Maria Gerritse Van Schaick
by
Stefan Bielinski


Maria Gerritse was born in May 1717. She was the daughter of tradesman and landholder Jan Gerritse and his second wife Maria Winne.

She was twenty-six in November 1743 when she married Albany blacksmith Wessel Van Schaick. By 1758, five of her children had been baptized at the Albany Dutch church where she was a pewholder and occasional baptism sponsor. In 1745, she was named in the will of her mother to inherit a share of her estate and a "great looking glass."

As her husband made the transition from tradesman to merchant, these Van Schaicks lived in the heart of the first ward waterfront residential area in a substantial home attended by several servants.

Wessel Van Schaick died in 1783. Maria was left use of his substantial estate during her widowhood. She was attended by her youngest son Gerrit - a bachelor, but was listed as the head of their household on the census in 1790.

Maria Gerritse Van Schaick died in January 1797 and was buried from the Dutch church!

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notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Maria Gerritse Van Schaick is CAP biography number 6009. This profile is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.




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first posted: 10/15/03