Captain John Christie
by
Stefan Bielinski

During the 1760s and afterward, "Captain" John Christie kept an inn along the road to Schenectady. He may have been the Lieutenant John Christy who served in the 60th Regiment of Foot in the British army in 1758 and 1765. The activities of that individual (mostly on the frontier) were noted a number of times in the Papers of Sir William Johnson.

In February 1760, he married Albany spinster Margaret Barret at St. Peter's Anglican church. The marriage appears to have been childless.

In May 1761, Captain Christie petitioned the Albany government for land at the "Sandbergh" - a location about two miles west of the core city. Two years later, John and his wife agreed with the Albany corporation to rent (for life) about ten acres near the Sandbergh at 40 shillings a year beginning in 1765. They agreed not to sell or rent any of it without consent.

During the 1760s, Albany assessment rolls taxed his first ward home and his Sandy Hill property separately. Jumping ahead to March 1779, his real property alone was valued on the second ward assessment. That October, a second list accorded his holdings only a nominal assessment.

His name is conspicuously absent from Revolutionary war-related records!

In 1790, the second ward household of a "John Christie" was configured on the city census - probably along the road leading west from the city. After that, the name of John Christie dropped from Albany rolls.

biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of John Christie/Christy/Cristy is CAP biography number 7613. This sketch is derived chiefly from community-based resources. With so many contemporary John Christies and without defining demographic information, this exposition is necessarily cautious!




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first posted 3/20/04; updated 2/21/15