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Stephen van Rensselaer III (November 1, 1764 – January 26, 1839) was Lieutenant Governor of New York and a member of the United States House of Representatives, as well as a soldier, businessman and landowner. The heir to one of the largest estates in New York, his holdings made him the tenth richest American of all time, based on the ratio of his fortune to contemporary GDP. He founded the institution which became Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. ==Early life== Van Rensselaer was born in New York City, the eldest child of Stephen van Rensselaer II, the ninth patroon of Rensselaerswyck a large land grant in upstate New York awarded by the Dutch to his ancestor Kiliaen van Rensselaer. His mother was Catharina Livingston the daughter of Philip Livingston, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His family was very wealthy, and the Van Rensselaer Manor House was a rich childhood environment for the young boy to grow up in. However, his father died in 1769 when Van Rensselaer was only five.〔(Bielinski, Stefan. "Stephen Van Rensselaer III", New York State Museum )〕 Van Rensselaer was raised by his mother and his stepfather, the Rev. Eilardus Westerlo, whom his mother married in 1775, and his Livingston grandfather. His uncle, Abraham Ten Broeck, administered the Van Rensselaer estate after the untimely death of Van Rensselaer's father. At an early age, Van Rensselaer was raised to succeed his father as lord of the manor.〔 To this end he was sent off to school, first to Princeton College. Since Princeton was near to troops and battles of the ongoing American Revolution, Van Rensselaer was later sent to Harvard College, from which he graduated in 1782. In 1783 he married Margarita Schuyler, the daughter of renowned Revolutionary War general Philip Schuyler and a distant cousin as Van Ressselaer was also a Schuyler through his Livingston roots. Margarita died in 1801; a year later Van Rensselaer married Cornelia Paterson, daughter of former New Jersey Governor William Paterson. On his 21st birthday, Van Rensselaer took possession of his family's prestigious estate, close to 1,200 square miles (3,072 km²) in size, named Rensselaerswyck, and began a long tenure as lord of his family's manor. Van Rensselaer desired to make money off of the land that was suddenly his, but was extremely reluctant to sell it off. Instead, he granted tenants perpetual leases at moderate rates, which saved would-be landholders from having to pay all of their money up front. This meant that they could invest more in their operations, which led to increased productivity in the area. Over time, Van Rensselaer would become landlord over 3,000 tenants, and proved a lenient and benevolent landowner. In the First Census of the United States in 1790, it was noted that he owned fifteen slaves.〔Heads of Families at the First Census 1790, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc. 1976, p. 52〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stephen Van Rensselaer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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