Hendrick Rutgers

by


Wartime refugee Hendrick Rutgers was born in New York in February 1712. He was the second son of Harmanus Rutgers and his first wife, Catharina Meyer Rutgers. The will filed by his illustrious father in 1750 left a large estate to his widow and then to his children. Harmanus Rutgers died in 1753.

In June 1732, Hendrick married New York native Catharina De Peyster in the Dutch church at Esopus. Their first child was christened in New York that November. The marriage may have produced ten children including fourth son "Henry" Rutgers (1745-1830) who became a prominent Revolutionary and then New York State official.

Family-based resources tell us that, like his father, Hendrick was a brewer and Manhattan farmer of some note during the middle decades of the eighteenth century.

Traditional resources reveal that after the outbreak of hostilities in 1775, he was among those who found refuge in Albany. In March 1779, his third ward real property was assessed substantially. Perhaps that was a property once owned by his father.

The notorious New-York Gazetteer for July 13, 1779 announced that “died at Albany, in his sixty-ninth year, Hendrick Rutgers, Esq., a member of the Dutch Reformed Church and a gentleman of very large estate in this (New York) city." That estate was divided among his widow and children. He had been living in Albany for fewer than five years.


biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Hendrick Rutgers has not been assigned a CAP biography number. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. Dutch and translated English language transcript of his bible dated 1730.




first posted 1/23/13; updated 2/24/13