Rachel Radcliff Willisby
Rachel Radcliff was born in February 1729. She was the daughter of Jacob and Catharina Bovie Radcliff. She grew up in a large family in the first ward home of a cartman and Dutch church retainer. By the end of the 1740s, she had married Thomas Willis. Between 1749 and 1769, nine children had been christened in Albany churches. Willis was a weaver and the couple raised their family in a modest house in the first and also third wards where they were mainstays for much of the remainder of the century. However, Rachel was a widow by 1790, when her large first ward household was configured on the census. By 1799, her name was on a list of those "permanent poor" who were to receive payments from the city. Those bequests continued well into 1802. In January 1792, she witnessed an all-Radley family christening. Rachel Radcliff Willis probably died during the early 1800s.
notes
Sources:
The life of Rachel Radcliff Willis is CAP biography number 1183.
This sketch is derived chiefly from
family
and community-based resources.
first posted: 1/10/10
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