Rachel Van Ness De Foreest

Rachel Van Ness was born in September 1722. She was a younger daughter in the large family of Jan and Catharina Groesbeck Van Ness.

By the late 1740s, she had become the wife of Philip De Foreest. By 1761, six children had been christened at the Albany Dutch church where both parents were pewholders and, during the 1750s, regular baptism sponsors.

In 1770, her pew seat was transferred to Catharina Andrs. Douw - probably meaning that she was no longer alive. Rachel Van Ness De Foreest had lived for less than fifty years. Her husband and children lived on in their North End home thru the end of the century.

Sources: The life of Rachel Van Ness De Foreest is CAP biography number 1004. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.