Debora Sanders Sanders

Debora Sanders was born in February 1758. She was the daughter of Albany leaders Robert Sanders and his second wife, Elizabeth Schuyler Sanders. Her mother died in July 1763 after contracting a fever. In November 1765, she was among five living children named as heirs in the will filed by her father. Robert Sanders died shortly thereafter leaving her an orphan at the age of seven.

After that, she probably went to live with her uncle in Schenectady - as John Sanders was the only surviving executor of Debora's father's estate.

In February 1777, Debora was nineteen when she married her cousin, John Sanders of Schenectady, at the Albany Dutch church - where she maintained a pew for the rest of her life. However, all eight of her children born between 1777 and 1792, were christened in Schenectady.

This John Sanders family lived well in Schenectady and at the family retreat across the Mohawk River in Scotia. But Debora occasionally witnessed baptisms in Albany as her sister, Maria, and several cousins married Albany residents.

Debora Sanders died at the end of November 1793 and was buried in Schenectady. Her husband re-married in 1801.

Sources: The life of Debora Sanders is CAP biography number 1415. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.