Maria Sanders was born in 1740. She was the daughter eldest daughter of Schenectady residents John and Debora Glen Sanders. She grew up in a very large family of a Schenectady leader who owned property across the Mohawk and in Albany.

At age nineteen, she married Albany merchant Johannes Jas. Beekman at the Schenectady Dutch church in 1759. Her first child was baptized there in 1761. The other six were christened in the Albany church between 1763 and 1781 where both parents were members.

These Beekmans made their home in Albany where Johannes was a prominent merchant and officeholder - his public career culminating in an appointment as mayor of the city in 1783. During that time, their Pearl Street home was an Albany landmark that was served by four slaves in 1790.

In 1779, she was named to inherit a share of substantial properties in the will of her father who died in 1782.

Maria Sanders Beekman died at midnight on November 2, 1794. She had lived but fifty-four years.

first posted: 2/28/02