Kiliaen van Rensselaer, second Lord of the Rensselaerswyck

Kiliaen van Rensselaer, second lord of the manor, the eldest son of Jeremias and Maria (Van Cortlandt) Van Rensselaer, was born on the Rensselaerswyck estate, August 24, 1663. He became the head of the family in 1687, upon the death of his cousin.

Although his grandfather, the first Kiliaen, died in 1646, his estate had throughout all this time remained unsettled, being held in common, and apparently with good mutual understandings, by his various heirs. Besides the manor of Rensselaerswyck, the family possessions included much valuable property in Holland. It being desirable to effect a final division, Kiliaen of Rensselaerswyck, on his own behalf and that of his brothers and sisters (the American heirs), in 1695 entered into negotiations with Kiliaen of Amsterdam, son of Jan Baptist, who represented the heirs in the old country; and as the result the American lands were confirmed to the American heirs and the Holland lands to the Holland heirs. This arrangement was made conformably to Dutch usages. The ultimate disposal of the manorial property did not, however, depend on any such amicable family agreement, but was subject to the very precise English customs regarding inheritances of landed estates.

Agreeably to these customs, a new patent to the manor of Rensselaerswyck was issued by Queen Anne, May 20, 1704, which confirmed it to Kiliaen, and after him perpetually to his eldest male descent. Several days later, June 1, he released to his younger brother Hendrick the entire Claverack (Columbia County) Manor of sixty thousand acres, with some fifteen hundred acres of the upper manor, which included an island in the Hudson and the Greenbush or Crailo tract, one mile square. He also gave land to his sister, Mrs. Peter Schuyler, and his nephew, Rensselaer Nicoll.

He was one of the most prominent citizens of his times, being continuously in public life from 1691 to his death in 1719. The right to send a special deputy to the legislative assembly of New York was conferred upon Van Rensselaer Manor, and in that body Kiliaen sat from its first session in 1691 until 1703. He was then elevated to the governor's council, of which he was a member for the rest of his life, 1704 to 1719, and he also occupied the responsible position, of commissioner of Indian affairs.

He married on October 15, 1701, Maria Van Cortlandt, daughter of Stephanus and Gertrude (Schuyler) Van Cortlandt. Kiliaen died on the manor in 1719.