The Van Cortlandt family was an influential political dynasty from the seventeenth-century Dutch origins of New York through its period as an English colony, then after it became a state, and into the nineteenth century.

It rose to great prominence with the award of a Royal Charter to Van Cortlandt Manor, an 86,000-acre (35,000 ha) tract in today's Westchester County sprawling from the Hudson River to the Connecticut state line granted as a Patent to Stephanus Van Cortlandt in 1697 by King William III.

Captain Olof Stevense Van Cortlandt, who was born in Wijk bij Duurstede, Netherlands, arrived in New Amsterdam in 1637.

He was originally a soldier and bookkeeper who rose to high colonial ranks in service of the Dutch West India Company, serving many terms as burgomaster and alderman.

The town of Cortlandt to the north, in Westchester County, New York carries the family name as well.