Catherine Schuyler Malcolm Cochran

by


Catherine Cochran was born in February 1781. She was the youngest daughter of Philip and Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler. Her father's bible noted that Catherine was the fifteenth child born to his marriage. She is best known as Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler, the legendary "godchild of Washington."

In May 1803, Catherine married Samuel Bayard Malcolm. The marriage produced four children before he died in 1817. In 1822, she married New Jersey James Cochran, a cousin and the son of her aunt and one of her father's wartime compatriots. That union is said to have produced a child.

In 1803, she was named among the heirs in the will filed by her father. She was left a fair and proportional share of his very large estate that included real estate and monies.

Catherine's marriages took her from the Schuyler property in Old Saratoga, to Montgomery County, to Utica, and finally to Oswego. Both her husbands were landed sons of prominent Revolutitionary era families. Descriptive material on both her life with both husbands can be found in A Godchild of Washington.

In August 1856, she was a widow and a resident of Oswego when she filed her will in that city. That detailed document specified the partition and disposition of her substantial estate.

Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler Malcolm Cochran died in August 1857. She was buried in the Riverside Cemetery in Oswego.


biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler Malcolm Cochran is CAP biography number 1251. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.

Her will is transcribed and printed in its entirity in volume II of CSG, pp. 47-49.





first posted: 2/10/13