Jeremiah Van Rensselaer

Portrait believed to be Jeremiah Van Rensselaer (1738-1815)

Jeremiah Van Rensselaer (August 27, 1738 – February 19, 1810) was a Representative from New York to the United States Congress. He was the cousin of Killian K. Van Rensselaer, who was also a Representative (as was Killian K.'s nephew Solomon Van Vechten Van Rensselaer.

File:Nassau hall princeton university.jpg

Nassau Hall, at Princeton University (then, the College of New Jersey)

Jeremiah Van Rensselaer was born at the main home of his family's manor, "Rensselaerswyck" in what is now Watervliet, New York the son of John Van Rensselaer (1708–1793) and Engeltie Livingston Van Rensselaer who died before Jeremiah was 10. He was tutored at the manor house, attended private school in Albany, New York, and attended college at the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) where he graduated in 1758.

He married Judith Bayard in 1760, but after she died, he married Lena Lansing and in February 1764 and they had one child, Solomon Van Vechten Van Rensselaer.

Van Rensselaer became a land agent, merchant, and surveyor. In 1766, he was a signer of the constitution of the Albany Sons of Liberty and became a member of the Albany Committee of Safety. During the American Revolutionary War he was commissioned as an ensign in the third regiment of the New York Line where he served as a paymaster.

He was elected to the First United States Congress and served from March 4, 1789 to March 3, 1791, but lost his bid for reelection to the Second Congress.

He was member of the New York State Assembly in 1789. In 1791 he was a member of the first board of directors of the Bank of Albany, and from 1798 through 1806 he was the president of the bank. He was a presidential elector in 1800, voting for Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr.

Van Rensselaer was Lieutenant Governor of New York from 1801 to 1804, serving under Governor George Clinton. He was curator of the Evangelical Lutheran Seminary at Albany in 1804.

He died in Albany and was buried in the Dutch Reformed Cemetery, but his body was later moved Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York.

References

• Jeremiah Van Rensselaer by Stefan Bielinski, New York State Museum
• The Political Graveyard: Van Rensselaer family of New York
• Jeremiah Van Rensselaer at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

External links

• Jeremiah Van Rensselaer at Find a Grave

United States House of Representatives
New district	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 6th congressional district 1789–1791	Succeeded by James Gordon
Political offices
Preceded by Stephen Van Rensselaer	Lieutenant Governor of New York 1801–1804	Succeeded by John Broome