Henry Rutgers | |
|---|---|
 1828 oil painting of Henry Rutgers | |
| Member of theNew York State Assembly fromNew York County | |
| In office July 1, 1783 – June 30, 1784 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 7, 1745 New York City, Province of New York, British America |
| Died | February 17, 1830(1830-02-17) (aged 84) New York City,New York, U.S. |
| Parent(s) | Hendrick Rutgers Catharine DePeyster |
| Relatives | Johannes de Peyster Sr. (great-grandfather) Johannes de Peyster (maternal grandfather) Abraham de Peyster (granduncle) Evert Bancker (granduncle) Johannes de Peyster III (maternal uncle) Samuel Provoost (cousin) Theodore Roosevelt (third cousin twice removed) Franklin Delano Roosevelt (third cousin twice removed) |
| Alma mater | Columbia University (BA) |
| Occupation | Revolutionary War hero, philanthropist |
| Signature |  |
Henry Rutgers (October 7, 1745 – February 17, 1830)[1] was aUnited StatesRevolutionary War hero and philanthropist fromNew York City.Rutgers University was named after him, and he donated a bond which placed the college on sound financial footing. He also gave a bell that is still in use.
Rutgers was born in New York City, in theProvince of New York which was then a part ofBritish America. He was the son ofNew Netherland colonists Hendrick Rutgers and Catharine (née DePeyster) Rutgers.[2]
His maternal grandparents wereJohannes de Peyster, the 23rdMayor of New York City, and Anna (née Bancker) de Peyster, the sister ofEvert Bancker, the3rd and 12th Mayor of Albany, New York.[3] His paternal grandparents were Harmanus Rutgers and Rachel (née Meyers) Rutgers, herself a granddaughter ofClaes Martenszen van Rosenvelt, the first Roosevelt to arrive in America.[2] Through his father's sister, he was a first cousin ofSamuel Provoost, the firstBishop of theEpiscopal Diocese of New York.[2] He was a third cousin twice removed of bothU.S. PresidentsTheodore Roosevelt andFranklin Delano Roosevelt.
In 1728 Harmanus Rutgers, Jr. purchased a farm near present-dayEast Broadway and Oliver Streets. Rutgers was a brewer and had a barn on Catherine Street to store the barley he grew. A lane that would later become Cherry Street ran along the southern border. His son Hendrick inherited the property and in 1754 built a new farmhouse farther to the north and nearer the East River. The Rutgers extended their holdings, purchasing water lots. Fill was added to the water on either side at the ends of the larger streets that ran perpendicular to the shore, forming slips or inlets where small boats could dock.[4]
Rutgers graduated from King's College (nowColumbia University) in 1766.[1] Following his graduation, he promptly became an advocate for independence of the American colonies fromGreat Britain. He went on to serve as a captain of American forces at theBattle of White Plains, and later as acolonel for the New York militia. During the British occupation of New York, Rutgers withdrew to Albany. During his absence, the British used the family home as an army hospital.[4]
Rutgers continued to play a role in the defense of the young nation after the Revolution, presiding over a meeting held June 24, 1812, to organize American forces in New York in anticipation of a British attack in the ensuingWar of 1812.
In 1783, Rutgers was elected to theNew York State Assembly, where he served in the7th New York State Legislature.[5] He also served on the New York Board of Education Regents from 1802 to 1826. He was apresidential elector, chosen by the legislature, in1808,1816, and1820.
Rutgers supported theAmerican Colonization Society, arguing againstabolitionists thatfree people of color should be removed from the United States rather than allowed to grow as a population.[6] He was himself a slaveowner, like many of his relatives.[7]
Rutgers continued to expand his holdings, extending his water lots further out into the river. In his later years, Rutgers, a bachelor, devoted much of his fortune tophilanthropy. As a landowner with considerable holdings on the island ofManhattan (especially in the vicinity ofChatham Square), he donated land for the use of schools, churches, and charities in the area. BothHenry Street andRutgers Street in lower Manhattan are named for him, as well as theRutgers Presbyterian Church[8] (formerly the Collegiate Presbyterian Church) which was also named for Rutgers who donated the parcel of land at the corner ofHenry Street andRutgers Street on which the original church was built in 1798.
