Isaac Vosburgh

by


Isaac Abrahamse probably was born during the late 1650s. He appears to have been the youngest son of New Netherland pioneers Abraham Pieterse and Geertruy Coeymans Vosburgh. His father was killed in 1659 leaving a widow and a number of children to further establish the family in Albany and beyond.

Isaac's mother seems to have carried on her late husband's enterprises and was listed among Albany householders in 1679. Shortly thereafter, she re-located her family to the new settlement at Kinderhook where Isaac and other children also set down roots.

In March 1681, he was among those living in Kinderhook who were questioned by the Albany sheriff in the course of a homicide investigation.

These Vosburghs were members and communicants at the Albany Dutch church where Isaac first announced his intention to marry Anneke Jans (Goes?) in August 1686. By 1708, their eleven children had been christened in Albany where he was an occasional baptism sponsor. He later was among the founding members of the Kinderhook Reformed church.

He is said to have lived with his brother Pieter and to have been left part of their farm by the terms of Pieter Vosburgh's will of 1690.

In December 1694, he was identified as a "justice of the peace" and, with Pieter Vosburgh, was slated to deliver wood to heat the Albany blockhouses.

The county census in 1697 identified him as a resident of Rensselaerswyck. His household with a wife and four children was listed nearby but separately from that of Pieter Vosburgh.

In 1701, he was among the loyal residents of greater Albany County who petitioned the royal governor for protection.

The pre-eminent family genealogist has offered that Beverwyck native Isaac Vosburgh lived into the 1760s and that he was 105 years old at the time of his death. Eight of his children lived to marry and raise families - mostly in the Kinderhook area. However, his name seems to be absent from likely community surveys for Kinderhook during most of the eighteenth century.


biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Isaac Abrahamse Vosburgh has not been assigned a CAP biography number. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.




first posted: 2/15/12