Kiliaen was born on December 27, 1717 around Albany in the Province of New York. He was the youngest of eleven children born to Hendrick van Rensselaer of Fort Crailo by Catharina Van Rensselaer. Among his older siblings were Johannes Van Rensselaer. His father was director of the Eastern patent of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck which covered roughly 62,000 acres of land in what is now Columbia County. His paternal grandparents were Maria van Cortlandt van Rensselaer and Jeremias van Rensselaer, the acting Patroon of Rensselaerswyck from 1658 to 1674. Among his nephews were Brig. Gen. Robert Van Rensselaer. In describing the Van Rensselaer family, historian author William L. Stone stated: "They consisted of eighteen males in 1776. During the war every adult, except two old men, and all minors, except four boys, bore arms in one or more battles during the Revolutionary struggle." George W. Schuyler later wrote in his Colonial New York, "... of the eighteen males, sixteen belonged to Hendrick Van Rensselaer's branch, and of these, five were of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer's family." His maternal grandparents were the former Catharine Roeloffe Jans and merchant Johannes Pieterse Van Brugh. His uncle, Pieter Van Brugh, served as the mayor of Albany from 1699 to 1700 and from 1721 to 1723.
Career
Van Rensselaer was a gentleman farmer and landlord. Through inheritances and marriages, he received additional landholdings on the east side of the Hudson River.
He was commissioned as a colonel in his brother's 4th Regiment, Albany County Militia, Rensselaerswyck battalion on October 20, 1775 during the American Revolution. He was the representative for Rensselaerswyck on the Committee of Correspondence as hostilities broke out in 1775. Van Rensselaer was seriously wounded by a shot in the hip during the Battles of Saratoga that forced him to discontinue further service. General George Washington paid the highest of compliments about his courage.
Personal life
On January 1, 1742, he was married to Ariantje "Harriet" Schuyler, a daughter of Nicolas Schuyler and Elsie Schuyler and granddaughter of Philip Pieterse Schuyler. Her uncle was Albany mayor Johannes Schuyler and her first cousin was Johannes Schuyler Jr. Together, they lived on the east side of Rensselaerswyck, overlooking Papsknee Island, and were the parents of nine children, including:
Killian K. Van Rensselaer, U.S. Representative who married Margaret Sanders, a daughter of John Sanders and cousin to Philip's wife, in 1791.
His wife died October 17, 1763, four months after the birth of their last child. On September 18, 1769, he remarried to Maria Low of John Low of Newark, New Jersey. Her father died in 1774 and Van Rensselaer was one of the executors of his estate. Van Rensselaer died on December 28, 1781.
