Biographical Note

The DeFreest family (including DeForest, DeForeest, and other variant spellings) has a long history in America, going back to the early 1600s when Isaac DeForest (1616-1674) emigrated from Holland to New Amsterdam (present day New York). Isaac’s son Philip (1652-1727) relocated to the Albany area in the late seventeenth century, prior to the birth of his son David (b. 1700).

Within David’s lifetime the DeFreest family became tenant farmers in North Greenbush, which was then part of the Van Rensselaer Manor. A 1767 map of the manor shows three DeFreest homesteads owned by David and his sons Philip (1720-1790) and Martin (1724-1802). These lands were leased by successive generations of the DeFreest family well into the nineteenth century.

Much of the area farmed by the DeFreests was purchased by RPI in 1969 to develop the Rensselaer Technology Park. At present, the Philip DeFreest house is occupied by Tech Park administrative offices.

Scope and Content

The DeFreest Family Papers are comprised of a small amount of personal papers and a larger number of legal and financial documents. The personal papers include invitations, photographs, a letter (including a reference to anti-rent activity in 1846), poetry, and other miscellaneous items.

The legal and financial records include a variety of receipts, indentures, wills, and related materials. Land documents, such as indentures and bonds, document lease and sub-lease agreements with members of the DeFreest family. Rent receipts document the regular payment of wheat, wood and fowl to the landlord. Wills and estate documents trace the passage of land from one generation to the next. There is also a small amount of financial documentation regarding Charlotte E. (DeFreest) Kinney (1844-1902), including estate records pertaining to lands leased by her father, David P. DeFreest (1819-1896) and materials related to S.N. Kinney & Sons.

Inventory