Casparus F. Pruyn

Casparus F. Pruyn was born in May 1792. He was the eldest son of Francis C. and Cornelia Dunbar Pruyn.

At the age of thirteen, he was placed in the office of Van Rensselaer manor where his uncle, Robert Dunbar, was the Patroon's business agent. He served there until the retirement of Dunbar in 1835 at which time Casparus succeeded him as the patroon's agent. Upon the death of Stephen Van Rensselaer in 1839, he is said to have re-located across the Hudson to Bath and became agent of the East Manor. He resigned in 1844.

In April 1814, he married Anna Hewson at the Albany Dutch church. Beginning in 1815, the marriage produced ten children.

Beginning in 1815, he was listed in the city directory at residences on North Market Street in the north end of Albany. In 1820, his household was configured on the Albany census.

In 1818, he was identified during the probate of the will of Thomas Barret (filed in 1788) as the living husband of the testator's niece.

At some point (probably during the 1820s and more certainly by 1830), he took up residence on the Manor itself - in Colonie in the historic house that now bears his name. Either Robert Dunbar or Casparus built the basic structure that stands there today.

Casparus F. Pruyn lost his wife in 1841. He died in February 1846 at the age of fifty-four. An inventory of his estate is preserved at the Pruyn house.

Sources: The life of Casparus F. Pruyn has not been assigned a CAP biography number. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.