Isaac Roosevelt

Isaac Daniel Roosevelt was born on September 29, 1790, in New York City. He was the eldest surviving son of James Roosevelt (1760–1847), a businessman and politician, and Maria Eliza Walton (1769–1810). Maria Eliza Walton was the daughter of Admiral Gerard Walton (d. 1821) and a descendant of Wilhelmus Beekman, who served as treasurer of the Dutch West India Company, Mayor of New York City, Governor of Delaware from 1653 to 1664, and Governor of Pennsylvania from 1658 to 1663. Roosevelt's paternal grandparents included Isaac Roosevelt (1726–1794), a merchant and politician who served as a New York State Assemblyman and participated in the New York State Constitutional Convention, and Cornelia Hoffman. He was a descendant of Claes Maartenszen Van Rosenvelt (d. 1659), the first Roosevelt in America, making him a third-generation great-grandson of the original immigrant.

Roosevelt attended Princeton University and graduated in 1808. He then studied medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, earning his medical degree (M.D.) in 1812. He continued additional medical studies until 1820 under Dr. David Hosack. Despite his extensive training in medicine, Roosevelt did not pursue a medical practice, reportedly due to his inability to tolerate witnessing human suffering.

Instead, Roosevelt became involved in farming. When his father acquired Mount Hope, a large estate in Hyde Park, New York, along the Hudson River, Roosevelt relocated from New York City and took up residence there. In 1832, he built a house at the center of his estate called Rosedale, which remains known as the Isaac Roosevelt House. It is situated on Riverview Circle in Hyde Park and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, along with a nearby cottage and boathouse on the Hudson River.

In 1825, Isaac Roosevelt married Mary Rebecca Aspinwall (1809–1886). She was the daughter of merchant John Aspinwall (1779–1847) and Susan Howland Aspinwall (1779–1852). The couple had two sons: James Roosevelt I (1828–1900) and John Aspinwall Roosevelt (1840–1909). James Roosevelt I married Rebecca Brien Howland (1831–1876), and after her death, he married Sara Ann Delano (1854–1941). John Aspinwall Roosevelt married Ellen M. Crosby (1837–1928), the daughter of William Henry Crosby.

Isaac Roosevelt died on December 24, 1863, in Hyde Park, New York, at the age of 73. After his death, his eldest son James inherited Mount Hope, which was destroyed by fire in 1866; the land was subsequently sold to the state of New York, and James purchased Springwood in Hyde Park. His younger son, John, inherited the estate known as Rosedale.

His descendants include prominent figures, notably his grandson Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945), who served as the President of the United States, and other descendants involved in various professions.