Anna Schepmoes Cuyler
by
Stefan Bielinski

Anna Schepmoes was baptized in New Amsterdam in February 1642. She was the daughter of New Netherland pioneers Jan Janse and Sarah Pieters Schepmoes.

About 1660, she married tailor/businessman Hendrick Cuyler. Thereafter, the couple moved upriver to Beverwyck/Albany where Anna would maintain at least a part-time residence for the remainder of her life. Perhaps, they had followed her older sister who married a prominent Albany businessman. Anna's many children established the Cuyler family in colonial New York. Like her husband, Anna was a member of the Albany Dutch church.

Although Hendrick Cuyler prospered in the Albany business environment, by the 1680s these Cuylers returned to New York City where Hendrick died in 1690. Anna was permitted use of his entire estate as long as she remained a widow. Although often deferring to her now adult children, she continued to conduct business through the end of the decade. At the same time, she maintained her home on upper State Street in Albany although it was occupied mostly by various numbers of her large extended family.

Suddenly a Manhattan widow, Anna Cuyler, filed a will later in 1690. It provided more specific information for her heirs including eight adult children. Cuyler family matriarch, Anna Schepmoes Cuyler died in New York City where her will passed probate in March 1703.

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notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Anna Schepmoes Cuyler is CAP biography number 8629. This profile is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. Link to Schepmoes family resources. Her younger sister married Albany resident Johannes De Wandelaer.



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first posted 2/10/03; updated and revised 7/18/18