Stephen Van Rensselaer was the eighth patroon and fifth in descent from Killiaen, the first lord of the Manor. He was lieutenant governor of N.Y., an ardent promoter of the Erie Canal, a major general in the War of 1812 (during which he was defeated in the Battle of Queenstown Heights), and represented N.Y. in Congress from 1822 to 1829. In 1824 he founded a school in Troy, which was incorporated two years later as the Rensselaer Polytechnic institute.] In 1629 the Dutch government granted to Killiaen van Rensselaer, an Amsterdam diamond merchant, a tract of land, 24 Sq. M., centering at Ft. Orange, over which he was given the feudal powers of a patroon. The patroons, under the Dutch r['e]gime, were members of the Dutch West India Co., who received large grants of land, called Manors, in New Netherlands. These grants carried with them semifeudal rights, and the patroon could exercise practically autocratic powers in his domain. The first of the patroons, Killiaen van Rensselaer (1580-1645), never came to this country, but he sent over numerous settlers as tenants. The Manor was called Rensselaerswyck, and comprised all of the present counties of Albany and Rensselaer, and part of Columbia. This was the first manorial grant in New Netherlands and was destined to endure the longest. The colonists sent to this country by van Rensselaer were industrious and the town prospered, although in 1644, it was described by Father Jogues, a Jesuit priest, as "a miserable little fort called Fort Orange, built of logs, with four or five pieces of Breteuil cannon and as many swivels; and some 25 or 30 houses built of boards, and having thatched roofs." On account of its favorable commercial and strategic position at the head of navigation on the Hudson and at the gateway of the Iroquois country and the far west, it maintained its importance among colonial settlements for a century and a half. Its early name, Beverwyck, was changed to Albany--one of the titles of the Duke of York, afterwards James II.--when New Netherlands was transferred to the English (1644). Albany was granted a charter in 1686, and the first mayor (appointed by Gov. Dongan) was Peter Schuyler, who was likewise chairman of the Board of Indian Commissioners. Peter Schuyler (1657-1724) was a son of Philip Pieterse Schuyler (d. 1683), who migrated from Amsterdam in 1650. The family was one of the wealthiest and most influential in the colony, and it was closely related by marriage to the van Rensselaers, the van Cortlandts and other representatives of the old Dutch aristocracy. Representatives of Mass., R.I., N.H., Conn., N.Y., Pa., and Md., met in Albany in June, 1754, for the purpose of confirming and establishing a close league of friendship with the Iroquois and of arranging for a permanent union of the colonies. This was the first important effort to bring about a Colonial confederation.