According to family-based resources, Leendert Phillipse Conyn (Conine) was born at Ghent in the Netherlands (now Belgium) in 1620.

We seek definitive information on his origins and path to the community that became Albany in 1664.

By 1645, he was in New Amsterdam where he married Agnietie Caspers. The marriage produced a number of children. They were the founders of the Conyn/Conine family of colonial New York!

Leendert Philipse was living in Beverwyck at the initial distribution of houselots in 1654. He was known in Beverwyck and then in Albany as a tailor, brewer, and fur trader. His home was configured on the Albany censuses of 1679 and 1697 - when he was living alone with his wife in a riverside home. In 1699, he joined with his Albany neighbors in swearing loyalty to the king of England. He was a member of the Albany Dutch church and an occasional baptism sponsor.

Approaching his eighties, Leendert Phillipse Conyn may have relocated to Manhattan where he died in 1704. In 1709, the third ward home of his widow appeared on the Albany assessment roll.

His son became an Albany resident. Within a generation, however, the name no longer was included on Albany city rolls. A number of Conyn-born women became important parts of Albany households. The descendants of Leendert and Agniteie did spread out in colonial New York and may have been the inspiration for the naming of "Coney Island!"

Sources: The life of Leendert Phillipse Conyn is CAP biography number 3769. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.