Coenradt Ten Eyck
by
Stefan Bielinski

Coenradt Ten Eyck was born in 1678. He was the first son born to Jacob C. and Geertje Coeymans Ten Eyck. Jacob was a shoemaker who moved to Albany after 1664 and established the Ten Eyck family in the upper Hudson region. Losing his father during his adolescence, Coenradt's path forward would come through service and hopefully lead to an apprenticeship.

Coenradt Ten Eyck reached adulthood in the home of his widowed mother. By the early 1700s, he was identified as the head of that first ward household. Trained by Cornelis Kierstede, he became a silversmith and worked in Albany and in New York City. Over the next half century, he cemented his Albany ties serving as a constable (and high constable), juror, assessor, and assistant alderman beginning in 1706. During these years, his home was valued on city assessment rolls. In 1715, he belonged to an Albany-based militia troop During that time, this Albany mainstay was active in committee work, represented Albany in New York, managed municipal projects, and performed contact work as far away as Oswego. In 1747, he was living in the third ward and was elected alderman.

Coenradt married Albany native Gerritje Van Schaick in 1704. Their ten children were baptized between 1705 and 1728 in the Albany Dutch church where both parents were members and where Coenradt was a church officer.

In 1716, he was left a share of his widowed mother's estate and was named co-executor.

Coenradt Ten Eyck died in January 1753 several months shy of his seventy-fifth birthday. His wife lived on in their State Street home for several years. Eight of their children married and extended the Ten Eyck name in the region for generations to come. His son, Jacob C. Ten Eyck, was named mayor of Albany in 1748!

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notes

the people of colonial Albany The life of Coenradt Ten Eyck is CAP biography number 4812. This profile is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. Records from his bible have been transformed, printed in NYGBR (in volume I from 1870), and conveniently appear online in facsimile.

New York: In May 1716, silversmith Coenradt Ten Eyck was granted the freedom of New York City. By that time, this individual (4812) was well established in Albany. Perhaps, he held dual residency.



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first posted 3/30/02; recast and last revised 12/2/17