Margarita Van Schaick Freeman

Margarita Van Schaick was born during the mid-1660s. She was the youngest daughter of Beverwyck pioneer and family patriarch Goosen Gerritse and his second wife, Anna Lievens Van Schaick. She grew up in a large combined family in homes in what became Albany and at other regional family residences as well. She was one of the living children noted by age (she was said to be three years old) in the joint will filed by her parents in 1668.

Goosen Gerritse had passed on by the time Margarita reached adulthood but she did not marry until August 1705 when she wed Bernardus Freeman, domine of the Dutch church in Schenectady. Their marriage is said to have produced one daughter. Previously, she had been a member of the Albany Dutch church and an occasional baptism sponsor.

After 1689, her mother re-located to Manhattan and Margarita probably lived with her until she married. In April 1702, she was named an heir and co-executor of her mother's estate.

Margarita Van Schaick Freeman was living in January 1732 when her husband wrote his will naming her executor and principal heir during her lifetime. At that time, they were living in Flatbush on Long Island. The will was probated in 1742 with Margarita having died within the last ten years.

Sources: The life of Margarita Van Schaick Freeman is CAP biography number 3968. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.

Hanovarian Bernardus Freeman (1660-1742) briefly was the domine of the Dutch church in Schenectady. He was well thought of as a cleric and missionary but spent most of his career at the church in Bushwick, Queens. Except for marrying the daughter of an Albany patriarch, he seems to have had little connection to the history of early Albany.