensselaer took possession of his family's prestigious estate, close to 12,000 square miles
(31,000 km²) in size, named Rensselaerswyck, and began a long tenure as lord of his family's manor. Van Rensselaer
desired to make money off of the land that was suddenly his, but was extremely reluctant to sell it off. Instead, he granted
tenants perpetual leases at moderate rates, which saved would-be landholders from having to pay all of their money up
front. This meant that they could invest more in their operations, which led to increased productivity in the area. Over time,
Van Rensselaer would become landlord over 3,000 tenants, and proved a lenient and benevolent landowner. His tenants,
who did not have to work in fear of sudden foreclosure or unfair treatment, were able to focus on their work, and the
productivity Van Rensselaer created benefited the entire Albany area.
Van Rensselaer also spent a great deal of time in political pursuits, it is said more out of a sense of duty than of ambition. He
served in the New York State Assembly from 1789 to 1791 and the New York State Senate from 1791 to 1796, being named
Lieutenant Governor of the state in 1795. Van Rensselaer, over his time in politics, acquired a reputation as something of a
reformer, voting in favour of extending the suffrage and going against much of New York's upper class in doing so.
In 1786, Van Rensselaer was made a major of the United States militia, which set him on a brief military career. Though the
military was not Rensselaer's major pursuit, he was a militia major-general by 1801, a path which would come to a head
during the War of 1812. Van Rensselaer, despite having held high rank in the militia for several decades, was, like most
American militia officers at the time, virtually untrained and inexperienced. Clearly, Van Rensselaer was not a good choice to
command an entire American army, but politics as much as military tactics dictated many of the military appointments of the
day.
Van Rensselaer was a leading opposition candidate for Governor of New York, and the incumbent Daniel D. Tompkins was
worried about the run the popular and wealthy Van Rensselaer could give him. However, the Republican Tompkins soon
devised a way to remove Van Rensselaer from the picture, which was to offer him command of the United States Army of
the Centre. If Van Rensselaer, who was, technically, a militia major-general, declined the post, then he would lose esteem in
the eyes of the voters. If he accepted, he would be unable to run for Governor with the Federalists. If Van Rensselaer proved
(as seemed likely) a poor general, he would be discredited and his reputation would be badly mauled. However, even if Van
Rensselaer proved a natural and was able to do well, he would not be able to run for Governor because the military powersthat-be
would refuse to remove him. Tompkins' clever maneuvering had eliminated his main rival, but it had given short shrift
to the war that had only just begun.
Van Rensselaer accepted the post, and with his decidedly more soldierly cousin Solomon as his aide-de-camp, attempted to
assure the honour of his country in the war (despite the fact that, as a Federalist, he had been against the war in the first
place). But the Army of the Centre consisted largely of soldiers like himself — untrained, inexperienced militiamen, who,
under the Constitution, did not actually have to cross over into Canada to fight. The British were in the process of fortifying
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