While most members of the Dutch West India Company saw settlement of the area profitable due only to the fur trade, van Rensselaer also saw potential in creating a self-sustaining colony that could trade goods with settlements as far away as South America and Europe.
The first farm raised on the site of Troy was that of Thomas Chambers, who leased land along the Hudson River between the Poesten Kill and Wynants Kill from 1647 to 1654.