New York State Library
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Kip Family Papers, 1792-1909
SC16557

Quantity: 3 Boxes (1.0 cubic ft.)
Access: Open to Research
Acquisition: [Catherine V.R. Johnston, ca. 1955]; see provenance note
Processed By: Honor Conklin, Archivist, Manuscripts and Special Collections, January 1992; revised December 2009

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Biographical Note:

Leonard Kip (1774-1846) was a merchant in New York City and later the president of the North River Bank in the city. He lived in Hartford, Connecticut, toward the end of his life. Leonard Kip married Maria Ingraham and had three daughters and two sons, Reverend William Ingraham Kip (1811-?), who became Bishop of California, and Leonard Kip, a lawyer and writer of Albany, New York, who married Harriet Van Rensselaer. The Kip family was in America as early as 1635 in the person of Hendrick Kype; generations have lived in New York City and Albany, as well as in Kipsburg, now Rhinebeck, Dutchess County, New York. The family owned a farm on Kips Bay in the East River in New York City between 26th and 42nd streets.

Scope and Content Note:

The Kip family papers is an eclectic collection of manuscripts and printed materials related primarily to the genealogy and family history of Leonard Kip and his wife Harriet Van Rensselaer. Original manuscripts include a deed and attached survey map of the Kips Bay farm lands that were situated along the East River in New York City, 1804; deed for cemetery lots for members of Kip family from the Reformed Protestant Church of New York on North Street in New York City, 1829-1830; and Leonard Kip's passport that was issued in 1853.

Printed materials include published genealogies on the Kip family ancestry and newspaper clippings related to the Kip farm in New York City. 

The collection also includes a scrapbook of Leonard Kip that contains his own sketches as well as engravings and prints he collected of ships, churches, nature, landscapes, portraits, and human interest scenes in New York State, Rio de Janeiro and Europe. 

Provenance Note:

These papers were most likely donated to the New York State Library circa 1955 by Catherine Van Rensselaer Johnston, who was the donor of a scrapbook of news clippings related to Major John André that was originally accessioned as BD13260.  This item was transferred to this collection in December 2009.

Container List:

Box Folder Contents
1 0 Finding Aid and genealogical notes
    Manuscripts and printed materials
1 1 Deed between the descendants of Jacobus Kip, deceased, and Samuel Jones, Jr. and Nicholas Stuyvesant of New York City, with attached map of four lots of Kips Bay Farm, on the East River, New York, New York, also showing the land of Samuel Haring, surveyed by Charles Loss, City Surveyor, 1804, parchment. [Between the East River and the Old Boston Post Road and between 26th and 42nd Streets]
1 2 Indenture, release and quit claim between Isaac L. and Sarah Kip and Leonard Kip for land belonging to their parents Leonard and Elizabeth Kip at 160 Pearl Street, First Ward, New York City, New York in possession of Thomas and James Swords, 1820
1 3 Deed for cemetery lot between the Reformed Protestant Church of New York [City] and Isaac L. and Leonard Kip and bills for erection of a family vault on North Street between Forsyth and Eldridge Streets, 1829-1830
1 4 Invitation from Mrs. S. Van Rensselaer to Mr. K. Van Rensselaer, n.d.
1 5 Receipt of K.K. Van Rensselaer by Philip H. Schuyler, 1792
1 6 Passport, Leonard Kip, issued 1853 for a trip to Europe 1859
1 7 Photographs
  1. Leonard Kip; carte de visite (Johnson Bros., 867 Broadway, New York)
  2. William Ingraham Kip; carte de visite (Brady's National Photographic Portrait Galleries, New York and Washington, D.C.)
  3. William Ingraham Kip; carte de visite (J. Gurney & Son, 707 Broadway, New York)
  4. Bust of unidentified person; carte de visite
  5. Maunsell Van Rensselaer; cabinet card (W. Kurtz, New York)
1 8 "Historical notes of the family of Kip of Kipsburg and Kips' Bay, New York," privately printed, Albany: Joel Munsell, 1871
1 9 "Dominie Nicholas Van Rensselaer: An Historical Enigma," by Dunkin V.R. Johnston, L.H.D., presented to the Schenectady County Historical Society, 1909. [Nephew of Leonard and Harriet (Van Rensselaer) Kip]
1 10 Printed Brochures
  1. Admission ticket for the Historical Pageant, December 1894; illustration of Lansing house on verso
  2. Illustration of "The Old Man of the Mountain" [White Mountains, New Hampshire]
  3. Program: Semi-centennial of Grace Church, Albany, N.Y., 1846-1896
  4. Memorial to Justine Van Rensselaer Barber [n.d.]
1 11 Clippings on the Kip and Van Rensselaer families, Kips Bay Farm, and Albany, New York, area history, ca. 1858-1896, n.d.
    Bound Volumes
2 v. 1 Scrapbook containing news clippings on Major John André, family data on Schooner Central America in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, in 1857, on which Charles Van Rensselaer was an officer. (Transfer of single bound accession: BD13260)
2 v. 2 "American Genealogy being a history of some of the early settlers of North America and their descendants …," by Jerome B. Holgate (Albany: Joel Munsell, 1848). Includes Kip and Van Rensselaer families
    Drawings and Scrapbook
3 1 Drawings of a villa for Stephen Van Rensselaer, n.d.
3 2 Drawing of Jarvis Hall at Trinity College
3 v. 1 Scrapbook of Leonard Kip containing his sketches, as well as engravings and prints he collected, of ships, churches, nature, portraits, landscapes, and scenes of New York State, Rio de Janeiro and Europe, n.d.
Last Updated: January 28, 2022