required to pay the proprietor one-tenth to one-third of the
amount received, as an alienation fee.

Stephen van Rensselaer had permitted his rents, especially those
from poorer tenants, to fall much in arrears, and the effort of
his heirs to collect them--they amounted to about $200,000--was
met with armed opposition. In Rensselaer county a man was
murdered, and Gov. Seward was forced to call out the militia. The
tenants, however, formed anti-rent associations in all the
affected counties, and in 1844 began a reign of terror, in which,
disguised as Indians, they resorted to flogging, tarring and
feathering, and boycotting, as weapons against all who dealt with
the landlords. This culminated in the murder of a deputy sheriff
in Delaware county. In 1846 the anti-rent associations secured
the election of Gov. John Young as well as several legislators
favorable to their cause, and promoted the adoption of a new
constitution abolishing feudal tenures and limiting future
agricultural leases to twelve years. Under the pressure of public
opinion the great landlords rapidly sold their farms.

Stephen van Rensselaer was the 8th patroon and 5th in descent
from Killiaen, the first lord of the manor. He was
lieutenant-governor of New York, an ardent promoter of the Erie
canal, a major-general in the War of 1812 (during which he was
defeated at the battle of Queenstown Heights) and represented New
York 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.

[Illustration: Ancient Dutch Church, Albany (1714)

(_From an old print in the N.Y. Public Library_)

This church, built of bricks brought from Holland, stood for about
92 years in the open area formed by the angle of State, Market and
Court streets. It was erected in less than four weeks. The early
Dutch felt that without the church they could not hope to prosper.
The old church was of Gothic style, one story high, and the glass
of its antique windows was richly ornamented with coats of arms.
In 1806 the church was taken down and its brick employed in the
erection of the South Dutch Church, between Hudson and Beaver
streets, which in turn was later replaced by a newer structure.]

Comparatively few ancient landmarks remain in Albany, tho