have a one-fifth share in each colony, while the fourth would receive the remaining two fifths, taking the responsibility for its management and exercising patroon rights. Only Rensselaerswyck was a successful patroonship. Van Rensselaer successively purchased Godyn's share in the patroonship from his heirs, so that van Rensselaer soon became the owner of three-fifths. The two other shares remained partly in the hands of Blommaert and partly in the hands of others: Adam Bessels owning Blommaert's fifth, while Johannes de Laet and Toussaint Muyssaert split Burgh's fifth between them. Letters saved by the Van Rensselaer family show that Kiliaen van Rensselaer never visited his colony in person. Personal life Van Rensselaer was married twice, first to his cousin Hillegonda van Bijler, on 23 July 1616. As the sole heir of her father Wolfert van Bijler (or Byllaer), she inherited 12,000 guilders. Hillegonda van Bijler was born around 1598, making her near the age of 18 at the time of her marriage to Van Rensselaer. The same year, the young husband purchased a couple of lots on the east side of the recently dug Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, between Marten and Wolven streets, where he built a house. Van Rensselaer and Van Bijler had three children. The first was Hendrick, Kiliaen's first son, believed to have died in childhood. Johan, their second son, was baptized on 4 September 1625. Maria, their last child, was buried on 4 January 1627. She died as an infant. Hillegonda van Bijler is presumed to have died in late December 1626, since she was buried on 1 January 1627, three days before her third child Maria. She was around the age of 28 and the couple had been married less than eleven years. Van Rensselaer re-married on 14 December 1627, to Anna van Wely, daughter of Van Rensselaer's former business partner. Van Wely was born around 1601, making her about 26 at the time of the marriage. The couple had eight children between 1629 and 1639, four boys and four girls: Jan Baptist: baptized 18 March 1629; Maria: baptized 23 March 1631; Jeremias: baptized 18 May 1632; Hillegonda: baptized 8 November 1633; Eleanor: baptized 18 February 1635; Nicholas: baptized 14 September 1636; Susanna: baptized 9 February 1638; and Ryckert: baptized 28 June 1639. Van Wely outlived her husband, having died in Amsterdam in 1670. Little is known about Van Rensselaer's death, and sources even disagree on the