He was a merchant and ship owner who, at the age of twenty-eight was elected alderman of the first ward in the Albany assembly. He sat on the city council and the city court for four years. In 1705, Hendrick was first elected to four consecutive terms in the New York General Assembly representing Rensselaerswyck. In 1698 he bought from the Schaghticoke tribe, a tract of six square miles on Hoosac River, for which he procured a patent. This purchase interfered greatly with the city of Albany. With Van Rensselaer declining to sell his patent to the council, the controversy became a state affair. In 1699 the dispute was amicably settled, and he passed his patent over to the city in 1707, the year he built his historic fortified mansion he named Fort Crailo. It sits East of the Hudson River on what was a land inheritance that extended South, beyond Greenbush to what is known today as Claverack. During the French-Indian (French-British) war, British troops quartered in his home and a substantial encampment in his yard. In 1775 Historic Fort Crailo is where British Army surgeon Richard Shuckburgh, quartered in the home that many injured soldiers were cared for, admired the colonists determination and fortitude. Recognizing they had no formal training or uniforms, Americana holds that the irony inspired his writing the ditty "Yankee Doodle" to poke fun at the colonial troops who fought with the British during the French and Indian Wars. Fort Crailo was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961.
Hendrick and his versatile family stood with the British and strongly defended against the French. During the American War for Independence, nearly all of his sons and grandsons of military age took up arms against the British or were members of Congress.
William L. Stone (historian): "They consisted of eighteen males in 1776. During the war every adult, except two old men, and all minors, except four boys, bore arms in one or more battles during the Revolutionary struggle." -
George W. Schuyler (author) "Colonial New York": explains further, that of the eighteen males, sixteen belonged to Hendrick Van Rensselaer's branch, and of these, five were of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer's family. - (This Kiliaen being the son of Hendrick)
Hendrick's older brother is also named Kiliaen. It was this older brother who inherited Rensselaerswyck as the elder brother at the death of Jeremias. Kiliaen gave the East side of the Hudson, "Greenbush" to Hendrick and provided property for his brother Johannes and their sisters. It is from these three brothers, all modern day Van Rensselaers descend. The eventual result being a surname that was exclusively Dutch until about 1658 when Jeremias arrived in America became exclusively American about the mid 18th century.
The older brother Kiliaen remained West of the Hudson.
Kiliaen has numerous descendants which include the patroons, the last being Stephen van Rensselaer III. Hendrik's brother Johannes' descendants include the founder of Rensselaer, Indiana
James van Rensselaer