Catharina Cuyler Staats

Catharina Cuyler was born in June 1770. She was the daughter of Jacob J. and Lydia Van Vechten Cuyler. She grew up in a comfortable home in Albany's second ward.

In March 1789, she married Barent G. Staats. By 1814, at least nine of their children had been christened at the Albany Dutch church where she was a church member and pewholder. Her marriage was a long one - lasting until the death of her husband in 1840.

This Staats family lived on Pearl Street and then on Market Street. On several occasions, Catharina joined her husband in real estate transactions.

Well into her eighties, the widow Catharina Cuyler Staats died in September 1852 and was buried in the Dutch church burial plot. Her epitaph read: "The decline of her life was like the setting sun, serene and beautiful. Her gentle spirit calmly [a]sleep in Jesus."

Sources: The life of Catharina Cuyler Staats is CAP biography number 382. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.