Van Rensselaer, << van REHN suh luhr, >> Kiliaen, << KEE lee ahn >> (1585?-1643), was one of the leading Dutch colonizers of the territory that later became New York. In 1629, the Dutch West India Company authorized large grants of land in New Netherland to company shareholders who promised to colonize their lands. The land grants were called patroonships. Van Rensselaer and four other wealthy and prominent shareholders founded patroonships, but only Van Rensselaer’s colony succeeded. His colony of Rensselaerswyck included two counties and part of a third on both banks of the Hudson River south of Albany. Van Rensselaer invested most of his fortune earned as a diamond merchant in the colony, but he had great difficulty recruiting settlers.
Van Rensselaer was born in Hasselt, north of Zwolle, in the Netherlands. He died in Amsterdam and was buried there on Oct. 7, 1643.
