Maria Hogan Williams
by
Stefan Bielinski

Maria Hogan was born in June 1697. She was the daughter of newcomer Albany innkeeper William Hogan and his wife Martina Becker. Her father's inn anchored the soldier enclave in the first ward and placed the Hogans in the midst of a growing and assimilating English speaking segment of the community.

About 1732, she married innkeeper Edward Williams. They had at least two children before he died in 1759. During the 1750s, she witnessed several baptisms at the Albany Dutch church. In September 1732, she had been named in the joint will filed by her parents. Calling her the wife of Edward Williams, her parents noted that she already had received "our negro Gum," whom she was to formally inherit upon their death.

Although he probably had taken over for Maria's father at his Southside inn, mostly, the career of Edward Williams fell through the many cracks in the community-based record. Following Williams's death, widow Maria's second ward house was enumerated on the Albany assessment rolls for 1766 and 1767. However, her name disappeared from the community record in the years that followed!

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notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Maria Hogan Williams is CAP biography number 4377. This profile is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.



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first posted 7/5/03; last revised 2/17/16