• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Van Rensselaers

Jermain Family Philanthropy Helped Shape The Capital District

September 20, 2021 by Peter Hess 1 Comment

John Jordan-JermainJohn Jordan left Edinburgh, Scotland in 1755 arriving in White Plains, colony of New York, the same year. Edinburgh had been the family home since Jordan’s father and grandfather fled France for Scotland following the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of French Huguenots in the late 1600s. John struck out on his own and decided to immigrate to America.

John married Mary Ann Daniels, a young woman of Dutch descent, and in 1758 they had a son, John Jordan, Jr. With the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775, John Jordan, Sr. and his wife left New York and helped found the loyalist colony of St. John, New Brunswick, just across the Maine border. Their 19-year-old son, John Jr., stayed behind. [Read more…] about Jermain Family Philanthropy Helped Shape The Capital District

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany and Northern Railroad, Albany Rural Cemetery, Cooperstown, Genealogy, Menands, railroads, Rutland & Washington Railroad, Social History, Troy, Troy & Rutland Railroad, Van Rensselaers, Watervliet, womens history

Asparagus Officinalis: A Spear of Transatlantic History

August 16, 2021 by Jaap Harskamp 4 Comments

The Apicius manuscriptOne of the first crops to emerge from the ground in New York State is asparagus (scientific name: asparagus officinalis). The vegetable is an integral part of America’s colonial history. It must have been a taste of nostalgia that prompted New Netherland settlers to try and cultivate asparagus in unfamiliar surroundings. [Read more…] about Asparagus Officinalis: A Spear of Transatlantic History

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, Food, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: art, Art History, Culinary History, Food, gardening, New Netherland, Rensselaerswijck, Van Rensselaers, vegetables

Historic Cherry Hill Reopens Restored Interiors After A Decade

June 25, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Cherry Hill courtesy Wikimedia user Matt H WadeHistoric Cherry Hill has reopened for public tours after a decade-long restoration project. Built in 1787 for Philip and Maria Van Rensselaer, Cherry Hill was lived in until 1963 by extended family, enslaved people, descendants, and servants — who left artifacts, documents, and stories behind.

The museum collection includes 70,000 artifacts and manuscripts, all of which were accumulated by the Cherry Hill household over the course of five generations and nearly 200 years. [Read more…] about Historic Cherry Hill Reopens Restored Interiors After A Decade

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, Events, History Tagged With: Historic Cherry Hill, Van Rensselaers

Resistance to the Revolution in Saratoga County, May 1777

May 31, 2021 by Guest Contributor 2 Comments

American MilitiamanOn April 18th, 1777, during the American Revolution, the New York Provincial Convention received the following letter, dated two days previously:

“Dear Sir – Upon my arrival home , I found a letter from the chairman of the county committee, requesting the assistance of our militia to quell an insurrection of the tories in Ballstown, and upon inquiry found that the same spirit prevailed much in my regiment, to such a degree that it appears numbers have enlisted , and have taken the oath of secrecy and allegiance to the King of Great Britain, and that a regiment of royal volunteers is to be raised in the county of Albany, under the command of J. Hueston, as will appear by the enclosed; in consequence of which we have not complied with the request of the chairman. Seventeen of the villains are now in confinement, and by the vigilance of our committee, and militia officers, hope soon to detect the whole and transmit to the Convention the proof that shall be collected.

I am, dear sir, in great haste, Yours, [signed] Robt. Van Rensselaer” [Read more…] about Resistance to the Revolution in Saratoga County, May 1777

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: American Revolution, Ballston Spa, Military History, Saratoga, Saratoga County, Van Rensselaers

Early Dutch Farms at Troy

May 11, 2021 by John Warren 5 Comments

Hudson River valley c 1635Between the more formidable island of Papscanee (previously spelled Papsickene, now a peninsula nature preserve) and where the Hoosac River meets the Hudson, more than a dozen streams flow into the Hudson River. Only at the Poesten Kill, which flows through Troy, was there enough farmland, room to grow, and sufficient water-power for the earliest industries. [Read more…] about Early Dutch Farms at Troy

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Dutch History, fur trade, Genealogy, New Netherland, Poestenkill, Rensselaer County, Rensselaerswijck, Troy, Van Rensselaers

