Biographical Note

The DeFreest family (including DeForest, DeForeest, and other variant spellings) has a long history in America, starting in the early 1600s when Isaac DeForest (1616-1674) emigrated from Holland to New Amsterdam (present day New York City). Isaac's son Philip (1652-1727) relocated to the Albany area of the New Netherlands colony in the late seventeenth century. During the lifetime of Philip's son, David (b. 1700), several members of 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 Rensselar Polytechnic Institute in 1969 to develop the Rensselaer Technology Park. At present, the Philip DeFreest house is occupied by Tech Park administrative offices.

Found in 1 Collection or Record: