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| Affiliation | Federalist |
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| Name | Philip Schuyler |
| Address |
, New York , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
November 20, 1733
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| Died | November 18, 1804
(70 years)
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| Contributor | Chronicler |
| Last Modifed | Juan Croniqueur
Apr 11, 2023 09:45pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Philip Schuyler was born in November 1733. He was the sixth child (and eldest surviving son) of Johannes and Cornelia Van Cortlandt Schuyler. He grew up at the Schuyler house in Albany and on the family farm at the Flats.
Losing his father on the eve of his seventh birthday and several uncles during the 1740s as well, the boy grew up with his younger brothers and was schooled at home. In 1748 he was sent to New Rochelle to be educated by Peter Stouppe - a French Protestant minister. By that time, he was being groomed to take over family leadership in the years to come. Returning home in 1751, Philip began to show symptoms of gout and pleuresy that would plague him for the rest of his life. But that summer, he undertook a traditional rite of passage with a trip into the Mohawk country to experience the Indian trade.
In September 1755, twenty-one-year-old Philip married Catherine Van Rensselaer, daughter of the Lower or Claverack manor. A few months later the first of their fifteen children was baptized in the Albany Dutch church - where both parents were prominent members. At that time, they were living with his mother in the large and rambling Schuyler house at Albany's main intersection.
In 1755, Philip was commissioned a Captain and empowered to raise a militia company that would build fortifications north of Albany. In 1756, he accompanied Bradstreet to Oswego where he learned the business of military supply and also experienced disillusionment when that outpost fell to the French.
Back home in Albany, in 1756 Schuyler was elected to the common council as assistant alderman for the first ward and was able to obtain the contract to operate the ferry that connected Albany with Greenbush. He also held a provincial appointment as commissioner of the excise (import tax).
Philip Schuyler returned to active service in the French and Indian War. As an officer in the British supply train, he took part in attack on Ticonderoga and in Bradstreet's capture of Fort Frontenac. Stationed for the most part at Albany, he served in the quartermaster's department for the remainder of the war.
By 1761, he had begun to gather resources that would enable him to build his own landed estate named Schuyler Mansion, south of the Beaverkill. Early that year, Schuyler went to England to broker settlement of the quartermaster's accounts, and the construction was completed prior to his return to Albany at the end of 1762.
Schuyler was elected to the New York General Assembly in 1768. He served until that colonial body disbanded and was replaced by an extra-legal Provincial Congress in 1775. It was in the Assembly that Schuyler began to emerge as a leader of the opposition to British restrictions and strictures.
During that time, his business involved the harvesting of farm and forest products on his extensive Hudson Valley estates and shipping them to New York on his own sloops and schooner. Trading on his inherited real estate and family credit, by the eve of the Revolution, the forty-three-year-old American had emerged as one of the wealthiest landholders in the region. However, his success rested on already functional estates that needed more independent access to markets and resources to develop further.
In June 1775, he was appointed one of the four Major Generals of the Continental army by the Continental Congress. He served until he was replaced in 1777 and finally resigned his commission in April 1779. He then returned to the Continental Congress.
He was selected to the New York State Senate in 1780 and was appointed one of the first two United States Senators for New York in 1788. He served until 1791 and later from 1797 to January 1798 when another attack of gout forced him to resign.
He died on November 18, 1804 and was buried in the Ten Broeck family vault. Later, his remains were removed to Albany Rural Cemetery and a large monument was erected. Schuyler was the father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton.
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