Louisa Barnewall Van Rensselaer
Louisa Barnewall Van Rensselaer, was a prominent member of New York Society during the Gilded Age.
Early life
Louisa was born on October 12, 1836, in New York City. She was the daughter of William Barnewall, an attorney, and Clementina Barnewall, who married in 1818. After her mother's death when Louisa was only 2 years old, her father remarried to Anne Coles. Among her siblings was Elizabeth Barnewall, who married Alfred Schermerhorn; Morris Barnewall, who married Eliza Antoinette Hall.Her maternal grandparents were Nicholas Gouverneur Rutgers, an attorney, and Cornelia Rutgers.
Society life
In 1892, Louisa along with her two unmarried daughters Mabel and Alice, and her married daughter Louisa and her husband Edmund, were all included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times. Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.Personal life
On June 30, 1864, Louisa married Alexander Van Renssalaer. Alexander was the youngest surviving son born to Stephen Van Rensselaer, the patroon of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck and Cornelia Van Renssalaer, the daughter of William Paterson, the 2nd Governor of New Jersey, and later, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Alexander was the widower of Mary Howland, daughter of Samuel Shaw Howland, whom he married in 1851. She lived at 12 East 37th Street in Manhattan and at "Gortmore" in Southampton, New York. Together, Alexander and Louisa were the parents of three children:- Louisa Van Renssealer, who married lawyer Edmund Lincoln Baylies, Jr. in 1887. In 1917, she received the Legion of Honour in recognition of her work for France during the Great War.
- Mabel Van Rensselaer, who married the Rev. James Le Baron Johnson, assistant rector of Grace Church and chaplain of the New York Fire Department, in 1899. Johnson was the son of Rev. Dr. George D. Johnson, the Archdeacon of Christ Church New Brighton.
- Alice Van Rensselaer, a member of the Colonial Dames of America and the Colony Club who did not marry.