Peter van Schaack

Peter Van Schaack (March 1747 – 17 September 1832) was an American lawyer, born in Kinderhook, New York. He studied law at King's College (later Columbia University); was a successful and well-respected colonial lawyer; collected, revised, and digested the laws of the Colony of New York from 1691 to 1773; and operated one of the first law schools in the United States. Early life and education Peter Van Schaack was born in March 1747 in Kinderhook, New York, the youngest of seven children of Cornelius Van Schaack (a successful merchant, a Hudson River skipper, a landowner, a magistrate, a colonel in the provincial militia, and a church elder) and Mrs. Lydia Van Schaack (née Van Dyck, a descendant of the prominent Schuyler family of Albany). Neither of Peter Van Schaack's parents were educated, but they insisted on his schooling. When he was of age, he attended school in Kinderhook. He was a shy boy who found classroom recitations frightening. He did not care for his teacher but soon discovered that he had a gift for learning. He had hoped to enter the army following the model of his oldest brother, but that sentiment soon passed. His father believed Peter was destined to enter one of the liberal professions, and sent him to Staten Island in 1760 to be tutored by the Rev. Richard Charlton - a graduate of Trinity College Dublin. Charlton had taken up the position of Rector of The Church of St. Andrew on Staten Island in 1747 “and became an esteemed and respected member of the Staten Island community.” Under Charlton's mentorship, Peter Van Schaack became an exceptional student of Latin. As such, he became very familiar with Roman civil wars and the devastation they caused. In 1762, Van Schaack entered King's College. There, he befriended John Jay, Egbert Benson, Richard Harrison, Gouverneur Morris, and Robert R. Livingston – people who would become life-long friends in spite of political differences. Needing to support his new family, Peter Van Schaack left King's College in the spring of 1766, before earning his degree, to study law in the office of his brother-in-law, Peter Silvester of Albany. Eighteen months later, the Supreme Court of the province of New York changed the rules for admission to the bar lengthening the time period for a clerkship from five to seven years unless the clerk was a college graduate. In which case, only a three-year clerkship was required.