Catharina Bovie Radcliff

Catharina Bovie was born early in 1705. She was the daughter of Mohawk Valley pioneer Matthew Bovie and his first wife, Catharina Barrois Bovie. In 1720, her Schenectady-born father (once called "the Frenchman") was living at the Halfmoon.

About 1728, she married Albany native Jacobus Radcliff. Over the next decade, ten children were christened at the Albany Dutch church where she was a pewholder and a regular baptism sponsor into the 1760s.

These Radcliffs raised their family on the Southside of Albany where Jacob made his living by providing carting and other services for the city government.

Widow Catharina Bovie Radcliff was alive in October 1766 when she was paid by the Albany government for ringing the bell in place of her dead husband. In 1770, her pew was transferred to another parishioner.

Sources: The life of Catharina Bovie Radcliff is CAP biography number 7384. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.