Jannetie Beekman Cuyler
by
Stefan Bielinski


Jannetie Beekman was born in 1719. She was the eldest daughter of Albany merchant Johannes Beekman and his wife, Hester Wendell Beekman. In 1731, she was provided for in the will of her father.

She married Abraham Cuyler, Jr. at the Albany Dutch church in May 1744. The marriage produced only two daughters before Cuyler's untimely death in 1749. By that time, these Cuylers were living in New York City.

Unlike most young, early Albany widows, Jannetie Cuyler did not remarry. By the early 1760s, she had returned home, was counted as the head of a third ward household, and assessed as someone engaged in business. A decade later, she was assessed separately but within the State Street home of her daughter and son-in-law, Hester and Leonard Gansevoort. Into the 1790s, she remained in business - selling textiles and lending money.

A widow for almost 50 years, She died in March 1798 at the age of seventy-nine. Jannetie Beekman Cuyler was buried from the Albany Dutch church where she was a lifelong member!

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notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Jannetie Beekman Cuyler is CAP biography number 3919. This profile is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.




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first posted: 12/20/02; revised 3/05