Excerpt from Van Rensselaer Family The exceptional position conferred upon the Van Rens selaer Family, and for generations sustained, by virtue of its great proprietary estate, is naturally the most conspicu ous fact in its history. The patroonship or manor of Bens selaerswyck, as originally erected, was'diminished at vari ous times in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by alienations including a considerable tract ceded to the city of Albany, two other large cessions (the Coeyman's Trac and an: extensive strip transferred to the state of Massachusetts), and a territory of some sixty thousand acres, constituting the Lower or Claverack Manor, with other lands vested in the younger branch of the family, as'its share, at the time of the settlement of the primogeni tureship, in the reign of Queen Anne. Notwithstanding these alienations, the manor was still the greatest heredi tary property in the state of New York, and as adjusted on its final territorial basis it continued, without further re duction, until toward the middle of the nineteenth century. Throughout this period of two centuries its character as a strictly private estate remained unchanged; and although the formal privileges of civil authority which belonged to its early proprietors, as well as the principle of primogeniture, were abolished in the Revolution, the ancient features of a single headship and exclusive ownership of the soil on the one hand, and a semi - feudal tenantship on the other, were preserved to the last. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.