Harmanus Cuyler

Harmanus Cuyler was born in May 1730. He was the son of Johannes A. and Catharina Wendell Cuyler and the eldest of four surviving sons in a large Albany family that had lost both of its parents following the birth of Catharina's last child in 1746.

We are uncertain as to how these Cuyler children survived. Perhaps they were able to live in their parents' Market Street home. In any event, in 1753, Harmanus was appointed constable for the third ward.

In 1761, he is said to have married "Mary Marcelus" (Marselis). In November 1771, he wed Elizabeth Van Bergen in Coxsackie. Perhaps only one child was born to each marriage. Particularly prior to his second marriage, he was a member, pewholder, and occassional baptism sponsor at the Albany Dutch church.

In 1764, he joined other Albany merchants in a community-based petition to the British regarding the fur trade. He also was a skipper whose sloop was plying the river during the summer of 1774.

In 1766, he stood in opposition to the Stamp Act when he joined in signing the constitution of the Albany Sons of Liberty. In 1767, he was a private in an Albany militia company.

By that time, his first ward holdings were being accorded moderate assessments.

By the mid 1770s, his name no longer appeared in the Albany community record. However, in March 1777, he was among those men from the southern part of Albany County who provided information to the New York State Commissioners on Conspiracies.

Later, perhaps he was the Harmanus Cuyler whose Coxsackie property was accorded a substantial assessment.

Harmanus Cuyler died in July 1794 at the age of sixty-four. Shortly thereafter, letters of administration were issused on his estate. His widow died in Coxsackie in 1814.

Sources: The life of Harmanus Cuyler is CAP biography number 528. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.