I am trying to determine when the earliest Van Rensselaer leases were
written for lots in the Hilltowns of western Albany County (Berne, Knox,
Westerlo, and Rensselaerville).

A 1767 survey map by John R. Bleeker of the entire Rensselaerwyck Manor,
shows 133 lots on the west side of the Hudson River and 148 on the east
side. An index on the map identifies the families that lived there. There
are two clear leases above the Helderberg Escarpment in what is now the Town
of Westerlo, one was to Koenard Hogteling and the other to Casper Fouser. In
what is now the Town of Knox near the Schoharie County line, along the wagon
road between Altamont and Schoharie, are two names, Hett? and Smith. To the
east along the road are four other scattered houses with no names.

The area in what is now the Town of Berne shows a lake, but no houses, even
though two years earlier there were enough people living at the Beaver Dam
(now Berne) to organize the Dutch Reformed Church. Since the survey map
covers the entire Manor, and gives the name of each person below the
Helderberg Escarpment holding a lease, it is reasonable to assume that the
only leases above the Escarpment at the time were as previously mentioned.

The NYS Archives reports that records of early leases in the Western Manor
were destroyed by the Capitol fire. It seems hard to believe that all
evidence of early leases in the Hilltowns were destroyed including the
leases themselves, survey maps, survey books, account books, and all other
records that would point to the existence of pre-Revolutionary War leases.

Still, a few pre-War leases have come to my attention. In 1774 Catherine Van
Rensselaer, the widow of Stephen Van Rensselaer II, issued a lease to Jacob
Weidman for land on Fox Creek in the Beaver Dam upon which Weidman had
constructed the first sawmill and gristmill almost 20 years earlier. Surveys
were also made for the homesteads of Peter Dietz and Conrad Swart in the
Switzkill Valley, and leases signed by the Catherine Van Rensselaer.

These are the only leases I have been able to find so far dated before the
Revolutionary War. The majority of the leases known to me in the Hilltowns
were at the time of 1787 survey for German and Dutch squatters, and a few
years later for new settlers from New England and Downstate.

Is anyone aware of other pre-Revolutionary War leases in the Hilltowns?

Harold (Hal) Miller

ALBANY HILLTOWNS <http://albanyhilltowns.com/> - sharing information on our
Berne, Knox, Westerlo, and Rensselaerville ancestors
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