Rachel Van Valkenburgh Denniston
by
Stefan Bielinski


Rachel Van Valkenburgh was born in 1739. She was the daughter of Albany carpenter Jacobus and Margarita Radcliff Van Valkenburgh.

In October 1757, she married Catskill based Hugh Denniston at the Albany Dutch church. Over the next two decades, her children nine children were baptized in churches in Catskill and Albany. Following Denniston's death in 1785, she married John Schmid at the Albany Lutheran Church. She died sometime afterwards!

In November 1769, she witnessed the will of her brother-in-law, Thomas Lynott, an uncommon public recording of an early Albany woman.

After living in Catskill, these Dennistons relocated to Albany during the 1770s. She was left a bequest in the will of her widowed Albany mother in 1778.

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notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Rachel Van Valkenburgh Denniston is CAP biography number 1401. This profile is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.



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first posted: 4/15/03