Hendrick Coster
by
Stefan Bielinski


Traditional sources state that Hendrick Coster was born in South Holland in 1636. By the 1660s, he had emigrated to New Netherland and had settled in Beverwyck.

By 1668, he had married eighteen-year-old Geertje Goosens Van Schaick - daughter of a prominent Albany fur trader and the mother of his four children. In 1664, he had taken title to a parcel of "low" land located along the road north of Fort Orange. The grantor was Goosen Gerritse, his future father-in- law. In 1668, Coster and his young wife were named in the joint will filed by her parents. These Costers raised their family in an Albany home. His son and daughters would establish themselves in the city of Albany.

He was on one of the lists of people invited to the funeral of Jeremias Van Rensselaer in October 1678. However, Hendrick Coster may have died about that time as, shortly afterward, and his widow married trader Jan Lansing. In April 1679, Lansing sold off his house, lot, and orchard on the hill in Albany.

His only surviving son became an Albany resident.

biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Hendrick Coster is CAP biography number 5974. This profile is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. Demographic information appears unattributed on an online resource.




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first posted: 12/30/03; updated 4/15/10