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Arent
Andriesse Bradt
Arent Andriesse Bradt probably was born before 1620 in Fredrikstad, Norway. He probably came to America with his older brother Albert Andriesse in 1637.
Arent
settled in Rensselaerswyck with his brother's family
on the Normanskill where he worked for Albert Andriesse
as a tobacco planter. After a decade, he ran his
own sawmill, perhaps did some trading, and may have
kept a tavern. He spent time at the downriver settlement
of Esopus (where one of his children was born), and
travelled to Manhattan and Long Island on business.
During
the late 1640s, he married Catalina De Vos of Rensselaerswyck.
The last of their six children was born in 1661.
Arent
relocated to Beverwyck and was among the first proprietors
when houselots were partitioned in 1652. The next
year he took the oath that gave him full municipal
rights. He also had a lot on the river north of the
village. In 1658, he leased an island in the Hudson
and paid rent in wheat in oats.
In
1662, he was among the first patentees of Schenectady.
Failing to reach his fiftieth birthday, Arent Andriesse
Bradt died in 1663. His children married the children
of Schenectady's leading families and established
strong Bradt presence on the Mohawk as well!
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Sources: The life of Arent Andriesse Bradt is CAP biography
4181. This profile is derived chiefly from family
and community-based resources. It relies heavily
on Peter R. Christoph's A
Norwegian Family in Colonial America (1994), 186-90. See also, the "Bradt Book",
2-3. A profile included in the published Van Rensselaer
papers has fueled much of the subsequent interpretation,
840. We acknowledge some apprehension and uncertainty
regarding external sources and profiles of Albany's
earliest residents.
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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