Jacob Roseboom
by
Stefan Bielinski


Jacob Roseboom was born in July 1695. He was the first child born to the marriage of Hendrick and Debora Staats Roseboom. He grew up in the second ward home of an Albany mainstay.

He grew up in a merchant's home on Pearl Street where he probably got to know minister's daughter Geertruy Isabella Lydius - who lived nearby. They were married in August 1716 - five months before the birth of their first child. By 1726, the marriage had produced at least four children who were christened in the Albany Dutch church where he was a member, pewholder, and baptism sponsor.

These Rosebooms lived in Albany's first ward where Jacob was registered as a freeholder in 1720, 1742, and 1763. He was called "Doctor" and identified on the census of householders taken in 1756 as an apothecary.

His "medicine" centered on herbal remedies. He was called a "medicaster" and his practice was described with disdain by the traveller Dr. Alexander Hamilton in 1744. Hamilton also noted that Roseboom's medical library included only one weighty tome.

Jacob Roseboom lost his wife in 1757. His Albany home was valued on city assessment rolls during the mid-1760s. He died after 1767.

biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Jacob Roseboom is CAP biography number 1665. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.

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first posted: 10/25/05; updated 1/4/11