Stephanus Van Cortlandt

Stephanus Van Cortlandt was a Dutch-American colonial merchant and public official who was the first native-born mayor of New York City and chief justice of the Supreme Court of New York.

Van Cortlandt’s father Oloff (1600-1684) came to New Amsterdam in 1638 as an employee of the Dutch West India Company and was active in the administration and governance of the colony in its early years. Oloff eventually left the Dutch West India Company and became a successful and wealthy merchant, brewer, banker, landowner and ship owner. Stephanus began a successful and profitable mercantile career under his father’s guidance.

Stephanus Van Cortlandt established a lucrative fur trade in partnership with his brother-in-law Jeremias Van Ransselaer. He also expanded the family’s overseas operations and opened a brewery and a sugar mill. Van Cortlandt invested heavily into land and had acquired extensive properties in New York City, Richmond (Staten Island), Kings (Brooklyn), and New Jersey.

Stphanus’ successful business career was accompanied by his successful public career. His success was not interrupted with the 1664 English conquest of New Netherland, in fact he became closely allied with the administration of James, Duke of York. His first appointment as mayor of New York came in 1677, at the age of thirty-four he became the first native-born mayor of New York. He was reappointed as mayor in 1686 and 1687.