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James
Chestney
James Chestney was a chairmaker and businessman who lived in Albany during the 1780s and afterward. He was born in 1751 or 1752. Perhaps he was the son of Alexander and Jane Mc Molly Chesney.
 By
the 1780s, he had married Cornelia Dunbar. Their
children were baptized in the Albany Presbyterian
church where he was a member and onetime deacon.
James
Chestney first lived in Albany's third ward. His
middling household along upper Market Street was
listed on the census in 1790. By 1800, he had relocated
across town to a home on the State Street hill. By
1813, he was identified as a merchant and chairmaker
at 134 State Street. His enterprise there later known
as the Albany Chair Factory became an Albany landmark.
During that time, he was a prominent member of the
Albany Mechanics Society. In 1822, he moved the business
down the hill to 96 State Steet. Chestney acquired
additional properties in the more newly developed
parts of the first ward.
James
Chestney lost his wife in 1826. By that time, he
was in his seventies and soon re-located farther
out on Washington Avenue. He died in June 1847 at
the age of ninety-six and was buried in the recently
opened Albany Rural Cemetery. His will passed probate
in 1863.
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Sources: The life of James Chestney/Chesney/Mc Chestney is CAP biography number
7597. This profile is derived chiefly from
family and community-based resources. We seek more
definitive information on his origans. An excellent
compilation of genealogical information by Charles
Mudd is available online! We doubt that this individual
is the James W. Chestney who made and repaired
chairs in Saratoga after 1825 - but perhaps a kinsman.
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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