Tobias Ryckman
by
Stefan Bielinski


Tobias Ryckman was born in October 1686. He was a younger son in the large family of Albany brewer and civic leader Albert Janse and Neeltie Quackenbush Ryckman. He grew up at his father's riverside brewing complex.

In August 1715, he married Albany native Helena Beekman at the Albany Dutch church. By 1723, three children had been christened in Albany where he was an occasional baptism sponsor.

Like his father, Tobias became a brewer. He took up residence in Albany's first ward where he was an Albany mainstay for the next five decades. His name appeared on lists of freeholders, assessment rolls, and the census of householders taken by the British army in 1756. He represented the first ward on the common council as an assistant (1725) and then as alderman - first in 1729. He was a contractor of the city and belonged to an Albany militia company.

By the mid-1760s, assessments valued his property near the top in terms of wealth. By that time, his son-in-law, Barent H. Ten Eyck, had joined him in the brewing business. He owned additional houses, buildings, and lots in Albany as well as a house on the dock along the waterfront.

Tobias Ryckman filed a will in April 1765. At that time he was almost eighty and living with his daughter, Machtel Roseboom. He died sometime thereafter. The will passed probate in March 1786.

biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Tobias Ryckman is CAP biography number 1994. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.



first posted 8/20/05