Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Westerlo, Eilardus

WESTERLO, Eilardus, clergyman, b. in Can- tes, Groningen, Holland, in October, 1738; d. in Albany, N. Y„ 26 Dec, 1790. His father, Isaac, was pastor of the church in Cantes. After gradu- ation at the University of Groningen the son was licensed to preach, and in 1760 was made pastor of the Dutch Reformed church in Albany, where he remained until his death, also supplying quarterly the charge at Schaghticoke, N. Y. He was influ- ential in procuring a plan of union for the churches of his denomination. During the Revolution he sympathized with the patriots, and delivered the ad- dress of welcome to Gen. Washington when he visit- ed Albany in 1782. Among his correspondents he numbered the Rev. Ezra Stiles, president of Yale, to whom he frequently wrote in Latin and He- brew. He left in manuscript an autobiography containing references to the years between 1761 and 1790, Greek and Hebrew lexicons, complete, and a translation from the Dutch of Alberthonias's " Catechism " (1790 ; 2d ed„ 1805). In 1775 he married the widow of Stephen Van Rensselaer. — Their son, Rensselaer, b. in Albany in 1775 ; d. there in 1851, was graduated at Columbia in 1795, and was elected to congress as a Federalist, serving from 1 Dec, 1817, till 3 March, 1819.