Peter Schuyler

Pieter "Peter" Schuyler (1707 – March 7, 1762), a member of the Schuyler family, was a wealthy farmer of Dutch descent from New Barbadoes Neck, now western Hudson County, New Jersey. He was a colonel during King George's War and was captured and exchanged as a prisoner during the French and Indian Wars.

Early life Peter Schuyler was born in 1707 in New Barbadoes Neck, opposite Belleville, New Jersey. He was the son of Swantje Van Duyckhuysen (1679–1724) and Arent Schuyler (1662–1730) of Rensselaerswyck, now (Albany), New York. He was the grandson of Philip Pieterse Schuyler (1628–1683) and Margarita Van Slichtenhorst (1627–1710) and the nephew of Pieter Schuyler (1657–1724), mayor of Albany. Schuyler Avenue, which runs along the eastern edge of the ridge honors the early settlement.

Military service In 1746, during King George's War, Schuyler, a colonel of militia, raised a detachment of 500 volunteer soldiers to fight in the Jersey Blues.

In 1754, when the French and Indian Wars began, he was placed in command of the New Jersey forces. They went from Schenectady to Fort Oswego, but returned because of battle losses in New Jersey. who was the commandant at Fort Frontenac, and paid the ransom for approximately 114 of his former men from captivity in Quebec with his own money.

Personal life He first married Hester Walter, granddaughter of Robert Walter and daughter of John Walter, a wealthy man from New York City who lived in Hanover Square. Schuyler became even wealthier after his marriage to Walter, who was a business associate of his father. Together they had one daughter:

Katherine Schuyler (1737–1765), who married Archibald Kennedy, the 11th Earl of Casselis (1736–1794), a Scottish peer who lived in the United States.

After Hester's death, he married her sister, Mary Walter.

Death On March 7, 1762, Schuyler died at his home, which was then called Petersborough, on the east bank of the Passaic, a short distance above Newark. As he only had one child, his entire estate passed to his daughter upon his death. She died shortly thereafter in 1765, leaving the entire estate to her husband, Archibald Kennedy, Earl of Casselis, who remarried in 1769 to Anne Watts (1744–1783), the sister of John Watts (1749–1836), both of whom were descendants of the Schuyler family.