Frans Janse Pruyn
by
Stefan Bielinski


Frans Janse established the Pruyn family in early Albany.

He was in Albany by October 1661 when he paid a deposit on the purchase of a horse. In May of that year, he had shared a lease for a houselot and barn in Rensselaerswyck.

His wife was Alida - mother of at least eleven Pruyn children. She was a member of the Albany Dutch church. He was not - although he did witness the baptisms of several children there. In 1699, he would not to sign a loyalty oath - calling himself a papist! He probably was of French ancestry.

These Pruyns settled into a house on the corner of Pearl Street and Maiden Lane. By 1679, he was identified as a mainline householder. He practiced the tailor's trade. He owned additional real property within the Albany stockade. In 1706, took a mortgage on a farm in Kinderhook.

His daughter Maria married Elbert Gerritse who followed Frans in the tailor's trade and, in 1697, shared Pruyn's second ward home.

Alida Pruyn died in 1704. Frans lived on in his comfortable Albany home until his death in May of 1712.

PAGE IN PROGRESS



notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Frans Pruyn is CAP biography number 3535. This profile is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. Family sources state that he was the son of John Pruyn of Holland!




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first posted: 10/25/02; revised 3/23/08