Robert George Remsen

Robert George Remsen (March 25, 1821 – January 18, 1896) was an American physician who was prominent in New York society. Early life Remsen was born on March 25, 1821, at the old Remsen homestead on Cherry Hill, near Catherine Street, in Manhattan. He was the son of Hendrick "Henry" Remsen III (1762–1843), the former private secretary of Thomas Jefferson, and Elizabeth "Eliza" (née de Peyster) Remsen (1787–1826), who married in 1808. Among his siblings was William Remsen (who married Jane Suydam); Henry Rutgers Remsen (who married Elizabeth Waldron Phoenix); Catharine Ann Remsen; and Elizabeth Remsen. His maternal grandparents were Catherine (née Bancker) de Peyster and Abraham B. de Peyster, a direct descendant of the 23rd Mayor of New York City Johannes de Peyster. His paternal grandparents were Hendrick "Henry" Remsen and Cornelia (née Dickerson) Remsen. His paternal grandfather was the namesake of Remsen, New York, the original proprietor of the township and the inheritor of the Remsenburgh patent, which embraced some in Oneida and Herkimer counties and was granted in 1766 (later re-granted by the Legislature in 1787) to Remsen and four other New York merchants. Remsen, a New York City merchant and owner of Henry Remsen Jr. & Co., was the descendant of some of the earliest Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam, and was a member of the Committee of One Hundred and represented the city in the Provincial Congress from 1776 to 1777. Remsen descended from the early Dutch family for whom Remsen Street in Brooklyn was named. Through his older brother, Henry Rutgers Remsen, he was an uncle of Anna Remsen Webb, the wife of Union Army General Alexander S. Webb; and through his brother William Remsen, he was an uncle of Charles Remsen, the husband of Lillian Livingston Jones.