Henry Jr. might not have been well-to-do, but he was certainly well-connected.
His uncle was the Dutchess County sheriff, and his aunts had married very, very well. Aunt Joanna's husband
was the Lieutenant Governor of the state,
Aunt Margaret had married into another land-owning family - the Stuyvesants -
but this family's land was in New York City! The Stuyvesant mansion stood on a river promontory roughly
east of First Avenue between East 15th and East 16th Street,
and Stuyvesant Street was named for them. Margaret's grandson, Hamilton Fish, eventually beat out her sister
Joanna's husband and became Governor of New York.
Aunt Alida led a more laid back life, and little is known
about her children by Henry Van Rensselaer, though her greatgrandchildren through Colonel Rutsen did follow the
political and legal life one might expect with Livingstons.