Cornelis Groesbeck

Cornelis Groesbeck was born in November 1754. He was the second but last child of Albany residents David and Catharina Vedder Groesbeck. His mother died less than a month later and his father re-married but not until 1765. Thus Cornelis grew up with only an older brother learning leather processing at his father's pits along Foxes Creek.

Coming of age prior to the outbreak of hostilities, we expect to find information on his wartime activities. In September 1778, he was paid by the Albany Commissioners for serving citations in the outlying areas of the county. Afterwards, he was accorded a land bounty right under the Albany militia regiment.

In March 1779, his personal property was valued among a list of people at the end of the second ward assessment. Although he appears to have lived in Albany throughout the remainder of his life, his name is absent from the city assessment for 1788. Subsequent assessments, however, valued his house and holdings in the second ward pretty consistently for the remainder of his life.

In 1780, he was named firemaster for the second ward.

Like his father and other close kin, this Cornelis Groesbeck pursued the leather trade. In 1797, he was identified as a cordwainer who also "owned" a tanning pit.

In December 1783, he was approaching thirty when he married a younger Anna Van Antwerpen at the Albany Dutch church. By 1791, three children had been christened in the church where the parents were members and where Cornelis was a church officer.

These Groesbecks raised their family in a middling house on Pearl Street. He also owned lots on Fox Street and elsewhere in the second ward.

In 1790, his household included five people. A decade later, only Cornelis and his wife remained in the second ward home. Anna Van Antwerpen Groesbeck appears to have died shortly following the census as Cornelis paid for her pall in August 1800.

In 1808, he was among those invited to the funeral of a neighbor.

Cornelis Groesbeck died in October 1811 and was buried in the Dutch church plot. He had lived but fifty-seven years.

Sources: The life of Cornelis Groesbeck is CAP biography number 3282. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.