Wilhelmus Ryckman was born in May 1759. He was the first child born to the marriage of Pieter Ryckman and Lydia Vandenbergh.

As a boy, he followed his father out onto the frontier where Pieter Ryckman was a trader, interpreter, and Indian diplomat.

He was an officer in the Revolutionary army and received a number of land bounty rights for military service with the first regiment of the New York Line. In 1818, he applied for and received a pension from the Federal government. In 1818, he was a pall bearer at the re-interrment of General Montgomery. At that time, he was identified as an ensign in Captain Benjamin Hicks's company.

Perhaps he did not marry and instead lived with family members in Albany. However, the first ward census for 1800 listed an appropriately aged "Wilhelmus Reyckman" as the head of a household that included twelve people.o

Wilhelmus Ryckman was identified by name on the Federal census for Albany in 1840. At that time, he was living in the household of "Albert Ryckman" in the fourth ward. He died in September 1840 at the age of eighty-one.

Sources: The life of Wilhelmus Ryckman is CAP biography number 1996. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.