Hendrick Van Benthuysen

Hendrick Van Benthuysen was born in October 1762. He was the son of Jacobus Parker and Sara Cooper Van Benthuysen. He was a younger son in the large family of a first ward woodworker.

He was one of eight children named in the will filed by his father in June 1769.

We seek information on his wartime service as afterwards the young man was accorded a land bounty right in conjunction with the Albany militia regiment.

In December 1785, he married Albany native Cathalina Hun at the Albany Dutch church. By 1804, six children were christened in the church where he was a member and occasional baptism sponsor.

Coming of age during the 1780s, for almost fifty years, Hendrick Van Benthuysen was an Albany mainstay. He practiced the shoemaker's trade from his home at what became 49 Hudson Street.

In 1788 and 1791, he served as a fireman in the first ward. In 1790 and 1800, city census returns configured his first ward household with two children.

In December 1833, he made a statment in support of the pension application of his brother William. Hendrick Van Benthuysen died in June 1834 at the age of seventy-two. His widow survived until 1841.

Sources: The life of Hendrick Van Benthuysen is CAP biography number 5353. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.