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Abraham
C. Cuyler
 Abraham C. Cuyler was the last mayor of colonial Albany. This native son lost everything as a result of the American Revolution.
He
was born in Albany in 1742 - the fifth son of Cornelis
and Cathalina Schuyler Cuyler. His father was a merchant,
landholder, and mayor of Albany from 1742 to 1746.
His mother was a daughter of Albany's foremost New
Netherland-era family.
This
Abraham Cuyler married Jannetje (Janet) Glen at the
Albany Dutch Church in April 1764. The first of their
five children was born the following June. With the
death of his father in 1765, twenty-three-year-old
Abraham found himself in Cornelis Cuyler's place
in Albany business and in the family home above North
Pearl Street. He held a commission in the provincial
militia and succeeded to his father's seat on the
Albany Common Council. Prospering from importing
metalware and the patronage of Sir William Johnson,
the city assessment rolls for 1766 and 1767 show
him to be among the wealthiest of the young Albany
merchants. Unlike other city fathers, he did not
inherit extensive family lands. Thus, opportunity
for future real property acquisition was dependant
on his connection to the royal government.
In
September 1770, twenty-eight-year old Abraham C.
Cuyler became the third member of his family to be
appointed mayor of Albany. What would soon become
a dubious honor was based on his standing within
the Albany community and on his willingness to cooperate
with the royal government during a time of increasing
tension between British and American interests. His
tenure at city hall paralleled the rapid development
of Albany and its hinterland following the end of
the last French and Indian War in 1763.
However,
in 1775 Cuyler's administration was curtailed when
escalating conflict between colonists and king led
to suspension of royal government across New York.
It ended in June 1776 when he was among those arrested
by the Revolutionies and exiled to Connecticut. Later
transferred to prison at Fishkill, he escaped to
the British but made several trips to Albany to visit his family. By 1778, his wife and children had joined him in New York.
Abraham
C. Cuyler suffered greatly from his attachment to
the British government. Deprived of his property
and condemned to death under the Act of Attainder
in 1779, a destitute Cuyler sailed to England to
seek relief. Granted an annuity, he returned to New
York. After the peace treaty, he attempted to come
home. This American Tory soon learned there was no
place for him in the new Albany. Even though many
of his kinsmen were prominent revolutionaries, he
was unable to reclaim his Albany property. Shunned
by the new and old people of his birthplace, Abraham
C. Cuyler took his family to upper Canada, founded
the town of Yorkfield, and died there in 1810.
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Notes: The
life of Abraham C. Cuyler is CAP biography number
359. This profile of Albany's leading loyalist
is derived chiefly from community-based resources.
The Cuyler family has been the subject of several
genealogical works. Chief among these is Maud Churchill
Nicoll, The Earliest Cuylers in Holland and America
(New York, 1912), which provides only skeletal information.
This
portrait by an unknown artist now hangs at "Cuyler Manor," a house museum
and country estate at Port Elizabeth (Uitenhage), South Africa. This copy
is from the Afrikaans language Het Geslacht Kuilart by J. W. Schaap and H.
H. J. Kuilart (South Africa, 1984), 25.
Abraham
N. Cuyler married Margarita Wendell in 1762. Virtually
every Cuyler household in the area had a son named "Abraham."
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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