Anthony Van Santvoort

Anthony Van Santvoort was born in September 1761. He was the last child born to the marriage of Cornelis and Ariaantie Bradt Van Santvoort. He grew up in the North End home of a Hudson River skipper. Named for his maternal grandfather, the Bradts had been long time residents of the flats just north of the city line.

In September 1786, he married Watervliet resident Maria Roff at the Albany Dutch church where both parents were mainline members and where Anthony later was a member of the Great Consistory. However, in 1792, an Anthony Van Santvoort was a pewholder at the First Lutheran church as well. Perhaps that individual also rented a plot of land from the Lutherans near Lodge and Pine Streets. Their marriage produced at least six children before Maria's death in November 1800. In 1806, he is said to have married Rachel Groesbeck.

These Van Santvoorts made their home just north of Albany in the part of the Manor then called Watervliet. In 1800, his household included three boys and a girl along with the parents.

In 1815, the city directory first identified him as a merchant with an address of 205 North Market Street. He remained a Watervliet/Albany mainstay at that address for more than thirty years.

His second wife, Rachel, passed away in March 1835 at the age of sixty.

Anthony Van Santvoort died in February 1852, He had lived for 90 years. His epitaph read "My dearest friends I leave in Tears for we shall meet on earth nor more. I trust through grace we'll sweetly meet On Canaan's calm and pleasant shore. He was buried alongside his wife at the Albany Rural Cemetery. His will passed probate that April.

Sources: The life of Anthony Van Santvoort is CAP biography number 6718. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.