15

risdictions,  were  instituted.  It  may  be  added  as
worth  remarking,  that,  in  the  case  before  us,  this
title  has  run  on,  and  been  regularly  transmitted,
w^ith  the  blood  of  the  first  Patroon,  down  to  our
day,  though  it  is  now  a  Century  and  three  Quar-
ters since  the  Inheritance  ceased  to  be  a  Dutch
Colony,  to  which  alone  the  title  properly  attach-
ed, and  became,  by  Royal  authority,  after  a
foreign  conquest,  an  English  3Ianorial  possession  5
and  though,  in  later  time,  a  Revolution  has  inter-
vened by  which  the  Estate  was  fully  shorn  of  its
Manorial  character  and  attributes,  leaving  to  the
proprietor,  now  for  the  last  fifty  years,  to  hold  his
property  merely  by  the  same  simple  tenure  and
ownership,  with  which  every  freeholder  in  the
country  is  invested.
Mr.  Van  Rensselaer  was  the  fifth  only  in  the
direct  line  of  descent  from  the  original  proprie
tor  and  Patroon  of  the  Colony  of  Rensselaer-
wyck.  This  personage,  the  founder  of  the  Colo-
ny, was  a  man  of  substance  and  character.  He
was  a  merchant  of  Amsterdam,  in  Holland,
wealthy,  and  of  high  consideration  in  his  class,  at
a  time  when  the  Merchants  of  Holland  had  be-
come, in  effect,  like  those  of  Italy,  the  princes  of


16

the  land.  He  was  that  KilHan  Van  Rensselaer
referred  to  in  our  recent  Histories  as  having  had
a  principal  share  in  the  first  attempts  made  by
the  Dutch  towards  colonization  in  America.
