Thomas Hewson

by


Thomas Hewson was born in 1765 or 1766. At this point, we are uncertain as to his parentage but believe he was the child of an Albany Hewson family.

He probably married. However, we have not yet found resulting family information.

In 1796, he was identified as a fireman in "Division #4." In 1803, a manuscript "book of freeholders" called him a carpenter.

The Albany census of 1800, configured a household in the second ward with one man between 26 and 45 years old, a woman under 26, and one girl under ten-years-old. His name has not been found on subsequent Albany census documents.

However, city assessment rolls for 1799 and 1802, valued his house and lot in the second ward on Columbia Street and his lot on Van Schaick Street.

Perhaps he was the Thomas Hewson who was appointed captain in the Albany County militia in 1809.

In 1815 and 1816, the city directory listed him as a brickmaker at 109 North Market Street. Subsequent directories listed Albany's only Thomas Hewson as a carpenter at various locations in the first ward.

In 1830, the directory listed Thomas Hewson as the inspector of lumber at the corner of North Pearl and Steuben Streets.

At some time, he moved out to Greenbush where he lived for the remainder of his life.

Thomas Hewson died in August 1855 at the age of ninety. His descriptive obituary appeared in an Albany newspaper.


biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Thomas Hewson has not been assigned a CAP biography number. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. The obituary printed below prompted this otherwise pre-mature and imprecise offering. His name has not been found in existing Albany church records.

August 29, 1855: Thomas Hewson died at Greenbush, aged 90. He resided in Albany upwards of eighty years, and had voted at every presidential election from Washington to Pierce. He witnessed the entrance of Burgoyne into Albany. At the time of his birth, 1766, the city of New York contained 20,000 inhabitants, and Schenectady was the only city between the Hudson river and the Pacific ocean. Mr. Hewson was a master carpenter upwards of fifty years. He assisted in building the old State Hall in 1799, and the Capitol in 1806. During the war from 1812 to 1815, he held the office of assistant quarter master, and was stationed at Sacketts Harbor, where he remained till the declaration of peace.





first posted: 12/20/07