Meet the Van Cortlandts

See a family resemblance? This handsome gentleman is Stephanus Van Cortlandt (1643-1700). To put it in context, if you are a grandchild of Nat & Bob or Warren & Tatine Watters, Stephanus Von Cortlandt was your 9th great grandfather.


Stephanus was one of the most prominent men in New York after it became an English colony. Except for the governorship, he filled at one time or another every prominent office in that province. Van Cortlandt's career was, perhaps, the most brilliant and varied, in the fifty-seven years it occupied, of any inhabitant of New York in the 17th century. He was a youth of twenty-one when, in 1664, the English capture took place and New Amsterdam became New York. In 1668 he was appointed an ensign in the Kings county regiment, subsequently a captain, and later its colonel. From 1677, when at the age of thirty-four he was appointed the first native American mayor of New York City, he held that office almost consecutively until his death in 1700. In 1693 he was appointed a justice of the supreme court of the province, serving as Chief Justice, one of the highest honors being accorded to a colonial.

He was appointed by the king's auditor-general in England Deputy Auditor in New York, his accounts being regularly transmitted to England and approved. He was appointed also Deputy Secretary of New York, and personally administered the office. The Secretary always resided in England after the British custom. He was prominent in all the treaties and conferences with the Indians as a member of the council, and was noted for his influence with them.  His letters and dispatches to Gov. Edmund Andros, and to the different boards and officers in England that were charged with the care of the colonies remain to show his capacity, clear-headedness and courage.

Stephanus began acquiring land from the Indians as early as 1677 and by 1697 his landholdings in the area had grown to 200 square miles from Croton Bay north to the highlands and east to the Connecticut line. The various portions of the Van Cortlandt Manor were purchased by barter from the Indians beginning about the year 1683. An appended schedule of bartered merchandises mentioned in the deed included "8 Guns, 9 Blankets, 5 Coats, 14 Fathoms of Duffels, 14 Kettles, 12 Shirts, 50 Pounds Powder, 30 Bars Lead, 18 Hatchets, 18 Hoes, 40 Fathoms Black Wampum, 80 Fathoms White Wampum, 2 Ankers of Rum, 5 Half Vats strong Beer, 8 Earthen Jugs, 14 Knives, 1 Small Coat, 6 Fathoms of Stroud Cloth, 6 Pairs of Stockings and 6 Tobacco Boxes."

His estate was erected into the lordship and manor of Cortlandt by patent of William III, bearing the date of June 17, 1697. The Van Cortlandt manor-house is one of the oldest edifices that now remain on the borders of the Hudson river. It stands on the northern shore of Croton bay, and was built both as a country residence and as a fort. The walls are reddish free-stone nearly three feet in thickness, pierced with loop-holes for musketry. Stephanus originally built it as a fortified trading-house and it was added to by successive owners.  Some of the most notable persons in the history of the state were entertained, beginning with the early colonial governors. George Whitefield preached to the tenants of the manor from its veranda, while Benjamin Franklin rested there on his return from his Canadian mission in 1776. Washington, Rochambeau, Lafayette, and Lauzun were among its guests, and Col. Henry B. Livingston had his quarters there at the time of Arnold's treason. Eminent Methodist preachers in the early days of that church, including Bishop Asbury and Freeborn Garretson, were also entertained at the Van Cortlandt Manor. As a traditional Dutchman, Stephanus willed the estate to all of his immediate heirs rather than solely to this oldest son and so the opportunity arose in the next generation for the property to be dissipated. The house stayed in the family until 1945.

In 1671, Stephanus was married to Gertruj Van Schuyler, the sister of Pieter Schuyler, a colonial governor of New York and mayor of Albany. Stephanus and Gertruj had 14 children: John, Anne, Margaret, Oliver, Maria, Gertrude, Philip. Stephanus, Gertrude, Gysbert, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, Catherine and Cornelia.

Next time we'll learn about Abraham DePeyster, another Dutch-born New York City mayor from the late 1600s who can also be traced up the same Watters line.