When Saratoga Was An American Frontier

August 13, 2020 by Sean Kelleher 4 Comments

A trade good recovered from Saratoga along the Hudson River from the Saratoga NHP collectionOn August 13th, 1689, New York Governor Leisler wrote “Scharachtoge [Saratoga]…there are six or seven families all or most rank French papists that have their relations at Canada and I suppose settled there for some bad designe and are lesser to be trusted there in conjunctione of tyme than ever before the bad creatures amongst us gives me great occupatione.” [Read more…] about When Saratoga Was An American Frontier

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: fur trade, King George’s War, Military History, Saratoga, Saratoga County, Saratoga County History Roundtable, Schenectady, Van Rensselaers

Janny Venema On Her Time In Albany Translating Dutch Records

July 3, 2020 by Bob Cudmore Leave a Comment

The Historians LogoThis week on The Historians Podcast, Janny Venema tells how she came to Albany, New York, from The Netherlands 35 years ago and went to work translating New Netherland colony early Dutch manuscripts with Charles Gehring. She is retiring now and heading back to The Netherlands. Venema is author of Beverwijck: A Dutch Village on the American Frontier, 1652-1664 (SUNY Press, 2003) and a biography, Kiliaen van Rensselaer (1586-1643): Designing a New World (SUNY Press, 2011). [Read more…] about Janny Venema On Her Time In Albany Translating Dutch Records

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Dutch History, New Netherland, Podcasts, Van Rensselaers

Albany’s Historic Cherry Hill To Highlight Slaves, Servants

June 28, 2020 by Editorial Staff 2 Comments

Minnie (left) and Jane Amelia (middle) Knapp, African American wards and servants of the Van Rensselaers. The daughter of another Cherry Hill servant appears on the right

Decades after slavery was abolished in New York, the Elmendorfs, Historic Cherry Hill’s 3rd-generation Van Rensselaer descendants in Albany, used orphaned African American children as servants.

Jimmy (1843-1885), Jane (1845-?), Richard (unknown), and Minnie (1852-1903) Knapp became wards and servants of several Van Rensselaer households after the death of their mother, Jane Jackson Knapp, in 1854.

Conjectured to have descended from prior generations enslaved at Cherry Hill — two of the children are named after Van Rensselaers — the children had quasi-family status, but were servants.

[Read more…] about Albany’s Historic Cherry Hill To Highlight Slaves, Servants

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Grants, Historic Cherry Hill, Van Rensselaers

Catherine Schuyler: Not All Rev War Heroes Were Men

April 13, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

a woman of the revolutionWomen played a crucial role in the American Revolution, but information about them can be hard to come by. HVA Press has recently discovered and republished Catherine Schuyler: A Woman of the Revolution by Mary Gay Humphreys, which was first published in 1897. [Read more…] about Catherine Schuyler: Not All Rev War Heroes Were Men

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Books, Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, New York City Tagged With: Albany, American Revolution, AmRev, Books, Military History, Van Rensselaers, womens history

When Did New York Stop Speaking Dutch?

December 18, 2019 by Kieran O’Keefe 53 Comments

oldest section of the Bronck House in Coxsackie In the late summer of 1664, four English frigates arrived off shore New Amsterdam. Rather than resisting, the Director-General of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, surrendered the city and colony to the English.

Although the Dutch briefly regained control of the colony in 1673, it was restored to English rule in the Treaty of Westminster the following year, marking the end of Dutch New York.

Despite the English conquest, the Dutch language continued to thrive in New York and northern New Jersey for generations, persisting into the twentieth century in certain areas. [Read more…] about When Did New York Stop Speaking Dutch?

Filed Under: Food, History, New York City Tagged With: Dutch, Dutch History, Historic Preservation, Martin Van Buren, New Amsterdam, New Netherland, New York City, Van Rensselaers, womens history

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Support Our 2022 Fundraising

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • Sue on Poetry: Cabin Pantry Discovery
  • Ronald Gary Grove on The Misnamed Columbia County ‘Battle of Egremont’
  • Bob Meyer on Poetry: Cabin Pantry Discovery
  • Raphael Riljk on The Sinking of the S.S. Normandie at NYC’s Pier 88
  • Christian on Orange County Man Ticketed After Killing Rattlesnake
  • ABSS314 on Orange County Man Ticketed After Killing Rattlesnake
  • Evan Barnett on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
  • Evan Barnett on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
  • Eva Barnett on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
  • ARNOLD on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End

Recent New York Books

The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton
vintage babes of broadway book
Mission Begin With Blood
Special Delivery book
killing time in the catskills
the soft city book
occupied america
stewards of the water
off the northway

Secondary Sidebar

preservation league
Protect the Adirondacks Hiking Guide