Van Cortlandt Manor, is a 175-acre National Historic Landmark site, owned by the not-for-profit education organization.
The first Van Cortlandt in America, Oloff, came to New Amsterdam in 1638 as an employee of the Dutch West India Company. When the Company permitted independent businesses, he left the Company and began a career as a merchant, achieving both wealth and prominence as a merchant and politician. After the English took control of New York, he became an alderman and deputy Mayor. In 1642, he married Annette Lookermanns, the daughter of a well-to-do Dutch merchant. Their children married into other large Hudson Valley landholders' families and soon the Van Cortlandt family was connected by marriage with most of the eminent New York families of the time. Oloff's oldest son, Stephanus, pursued careers in business and politics concurrently. He, too, married well. His wife was Gertruyd Schuyler. Among his political accomplishments, he held the position of Mayor of New York and Chief Justice of the New York Provincial Supreme Court, the latter being one of the highest honors being accorded to a colonial. READ AND SEE MORE AT Where History Lives Part 15: The Van Cortlandt Manor House - Town of Cortlandt, NY News
YOU MAY ALSO HAVE AN INTEREST IN EverythingCroton: 1969, INSPIRED BY THE QUILTS AT VAN CORTLANDT MANOR
