Stephen Van Rensselaer

American landowner, businessman, politician, and militia officer (1764–1839)

Stephen Van Rensselaer III (November 1, 1764 – January 26, 1839), was an American landowner, businessman, politician, and militia officer. He took control of Rensselaerswyck, his family's manor in upstate New York, at the age of twenty-one. He encouraged settlement by granting tenants seven years of free rent, although he retained ownership of timber, minerals, and water power.

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