Petrus "Peter" Stuyvesant (October 13, 1727 – October 7, 1805) was a New York landowner and merchant. He was a member of the Stuyvesant family; his namesake great-grandfather Peter Stuyvesant served as the last Dutch Director-General of New Netherland.
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Early life
Stuyvesant was born in New York City on October 13, 1727. He was one of four sons born to Peter Gerard Stuyvesant (1691–1777), who was prominent in the civil affairs of New York and served as a magistrate for over thirty years, and Judith (née Bayard) Stuyvesant (b. 1685), who married in 1720. His father owned the original Stuyvesant family home, and which burned down in 1778. Being the only son that left descendants, Peter inherited the 60-acre (24 ha) Stuyvesant family bouwerie (or farm). His eldest brother was fellow merchant Nicholas William Stuyvesant, who died unmarried in 1780. His other two brothers died in infancy.
His maternal grandparents were Balthazar Bayard (a brother of the Mayor Nicholas Bayard) and Maria (née Loockermans) Bayard. His paternal grandparents were Nicholas William Stuyvesant and Elizabeth (née Van Slichtenhorst) Stuyvesant (a daughter of Brant Van Slichtenhorst, the director of Rensselaerwyck; her sister, Margaretta, was the wife of Philip Pieterse Schuyler). Before their marriage, his grandfather had been married to Maria Beekman, the eldest daughter of Mayor of New York City Wilhelmus Beekman, with whom he had a daughter before Maria's death in 1679. As was common in colonial America, his family regularly intermarried and his grandfathers were first cousins; his maternal grandfather Balthazar was the son of Ann (née Stuyvesant) Bayard, sister of Peter Stuyvesant. Further, Peter Stuyvesant's wife, Judith Bayard, was the sister of Ann's husband, Samuel Bayard.