Ann Barry
by
Stefan Bielinski


Ann Barry was the wife of Albany businessman Thomas Barry.

It appears that she was born about 1738. She probably married Barry about 1763 and gave birth to at least ten children. Her obituary stated that she lived in Albany for more than sixty years and had come to America with her husband. However, she may have been Barry's second wife.

Barry was in Albany during the 1750s. By the late 1760s, these Barrys were prominent members of St. Peter's Anglican church. They lived on Court Street near the old Dutch church.

Barry was a successful merchant, manufacturer, and one of the founders of the Albany Catholic Church. During the Revolution, he is said to have taken his family to Philadelphia for a few years. Anna, the infant daughter of Ann and Thomas Barry, was baptized in the Philadelphia Catholic church in February 1779.

The Barrys were Albany mainstays for several decades. Ann Barry's beauty and charm were remembered for many years!

Ann Barry lost her husband in 1813. She then sold off some of her husband's real estate. She was not listed in Albany city directories. Following a confining illness, Ann Barry died in July 1831 at the age of ninety-three. An obituary in the Albany Gazette paid tribute to her long life. Her will passed probate in December.

biography in-progress



notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Ann Barry is CAP biography number 1162. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. We can guess that she was from Ireland and later belonged to St. Mary's Catholic church.

Obituary: "July 2, 1831 - widow of Thomas, died age 93 - arrived in America with her husband more than 60 years prior to her death. Her husband was a merchant who resided in Albany until his death - but during Revolutionary War he moved family to Philadelphia for a few years. She is represented to have been "fair and beautiful beyond the usual years of a woman's personal charms and extremely interesting and pleasing in conversations and manners until disease confined her to a sick bed." Printed in Annals of Albany, volume 7, p. 229.




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first posted: 3/30/04