Dr. Peter Gansevoort
by
Stefan Bielinski

Dr. Peter Gansevoort was born in July 1725. He was the youngest son of Leendert and Catharina De Wandelaer Gansevoort. He grew up at the family brewery facing Market Street and along the Albany waterfront. At least two other same named contemporaries (including the famed "hero of Fort Stanwix") prescribe caution in the assignment of qualitative information.

With traditional family enterprises staked out by his older brothers, young Peter embarked on a more unique career path when he was sent to Boston for medical training. The particulars and duration of that education have not yet been uncovered. But by the 1750s, he had returned home, married, and set up an Albany-based medical practice that led to a lifetime of service to family members and their kin.

In 1752, he wed Gerritje Ten Eyck - sister of a former mayor of Albany. By 1770, their ten children had been baptized in the Albany Dutch Church where he was a pewholder.

Known in local circles as "Dr. Gansevoort," he does not seem to have been an active participant in business or trade and mostly stayed out of civic affairs. He lived comfortably in a house inherited from his parents, did serve in the militia, supported other community-based activities, and later occasioned some note as a classical scholar. His name appeared on an Albany freeholders list in 1763.

His wife died in 1782. By the 1790s, he was a grandfather who had retired to his substantial Market Street home more and more under the care of his grown children. However, his household was configured on the third ward census in 1800 (missing his deceased wife but with three younger women). Dr. Peter Gansevoort died in March 1809 - shy of his eighty-fourth birthday. His will passed probate two months later.

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notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Dr. Peter Gansevoort is CAP biography number 4670. This profile is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. We seek sources documenting the nature and scope of his medical practice!




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first posted 8/15/03; last revised 11/28/17