In 1807, he helped purchase the site of what becameSpring Street Presbyterian Church.[9]
Rutgers' most lasting legacy, however, is due to his donations toQueen's College inNew Brunswick,New Jersey, which at the time was suffering considerable financial difficulties and temporarily closed.[10] The college had been founded as a seminary for theReformed Church in America and appealed to Rutgers, a devout member of the church with a reputation for philanthropy, for aid. Rutgers donated a bond valued at $5000 to reopen the faltering school, and subsequently donated a bronze bell that was hung in the cupola of theOld Queens building which housed the college. In gratitude, and hoping the college would be remembered in Rutgers' will, the trustees renamed it Rutgers College on December 5, 1825. (Rutgers left nothing to the college upon his death. This gave rise to the term "the RU Screw" which students and alumni use to refer to things that go wrong for students.[11]) The institution later became Rutgers University, then Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.[12]
Rutgers died in 1830 in New York City, at the age of 84. His body was initially buried in the Reformed Church on Nassau Street (the same church in which he was baptized) in Manhattan. However, as cemeteries in Manhattan were redeveloped during the mid-1800s, Rutgers' body was re-interred several times (first moved in 1858 to the Middle Church in Lafayette Place, on the corner of Nassau Street and Cedar Street in Manhattan, and then, in 1865, interred in Green-Wood Cemetery). For many years, no one remembered where his body had been finally buried, although it was long believed that he was buried in a Dutch Reformed churchyard inBelleville, New Jersey. One road running alongside this New Jersey graveyard is now called Rutgers Street (signed as, but not technically part of,Route 7).
Misplaced by history for over 140 years, Rutgers' final grave was rediscovered in October 2007[13][14] by Civil War research volunteers sifting through burial records of the historicalGreen-Wood Cemetery. In 1865, Rutgers' body had been finally buried in an unmarked grave (he is interred in Lot 10776, Sec. 28, in an underground vault) within the Dutch Reformed Church's plot at Green-Wood Cemetery[15][16] inBrooklyn.
The Green-Wood Historic Fund and members of the Rutgers Community honored Rutgers' memory onFlag Day, June 14, 2008, by unveiling a bronze marker at his gravesite. Elsewhere in Green-Wood Cemetery lies the grave ofMabel Smith Douglass, founder and first dean of the New Jersey College for Women (renamedDouglass College in her honor). Douglass College is part of Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus.
de peyster douw.
Through their leadership of the state and regional boards of the American Colonization Society (ACS), men likeJohn Henry Livingston (Rutgers president, 1810-1824), the ReverendPhilip Milledoler (Rutgers president, 1824-1840), Henry Rutgers (trustee after whom the college is named), andTheodore Frelinghuysen, Rutgers' seventh president, were among the most ardent anti-abolitionists in the Mid-Atlantic.
Henry Rutgers himself owned slaves, as did the rest of his family. In fact, after the1741 slave revolt in New York City, a member of Henry's family "had three of his slaves convicted of conspiracy — one was hanged, one burned, and one transported," according to an article in the university archives. The article goes on to explain what happened to "John Hughson, the white man who allegedly incited the slaves," who was executed and hung on public display "on the shoreline of the Rutgers [family] property." In his 1823 will, Henry Rutgers wrote, "It is my desire and will that my Negro wench slave named Hannah being superannuated, be supported out of my Estate." Henry Rutgers "had a strong voice," his great grand-niece, Mary recalled. "His orders to his negroes across the East River," she continued, "could be heard by them."
Rutgers died in 1830 and years later in 1865 his body was moved from a Manhattan churchyard to Green-Wood. For decades his grave marker did not bear his name. But in 2008, a stone with him name was placed.
de Peyster family tree |
|---|
|
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
