Nancy Denniston Fryer

Nancy Denniston (perhaps aka Anne) was born during the 1760s. She may well have been the daughter of Hugh and Rachel Van Valkenburgh Denniston. Thus, she would have grown up in the large family of a newcomer innkeeper and a mainline Albany carpenter's daughter. However, Hugh's will, filed in 1785, mentions only an "Anne" among his living children.

In April 1788, Nancy married John W. Fryer at the Albany Presbyterian church. The marriage seems to have produced a number of children but their baptisms do not seem to have been recorded in the Albany Durch church. They seem to have been Episcopalians.

For more than three decades, these Fryers were Albany mainstays. They lived at 21 South Pearl Street from where John plied the silversmith's craft. He was last listed on city rolls in 1819.

In 1820, the Albany Directory first identified "Nancy (widow of John W.) Fryer as the householder of record at 21 South Pearl Street. The next year, she had relocated to the upper part of Lydius Street. Within a few years, her name no longer appeared in Albany annals.

With basic questions still outstanding, we move on for now.

Sources: The life of Nancy Denniston Fryer has no CAP biography number. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.