General Notes

Philip Pieterse Schuyler, the founder of the family in this country, ca
me from Holland in the fourth decade of the seventeenth century and settl
ed in the neighborhood of Albany. The records show that he was appoint
ed by Governor Stuyvesant in 1656 to the office of vice-director of Fort O
range, now Albany. He discharged the duties, which were both civil and mil
itary, in so satisfactory a manner that he retained the position, exce
pt at short intervals, until near the end of his life.
His business transactions were large and varied and he became possess
ed of much valuable real estate, not only in Albany, but along the ban
ks of the Hudson and even on Manhattan Island. He died in Albany, May 9, 1
683, having made his will eight days before, disposing of a large proper
ty which was divided between his wife and numerous children. He seems to h
ave been highly esteemed by his friends and neighbors and to have enjoy
ed the full confidence of the leading men of the colony from Governor Stuy
vesant down.
Though nothing is positively known as to his antecedents in Holland, the f
act that soon after coming to this country he was married to a daught
er of the distinguished house of Van Slichtenhorst, and also that he was p
ermitted to display his armorial bearings upon a window of the old Dutch c
hurch in Albany, seems proof positive that he came from gentle stock in t
he old country.