Maria Van Rensselaer Gansevoort

by


Maria Van Rensselaer was born in September 1760. She was the daughter of Kiliaen and Ariaantie Schuyler Van Rensselaer. She grew up in Rensselaerswyck but lost her mother in 1763. A few years later, her father re-married. Her brother was Philip Van Rensselaer of Cherry Hill.

In 1776, she was left a number of personal items and £25 in the will of her aunt.

In April 1777, she married Leonard Gansevoort, Jr. at the Schaghticoke Dutch church. By 1801, at least eleven children had been christened at the Dutch church in Albany.

This prominent Gansevoort family lived in Albany's third ward where Leonard Jr. was an attorney and long-time member of the city council. They lived for a while across the river but returned to Albany during the early 1800s to a landmark house at 386 North Market Street where their long marriage made them Albany mainstays.

Maria lost her husband in 1834. Maria Van Rensselaer Gansevoort died in April 1841, a few months shy of her ninetieth birthday.


biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Maria Van Rensselaer Gansevoort is CAP biography number 5100. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.




first posted: 11/5/06