the manor house in Watervliet, such as a specified number of bushels of good clean wheat, four fat fowls, one day’s service with carriages and horses, and finally the one-quarter part of the purchase price on every sale of land. The aim and intent was to perpetuate, if possible, and as far as possible, the interest of the Van Rensselaers in the estate. The estate remaining was divided by the two eldest sons, Stephen 4th getting that on the west side and William Patterson Van Rensselaer that on the east side of the Hudson river, and each all the reservations of rents in their respective territories. “In 1839, when the said Stephen and William Patterson began to push their claim against the landholders and demand immediate payment of back rents, etc., the landholders, called ‘anti-renters,’ held a convention and appointed a committee to wait on Stephen Van Rensselaer and ascertain if an amicable settlement of the manor claims for rents in arrears could not be made and to learn on what terms a clear and absolute title to the land could be had. The committee, men of character, went to the manor office in 1839 to see and converse with Mr. Van Rensselaer, but the latter refused to recognize or even see the committee. He did, some time subsequently, send a letter to the chairman of that committee declining to sell on any terms. Great excitement was created in Albany county. The rent collectors were roughly treated and they were told that no rents would be paid. Sheriffs were called upon to discharge their duties and they were resisted and driven back by men masked and dressed in Indian costumes. The sheriff called to aid him the ‘posse comitatus,’ or power of the county, and marched 600 strong into the anti-rent district, where they were turned back by 1,500 anti-renters. The sheriff reported the state of affairs to Governor William H. Seward, who immediately ordered out eight companies of militia under the command of Major Bloodgood. They met no resistance. “The Patroon interest hoped the military ordered out by the Governor of the State would bring the anti-renters to their senses and induce them to pay up. The landholders or anti-renters hoped that their display of strength and resistance would induce the Van Rensselaers to offer terms of compromise which they could accept. Neither hope was realized. Then some lawyer who had dug into old English law books said the Patroon patent was invalid and the matter must go to the court for settlement. It became a political question at once. The anti-renters elected representatives in the Legislature from eleven counties and the new Governor favored them. The decisions of the courts seemed to alternate in favor of the Van Rensselaers and then in favor of the anti-renters. In 1852 the counsel of the Van Rensselaers advised them to sell their claims, for they believed they could not be sustained and that advice was accepted. Some of the landholders or anti-renters accepted the terms offered.