General Notes

Margareta Van Slichtenhorst, the wife of Philip Pieterse Schuyler, wh
om he married in 1650, seems to have been a woman of remarkable force of c
haracter She was the only daughter of Brant Arentse Van Slichtenhorst. Mar
gareta inherited from her father his courage and business ability, as al
so his public spirit. On several occasions when the safety of the colony w
as threatened by the French and Indians she was the largest single subscri
ber to funds for its defense. She administered her husband's estate with s
uch success that it became one of the largest in the colony. She died in 1
711 at the ripe age of eighty-two years.
Margarita's Poem for her Father, Brant Arantse van Slichtenhorst
I'm young Margarita van Slichtenhorst,
My father's the Master, we call him Baas,
Of de Heer van Renssalaer's Bouwerie,
This brought us here from the Zuider Zee.
My mother is dead, and I'm all alone
To care for my father's simple home,
But I try to do it as well as may be,
Though I long for my home by the Zuider Zee.
My father's a man who knows so much,
Though you'd not understand his Holland Dutch.
He is not handsome, and yet, you know,
He's brave and kind, and I love him so.