Killiaen

[AUTOGRAPH]. RENSSELAER, Kiliaen and Hillegonda van BYLER (BYLLAER). [4 autograph letters preceding a marriage in 1616]. Frankfurt and Utrecht, 1615-1616.
Collection of four letters, two by Killiaen Rensselaer to his fiancee Hillegonda van Byl(la)er, who was living in Utrecht and whom Van Rensselaer would marry in 1616, written at Frankfurt, short after his arrival there to attend the 'Messe', and two letters by Hillegonda.Kiliaen van Rensselaer (1586-1643), a Dutch diamond and pearl merchant from Amsterdam, was one of the founders and Directors of the Dutch West India Company. He played a pivotal role in the establishment of New Netherland. He was one of the first patrons and the only and the only successful one, having founded the Manor of Rensselaerswyck in what is now mainly New York's Capital District a region in upstate New York that generally refers to the four counties surrounding Albany, the capital of the state: Albany County, Schenectady County, Rensselaer County, and Saratoga County. His estate lasted as a legal entity until the 1840s, having lived through Dutch and British Empire, colonial times, the American Revolution and eventually coming to an end during the Anti-Rent War.The family records, many of which were translated and published in the <I>Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts</I>, reveal the personality of the man who figures prominently in the history of colonization as the founder of the only successful patronship that ever existed in New Netherland, which Van Rensselaer unfortunately never visited himself.Van Rensselaer's effest on the history of the United States cannot be underestimated: the American Van Rensselaers all descent from Kiliaen's son Jeremias and the subsequent family is noted for being a very powerful and wealthy influence in the history of New York and the Northeastern United States, producing multiple State Legislateros, Congressmen, and two Lieutenats Governors in New York. Full transcriptions of the letters on request.
In a very good state of preservation.
<I>J. Spinoza Catella Jessurun, Kiliaen van Rensselaer van 1623-1636 (The Hague 1917); W.W. Spooner, The Van Rensselaer family (1907).</I>

Folio and 8vo. 4 autograph letters, 3 of which with red wax-seals and gold threat.

[SW: Autographs, Letters & Documents; Americana; Diamonds; VOC]

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