Obituary notice of the Hon. Stephen Van Rensselaer. 157 



bounties ; moral excellence is the golden framework of the pic- 

 tures of science. 



The late Gen. Stephen Van Rensselaer* was born in the city 

 of New York, in November, 1764. He was the lineal descendant 

 of one of the oldest families, which at the first settlement of the 

 country, obtained from the Dutch Government, the grant of the 

 manor of Rensselaerwyck, which after the country passed under 

 the dominion of the English, was confirmed by James XL, in 1685, 

 and again in 1704, by Q,ueen Anne. 



His father died when he. was a boy. His mother afterwards 

 married Rev. Dr. Westerlo. She was remarkable for her piety 

 and charity, and her influence as well as that of her husband, was 

 seen in the character of her son. 



" The memory of that mother he cherished to the last, with a strong 

 and affectionate attachment. To her lessons of piety, most carefully in- 

 scribed upon his youthful mind, he often adverted with feeling interest, as 

 a great and permanent blessing. He had early been taught by her to em- 

 ploy a " Manual of Devotion," with which he commonly engaged in that 

 solemn duty ; and a worn-out copy, used to his dying day, remains a me- 

 morial, as much of his filial affection as of his habits of devotion. Her 

 mourning ring, which he always wore, he desired should be buried with 

 himt. 



" He received the rudiments of his education first at a day school in this 

 city, and then at Elizabethtown, N. J. He was afterwards at the Kings- 

 ton Academy, where commenced his acquaintance with the lamented 

 Abraham Van Vechten ; w;hich ripened into a warm, confiding intimacy, 

 and survived in all its strength until the recent death of his friend. From 

 the Academy, he was placed by his mother, ever anxious for his religious 

 welfare, under the charge of Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, whom he accompa- 

 nied on horseback from this place to Princeton; part of the distance with 

 an escort provided by General Washingtori, by whom they had been hos- 

 pitably entertained at West Point. After a year or two of preparatory 

 study, he entered Nassau Hall : but subsequently removed to Cambridge, 

 where he graduated in 1782. Although too young to take an active part 

 in our revolutionary struggle, he was early imbued with the sentiments 

 and feelings which animated the men of that period, and retained them 

 through his life. He uniformly adhered to the political creed of the 



* Dr. Vermilye's funeral discourse. 



t " She was a daughter of Philip Livingston, one of the signers of the Declara- 

 tion of Independence, and sister to the wife of Dr. Livingston, late of New Bruns- 

 wick. She died, April 17, 1810, aged 64, leaving three sons and two daughters." 



