Gerritje Coeymans Barclay

Gerritje Coeymans was christened at the Albany Dutch church on October 21, 1722. She was the daughter of southern Albany landholder Pieter Coeymans and his second wife Charlotte Drayer Kojemans. She grew up in a large combined family on the large estate generally known as the Coeymans Patent.

Gerritje was among the heirs of her father's large estate and is said to have received the land along the river on the site of today's New Baltimore.

By the 1740s, she had married Albany-born minister's son John Barclay. No record of their marriage or children has been uncovered. But the couple probably made their home on Coeymans family property where Barclay is said to have spent his young adulthood.

Traditional sources tell us that Gerritje Coeymans died in September 1753 and was buried "at her father's house." John Barclay remarried in 1771, took up residence in Albany, and was appointed first mayor of Albany on the first State Constitution of 1777. Neither Gerritje (although the inheritances of his "first wife" were noted) nor any children were named in the will Barclay filed in 1779. He died shortly thereafter.

Sources: The life of Gerritje Coeymans Barclay is CAP biography number 6157. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.