Maria Ten Broeck was born on July 31, 1750. She was the first of the ten daughters born to John T. and Eliza Oothout Ten Broeck of New Brunswick, New Jersey.

In 1770, she was just past her twentieth birthday when she married Albany native Goose Van Schaick - a veteran of the Seven Years War and thirty-four-year-old son of a former mayor of Albany. Following a wedding in New York, the marriage produced seven children who were baptized in the Albany Dutch church where both parents were members and pewholders.

Maria Ten Broeck had many relatives living in Albany and these Van Schaicks made their home along the Albany waterfront where Gosen or "Goose" followed in the family business and managed its country lands.

Goose Van Schaick served diligently in the Revolutionary army. A colonel in the Commissary Department, he was on duty at Albany throughout the war. Their substantial Market Street home often was used for military purposes.

Goose Van Schaick never really recovered from a wound he had received in 1758. He died at home on July 4, 1789. His will left all property to Maria during her widowhood. These resources were considerable and included a number of slaves.

In her comfortable home and left with a growing family, Mary Van Schaick remained an Albany mainstay for several decades. Her house at 33 then 251 North Market Street was located next that of another Maria Van Schaick, the much older widow of her husband's uncle.

The widow Maria Ten Broeck Van Schaick died in January 1829 at the age of seventy-nine. She watched all but one of her children live to establish their own lives and careers in nineteenth century America.

Sources: The life of Maria Ten Broeck Van Schaick is CAP biography number 73. This profile is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.