The Patroon was invested with power to administer civil and criminal justice, in person or by deputy, within his domain, and, to some extent, he was a sort of autocrat. These powers were abolished when the English took possession of the province in 1664, and with it fell many of the special privileges, but, by the English law of primogeniture, that princely domain, farmed out to many tenants, remained in the family until the Eevolution in 1775, and the title of Patroon was held by the late General Stephen Yan Eensselaer, until his death, early in 1840, when it expired. A great portion of the manor has passed out of the hands of the Yan Eensselaer. family.

CHAPTER VII,

HE grounds around Van Rensselaer Manor House extend from Broadway to the river, and embrace a large garden and conservatory. There in the midst of rural scenery, the sounds of a swift-running brook, and almost the quietude of a sylvan retreat, the " lord manor of Rensselaerwyck," the lineal descendant of Killian, the pearl merchant, and first Patroon, was living when our sketch was made in elegant but unostefitatious style -- a simple Republican, without the feudal title of his progenitors, except by courtesy. Within the mansion are collected some exquisite works of Art, and family portraits extending in regular order back to the first Patroon. At the head of the great staircase leading from the spacious hall to the chambers was a portion of the illuminated window which, for one hundred and ninety years, occupied a place in the old Dutch Church that stood in the middle of State Street, at its intersection by Broadway. It bears the arms of the Van Rensselaer family, which were placed in the church by the son of Killian.