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The Schermerhorns of New York
In the 2002 Martin Scorcese movie “Gangs of New York” starring Leonardo DiCaprio about the New York riots surrounding the conscription of soldiers to fight in the Civil War, the roll of the wealthy uptown New York society magnate John Schermerhorn was played by an actor friend of mine, David Hemmings. The scenes were a fairly brief part of the movie, and I hadn’t seen him for a while and it would be his last role, but I was glad to see it. What I didn’t realize at the time, was the character he was playing was a distant family relation.
In the movie dialogue, he was only called Mr. Schermerhorn, and in New York, one had only to mention the name for people to recognize the heritage of high society. In another movie, “Dragonwyck” based on the “Patroon” system of Rensselearwyck, the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam, one obsequious society woman asks the young lower class girl who has drawn the attention of the patroon, “Oh, do you know Mrs. Schemerhorn”.
I am one who can trace a family connection back to colonial days, with one line traced all the way back to the first Dutch settlement of Castle Island in the Hudson River, back to the Egmonts and the Schermerhorns.
Schermerhorn Family of New York
The Schermerhorns of colonial New York, originally called New Netherland were primarily located around the area of Albany and instrumental in the settlement of Schenectady. The patriarch Jacob Janse Schermerhorn from the province of Schermerhorn in North Holland boarded a ship about 1637 and settled in the land of patroon Killiean Van Rensselaer. His family grew and spread in the first hundred years. They left the settlement around Fort Orange and formed the settlement of Schenectady.
During the French and Indian War Schenectady was the site of one of the most brutal assaults of early America. On the eve of the attack, in a precursor to Paul Revere’s more famous ride, Symon Schermerhorn, galloped from Schenectady to Albany to raise the alarm, earning him the name “Galloping Symon”. On February 8th of 1690, in the freezing cold and snow, French soldiers and a band of Indians raided the sleeping Schenectady settlement. Schermerhorn tried his best to defend his family, but watched as his son and three of his slaves were killed. He himself was wounded in his leg but rode his horse through the night, to warn other settlers and raise the alarm in Albany. A counter attack was mounted, but 38 men, 10 women and 12 children were killed in the Schenectady Massacre, with 27 taken prisoner. Symon was the son of Jacob Janse Schermerhorn and Jannetie Egmont Segers Van Voorhout. Jannetie Egmont’s father was one of the first settlers on Castle Island in the Hudson River at Albany, who had to America from the Egmont lands of Dutch national hero – Egmont.
The most historically notable member of the family, Ryer Jacobse, lived in his Albany house (perhaps with his brother Symon) following the burning of Schenectady. A younger brother, Cornelis, was an Albany-based trader. Their sisters, Machtelt and Cornelia, married Albany prominent Albany residents.
By 1920, the family had regrouped in the lower Mohawk Valley as three Schermerhorn men were counted among the freeholders of Schenectady, two in Rensselaerswyck, and one more in Kinderhook. By the mid-1900s, Schermerhorns were active in Mohawk Valley business, farming, and real estate but were mostly missing in records for Albany.
By 1990, the in the first Federal census after the signing of the Constitution no Schermerhorn named households were found within the city of Albany. Although four Schermerhorns were located in surrounding Watervliet, with sixteen family households found in Schenectady and almost sixty Schermerhorn houses statewide. The first Albany City Directory of 1813 identified a Cornelius Schermerhorn, Jr. as an innkeeper at 12 Beaver Street, but most had moved on, marrying into other Dutch and English families, some heading west with the opening of the Erie Canal, while a branch of the family became more prominent in New York City.
The Schermerhorns probably gained their highest prominence through the wealth and influence of the New York shipping magnate Peter Schermerhorn (1984-1826) who built erected six counting houses for his thriving business on Fulton Street in 1811, which today is known as the Schermerhorn Row Block in lower Manhattan.
Information provided by the Colonial Albany Project of the New York State History Museum and researcher Stefan Bielinksi.